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   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: thank.a.democrat@minnesota.guv   
      
   MINNEAPOLIS -- The parents of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man fatally shot   
   by police in a Minneapolis apartment during a no-knock warrant execution, said   
   Friday that he had obtained a gun legally after a conversation with the   
   family, CNN reported.   
      
   "He made sure that he did his research, everything was going to be legal," his   
   mother Karen Wells told CNN's Don Lemon, adding that he learned how to use it   
   and obtained a permit.   
      
   "Because they've been watching all their lives about what has been unfolding   
   throughout this nation, on our Black males," she said.   
      
   The parents said the conversations with Amir and his older brother were often   
   about how to interact with police so he can "live to see another day."   
      
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   Early Wednesday, Locke was killed by Minneapolis police.   
      
   According to police body camera video, Locke was sleeping when officers   
   entered the apartment and yelled, "Police! Search warrant!"   
      
   "Hands! Hands! Hands!" one officer yells while others yell "Get on the fu**ing   
   ground!" as they make their way toward the back of a couch where a man is seen   
   wrapped in blankets at 6:48 a.m., according to the footage. One officer kicks   
   the back of the    
   couch, appearing to wake up the man, who looks up to see the officers all   
   around him.   
      
   He begins to try and stand up, still wrapped in blankets, and is seen holding   
   a gun, according to the footage. Three gunshots are then heard from officers.   
      
   "We've seen this time and time again, watching the situation with Ahmaud   
   Arbery, Daunte Wright, George Floyd, and our hearts go out to those families,"   
   Andre Locke said, naming three Black men killed in controversial   
   circumstances, including two by    
   police officers.   
      
   "We've been prepping our boys for years to always obey the law. Every day.   
   It's not a regular conversation that some White households have," he said.   
      
   "Our conversations go like this, 'How are you doing, son? Today watch your   
   surroundings, check your vehicle, make sure that everything is OK.   
      
   "If you are stopped by the police, make sure that you give them everything   
   that they need and live to see another day. Make sure that you come back   
   home.'"   
      
   Wells said she was proud of Amir when he learned how to use the weapon and   
   obtained his permit. The one aspect that worried her wasn't whether he would   
   use it in dangerous situations with civilians, but it was if police saw him   
   with it.   
      
   "But I actually worried about him encountering the police. And not the way   
   that he encountered them on February 2nd, but just, like, if he had his   
   weapon, if he ever got stopped and pulled over on the side of the road. ... My   
   fears have always been    
   something that dealt with the police department," she said.   
      
   More scrutiny for Minneapolis police   
   The Minneapolis Police Department has been under intense scrutiny following   
   the murder of Floyd, a Black man whose killing by a White MPD officer sparked   
   national and global protests against police brutality -- particularly toward   
   Black Americans.   
      
   Locke's fatal shooting raised intense criticism from Locke's family and others   
   about Minneapolis' warrant policy.   
      
   The deadly shooting of Breonna Taylor, who was also Black, during a warrant   
   service in March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky, also received national backlash   
   and became central to racial reckoning.   
      
   SEE ALSO | Lawyers for Breonna Taylor's family say more body camera footage   
   may exist from night of shooting   
      
   "It's too many of us in our communities that are dealing with this. It's too   
   many in our communities that continue to deal with this same type of   
   harassment," Andre Locke said. "It's so unfortunate that this has happened   
   again, and now it hits home. It    
   hurts."   
      
   The warrant served that led to Locke's killing was related to a homicide under   
   investigation by the neighboring St. Paul Police Department, a police   
   spokesperson said. Locke was not named in any warrant, police said.   
      
   It's not clear what is contained in the warrant, and Minneapolis officials   
   have said the totality of circumstances leading to their officer shooting are   
   now under investigation by the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.   
      
      
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