Students walk out of class demanding justice for Amir Locke

(ABC 6 News) – Students across the state are speaking out and demanding change after body camera video showed Minneapolis police enter an apartment and shoot and kill 22-year-old Amir Locke as he was sleeping on the sofa. They entered with a no-knock warrant tied to a St. Paul homicide investigation.

Nine seconds after entering the apartment, Minneapolis Police Officer Mark Hanneman shot Locke three times — killing him.

About a dozen students at John Marshall High School in Rochester walked out of class to stand in solidarity with students across the state protesting the shooting.

"Even if it is just five of us, just ten of us — complaining and coming out is better than nothing," said John Marshall student Mariam Egberongbe.

"One of the biggest reasons why George Floyd and many of the other people who got justice, got justice was because of people going out, speaking out, and using their voices to spread awareness," said Shukri Dahir, another John Marshall student.

A small, local iteration of a statewide movement of student activism.

"This isn’t my first walk out. I usually walk out all the time. Whatever 10 or 15 minutes of lecture I miss I feel like it’s not as important as affecting change," added Egberongbe.

Minnesota teen activists, the group who organized the statewide walkout, has a list of demands for the MPD and Governor Tim Walz. They want Hanneman fired as well as resignations from Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman and Mayor Jacob Frey. Students also want full transparency from the police department, and a review of SWAT practices.

Large groups of students walked out of Minneapolis and St. Paul high schools. After brief remarks, they marched to the Governor’s mansion.

"The ages of Black youth dying at the hands of police are getting younger and younger and it’s scary. Because you don’t know if it’s going to be your dad next or your cousin," said Central High School Black Student Union Member Beth Tsehay.

Students are demanding a ban on no-knock warrants, and accountability of the judge who signed signed off on it. That same judge — Peter Cahill — presided over the Derek Chauvin trial.