Students participate in a state-wide walkout demanding justice for Amir Locke a Black man who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., February 8, 2022.
Students participate in a state-wide walkout demanding justice for Amir Locke a Black man who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., February 8, 2022. Reuters / TIM EVANS

A Minnesota judge approved the "no-knock" raid that killed Amir Locke in Minneapolis last week, believing that it was needed to protect the investigating officers and the public, court documents released on Thursday showed.

Officers who requested the warrant to enter a Minneapolis apartment were investigating a previous fatal shooting in St. Paul in which a firearm capable of penetrating police body armor was used. That justified the need for no-knock entry to catch suspects off guard, the requesting officers said.

"The court further finds that no-knock entry, without announcement of authority or purpose, is necessary to prevent the loss, destruction, or removal of the objects of said search or to protect the safety of the searchers or the public," a court document signed by Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said.

Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was not named in the warrant, and Minneapolis police have acknowledged it was unclear how or whether he was connected to that investigation.

His killing has revived calls to ban no-knock warrants, which intensified in 2020 after the death of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman who police fatally shot during a raid on her Kentucky apartment. Taylor was not the subject of that search warrant.

Cahill is the same judge who oversaw the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020, an act that spurred massive protests against racial bias and brutality by the police.