A Minneapolis SWAT team serving a warrant that led to an officer shooting Amir Locke was looking for his teenage cousin and two others in connection with a homicide investigation, according to the court documents released Tuesday.
Authorities linked Locke’s cousin, 17-year-old Mekhi Speed, to a homicide in St. Paul, Minnesota, through surveillance footage and a “distinct” car that investigators suspected to have been stolen, and that was allegedly used as a getaway car in the homicide, according to court records made public Tuesday in connection with Speed’s arrest.
Minneapolis police were executing a search warrant in connection with the cousin of Amir Locke and two others, prosecutors say, when police killed Locke in early February. At the time, Locke’s cousin was among three people wanted in connection with a homicide, according to court documents released Tuesday.
The arrest and criminal complaint released by prosecutors provide a detailed timeline of the alleged crimes that were committed that led authorities to obtain warrants for three apartments in the building where Locke was shot last Wednesday.
Attorneys for the Locke family released a statement Tuesday confirming Speed was Locke’s cousin, reading in part, “His cousin was not present in Unit 701,” the statement began. “We must remain focused on the fact that Amir was an innocent young man of a raid gone terribly wrong, who is now the latest statistic and victim of the dangerous and intrusive no-knock warrant techniques that must be banned.”
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SOURCE: CNN, Omar Jimenez, Peter Nickeas and Bill Kirkos
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