Minnesota police arrested a teenager in connection with a homicide investigation that led to last week’s police killing of 22-year-old resident Amir Locke. Prosecutors have charged Locke’s cousin, 17-year-old Mekhi Speed of Minneapolis, with two counts of second-degree murder, reports Courthouse News Service. The St. Paul police department confirmed Tuesday that Speed was arrested in the southeastern Minnesota city of Winona and booked in a juvenile detention center on suspicion of second-degree murder relating to the Jan. 10 killing of 38-year-old St. Paul resident Otis Elder. Elder’s death has been overshadowed by a deadly turn in the investigation: a Minneapolis SWAT team shot Locke dead in his apartment while executing a no-knock search warrant. Locke was not named in the warrant.
Minneapolis officer Mark Hanneman shot Locke, who was holding a handgun, nine seconds after entering his apartment on Feb. 2. Officers had used a key and shouted “police search warrant” before firing. Body camera footage shows Locke, wrapped in a blanket, holding a pistol with his trigger finger along the side of the barrel. Police say that he was pointing the gun at an officer off-camera. Locke’s family said he was a deep sleeper and had a permit to carry the gun. A delivery driver, Locke was concerned about rising carjackings in the city. Hundreds of activists have taken to the streets to protest Locke’s death and police use of no-knock warrants. Mayor Jacob Frey claimed to have banned no-knock warrants in 2020. Frey said this week that he has spoken about the issue without '"the necessary precision or nuance. And I own that.” Frey now has announced a moratorium on no-knock warrants again, with exceptions for warrants approved by interim police chief Amelia Huffman. That has not stopped protesters from chanting and holding signs reading “Frey lied, Amir died.”