By Amy Forliti
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities arrested Amir Locke’s 17-year-old cousin in connection with the homicide investigation that led police to the Minneapolis apartment where a SWAT team officer fatally shot Locke while conducting a search warrant, police said Tuesday.
Mehki Camden Speed was charged Tuesday with two counts of second-degree murder in the Jan. 10 killing of Otis Elder and was expected to make his initial court appearance in juvenile court. Prosecutors have filed a motion to have Speed tried as an adult, which would be up to a judge. Under Minnesota law, it’s presumed a child will face trial as an adult if they are 16 or older and the alleged crime would result in a prison sentence or was a felony committed with a firearm.
It was not immediately clear if Speed had an attorney. Messages left for his mother were not immediately returned.
The death of Locke, who was Black, angered his family and activists, who questioned the initial police account of the shooting. Hundreds of people turned out for a rally Saturday in downtown Minneapolis and students in area high schools were planning a walkout Tuesday. It has also prompted an immediate reexamination of no-knock arrest warrants, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey last week announcing a moratorium while the city brings in outside experts to study its policy, and some state lawmakers plan to push for a statewide ban.
[EARLIER COVERAGE: Activists protest outside Minneapolis police chief’s home after fatal OIS]
St. Paul police had obtained search warrants as part of the investigation into Elder’s death, including a warrant for the downtown Minneapolis apartment where Locke’s family said he had been staying. Minneapolis Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman has said her department had both warrants that would have required authorities to knock and not knock. Huffman has said that Locke was not named in the search warrants.
A Minneapolis SWAT team entered the unit without knocking on Feb. 2. Body camera video shows an officer using a key to unlock the door and enter, followed by at least four officers in uniform and protective vests, time-stamped at about 6:48 a.m. As they enter, they repeatedly shout, “Police, search warrant!” They also shout “Hands!” and “Get on the ground!” The video shows an officer kick a sectional sofa, and Locke is seen wrapped in a blanket, holding a pistol. Three shots are heard, and the video ends.
The city also included a still from the video showing Locke holding the gun, his trigger finger along the side of the barrel.
Minneapolis police have said that Locke was shot after he pointed his gun in the direction of officers, but Locke’s family has questioned that.
Charging documents filed Tuesday say police used surveillance videos to connect Speed to Elder’s shooting after a witness told police that a silver Mercedes-Benz had fled the scene. The documents said video showed the Mercedes parked near Elder’s vehicle, with two males getting out and approaching — one entering the passenger side and the other standing outside the driver’s door.
“This male stepped back and a loud gunshot was heard,” the documents say.
Surveillance video allowed police to track the Mercedes, which had been stolen, to the Bolero Flats apartment building where Locke eventually was shot. Speed was identified by witnesses as living with his mother in Apartment 1402, and also having a key to 701 — where his brother lives and where Locke was shot by police, according to the documents.
St. Paul police said the warrants that led to the search of the downtown Minneapolis apartment will likely be unsealed after charges are filed.
An incident detail report from the Minneapolis police Department shows officers considered this a “high risk warrant entry,” but it doesn’t detail why. Speed’s brother, Marlon Cornelius Speed, lives in apartment 701 and was there on the night Locke was killed, the charging document says.
Marlon Speed pleaded guilty in 2019 to one misdemeanor count of obstructing the legal process and interfering with an officer in connection with a 2018 traffic stop in which he allegedly threatened to spit on and beat up an officer. The officer’s hand was injured in a struggle. Last November, Marlon Speed was charged with domestic assault by strangulation for an incident in which he allegedly choked his sister after she tried to intervene when he hit his girlfriend with a belt. That case against Marlon Speed is pending.
The Associated Press could not find a contact number for Marlon Speed, and it was not clear if he has an attorney representing him in connection with the SWAT search.
Elder, a 38-year-old father of two, was found shot and laying in the street on Jan. 10. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported at the time that paramedics gave him medical aid and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A motive for his killing was not immediately known.