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UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
@UR_Ninja
Feb 3, 2022 • 23 tweets • 13 min read • Read on X
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NEW: A man named by the cmty as Amir Locke was killed by MPD serving a warrant on Feb 2. Police say they killed him b/c he was armed. His family says he wasn't named on warrant, that he had a permit to carry & was startled by the pre-dawn police intrusion.
unicornriot.ninja/2022/minnesota…
Minnesota Police Kill Man Wednesday Morning - Marking Their Third Black Victim in 66 Days

Story > unicornriot.ninja/2022/minnesota… <
Amir Locke, who is said to be around 24 y/o, was killed by Mark Hanneman, an MPD SWAT officer while police were executing an early morning no-knock search warrant on February 2.

The killing occurred at the Bolero Flats Apartment Homes on the 7th floor. 🧵
unicornriot.ninja/2022/minnesota…
The police narrative, which contradicts what Amir Locke’s family says, is that Minneapolis Police were assisting St. Paul Police in executing a search warrant on a homicide suspect when the suspect brandished a weapon, and in fear of their lives, they shot and killed him. 🧵
Amir Locke's family says he was sleeping on the couch of a family member's apt when police entered the apt executing a search warrant seeking 3 people, none of whom were Locke & that he was a licensed gun owner & was startled from the pre-dawn police actions & sought protection.
MPD Interim Chief Amelia Huffman said officers entered the downtown apartment using a key fob & “loudly & repeatedly announced police search warrant” - 9 seconds into the apt “the officers encountered a male who was armed w/ a handgun.” Police say they then killed Amir Locke. 🧵
Authorities swiftly revealed Amir Locke was killed by MPD Officer Mark Hanneman & released documents related to the shooting: Incident Detail Report, Fire Incident Detail Report, & Fire Incident Report, along with a news release, and two photos of the gun. minneapolismn.gov/resident-servi…
The documents released by the city reveal that Mark Hanneman, who killed Amir Locke, was part of MPD's Unit 1280 that initially entered the apartment & that Locke was killed by two gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the wrist. [redactions & highlights done by authorities] 🧵
Amir Locke's killer, Mark Hanneman, was an officer in Hutchinson in 2012 & involved in a statewide intra-agency scheme giving illicit drugs to Occupy movement protesters & to the unhoused as part of @MnDPS_MSP’s Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program.
Providing cover to Unit 1280 on Feb 2 was Unit 1281 & in that unit was MPD Officer Kyle Mader, who has at least 10 complaints filed on him & was filmed violently slamming an advocate for the houseless to the ground at #GeorgeFloydSquare in late 2020. 🧵unicornriot.ninja/2020/minneapol…
In a controversial pattern, #AmirLocke was named a homicide suspect in the initial reports by the police that were widely published by the press. In her press conference, Interim Chief Huffman referred to the “homicide” investigation from which the warrant was based, three times.
[Thread Cont.] Similar inaccurate homicide allegations were spread about #WinstonSmith after he was killed by a federal task force last year in Uptown Minneapolis. Corporate news reports were later retracted that initially called Smith a murder suspect. unicornriot.ninja/2021/federal-t…
More documents were released today related to the killing #AmirLocke by Minneapolis Police Ofcr Mark Hanneman: General Offense Public Information Report, Hanneman’s Public Personnel File [55 pgs], & Hanneman’s MPD Employee Complaint Summary.

Full docs: unicornriot.ninja/2022/minnesota…
If what the family says is true & that Locke was not named on the warrant, he was then not a suspect in the investigation – yet he was still killed.

The pattern of criminalizing victims is clearly seen in each of the last 3 police killings in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating three recent police killings: Amir Locke, Kokou Christopher Fianfonou in Austin, and Noah Kelley in Mounds View. Protests have called for transparency and accountability in each of the cases. 🧵
#AmirLocke was the 3rd Black man killed by Minnesota police in the last 66 days.

38y/o Kokou Christopher Fianfonou was killed by Austin Police Officer Zachary Gast in Austin, MN on December 23. Police say Fianfonou, originally from Togo, was threatening officers with a knife.🧵
🧵Christopher Fianfonou was reportedly stuck in an extended standoff with Austin Police starting on Dec 22 from a report of a man walking in traffic with a knife.

During the standoff, police shot tear gas, foam marker rounds, & deployed Tasers into Fianfonou’s cousin’s house.
🧵Later on Dec 23, Austin PD left the sight of the house. Then they say Fianfonou confronted them armed, so they killed him.

Fianfonou’s family disputes that he was threatening anyone, saying he was going through a mental crisis, was unarmed & had bags of groceries in his hands.
A GoFundMe has been created by the family of Kokou Christopher Fiafonou* [incorrect spelling in last tweets] to help support his wife & children. Activists call for video to be released, cops fired & prosecuted & Christopher’s family to be compensated. 🧵gofundme.com/f/justicefor-k…
On November 28, 2021, 21 y/o Noah Kelley was shot & killed by Mounds View Police Sgt. Michael Hanson & New Brighton Police Officer John Thomas inside a Mounds View liquor store. Police say Kelley had a handgun & alone in the liquor store when officers arrived & killed Kelley. 🧵
Noah Kelley, killed by police in November 2021, leaves behind a young daughter and a wife. His family has created a GoFundMe to help support his family. 🧵gofundme.com/f/j8agk-unexpe…
The police killing of #AmirLocke was the third Black man killed by Minnesota Police since November 28, 2021. #ChristopherFiafonou #NoahKelley [Thread above - story in link] unicornriot.ninja/2022/minnesota…
Released video shows police entering #AmirLocke's cousin's apt unannounced, yelling “police search warrant” before walking down hallway & kicking a couch that Locke was sleeping on. Within 2 seconds, Locke rolled over, grabbed a gun & was #KilledByPolice. unicornriot.ninja/2022/body-came…

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More from @UR_Ninja

UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Jan 24
During his three-minute speech at President Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, Elon Musk performed a Nazi salute multiple times while emphasizing how this election “really mattered” and thanking the crowd “for making it happen.”

Full story: unicornriot.ninja/2025/elon-musk…
While some news outlets avoided describing the clear gesture as a Nazi salute, various scholars and activists named it as such, describing the nod to fascist propaganda as a grim signal of what Musk and the incoming administration hope to accomplish in this country.
“We need to state the obvious, of course: it was a Nazi salute,” Cindy Barukh Milstein told Unicorn Riot. Milstein is a diasporic queer Jewish anarchist, writer, and longtime organizer.
Read 24 tweets
UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Dec 17, 2024
NEW: Groundbreaking for a Minneapolis Youth-Serving Community Staple

For nearly three decades, the educational nonprofit WE WIN Institute has been nomadic, serving youth in Minneapolis out of rented spaces. But that era is coming to a close — on November 19, 2024, WE WIN held a groundbreaking event for their new building in Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood. Unicorn Riot was there to document the historic occasion and interview board members, organization partners and a former student-turned-staff. 🧵
Founded in 1996 by award-winning educator Titilayo Bediako, WE WIN Institute has served thousands of youth in Minneapolis with in-school, after school, summer school, tutoring and more. WE WIN recently broke ground on a new building they can call home. unicornriot.ninja/2024/groundbre…
Known locally for its vivacious Kwanzaa Celebrations, large urban garden, Harvest Fest, and back-to-school and Black-authored book give-away events, WE WIN has also offered parent groups, tutoring, entrepreneurial programming, a litany of arts related programming, as well as cooking, gardening and mentoring.

UR interviewed WE WIN's founder and Ex. Director Titi Bediako during Juneteenth celebrations in North Minneapolis in 2020. WE WIN handed out 500 books by Black authors for free to the community.
Read 12 tweets
UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Oct 23, 2024
🧵: Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff (now Jennifer Kerkhoff Muyskens) oversaw the failed prosecution of over 200 Trump inauguration protesters on felony conspiracy riot charges, with demonstrators and journalists facing ~80yrs for being around when others broke windows.
The #J20 case collapsed when it came to light that Kerkhoff, working with her star witness DC Police Detective Greggory Pemberton (also a police union official), had *altered and deleted exculpatory evidence* and lied about it to the court repeatedly:

unicornriot.ninja/2018/prosecuto…
The hidden evidence was portions of an undercover video taken by an operative of right-wing disinformation group Project Veritas during a planning meeting for Trump inauguration protests, which Kerkhoff said implicated all protesters present that day in a violent conspiracy.
Read 5 tweets
UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Aug 21, 2024
A march of several dozen Palestine protesters is moving near the Morton Salt Shed (@saltshedchicago) which is a heavily secured location where Democratic delegates are partying on night 2 of the #DNC - an entry point to the convention is also nearby
A small group of masked protesters stand in an intersection holding a banner that reads “Israel Bombs Illinois Pays” in red and green text on a white banner - bike cops are seen speeding past behind them. In the background a banner on a post reads “Democrats Deliver”
A small crowd of protesters marches through the street at night holding the aforementioned banner past The Salt Shed - a large building about a block long with an an industrial style roof that reads “MORTON SALT” in big letters
The venue is hosting a large party hosted by the Pritzkers with John Legend reportedly performing tonight per corporate media reports - protesters chant “if we don’t get no justice, you don’t get no peace” as CPD on bikes form up to separate them from #DNC partygoers


About a dozen DNC delegates or attendees with suits and lanyards or other nice dress standing in front of an building
A bunch of cops and/or event security standing around in a street. One female officer shown from behind has a leashed dog and.m a back uniform patch reading “USCG K-9”
A line of bike cops formed up against protesters holding a banner in an intersection
Protesters seen from behind holding up a cloth banner with Chicago cops holding bikes lined up facing them - the Salt Shed’s lit up sign visible across the street
A noise demo outside a DNC event at the Salt Shed where John Legend is performing as part of convention programming tonight - 10 Illinois State Police just turned up


Diverse group of protesters march with megaphones and Covid masks holding a banner reading “War Criminals Not Welcome in Chicago” as bike police in the street get pretty darn close to the group
A group of protesters wearing masks and holding various kinds of drums march in the street past the lit up venue roof sign for the Salt Shed. Bike cops visible at back of shot
A protester wearing a balaclava holds a banner in front of a Chicago cop with a bike helmet and vest on - tent style canopy over DNC entrance and “democrats deliver” sign in background
10 or so Illinois State Troopers with Dudley Do-Right style hats standing in middle of the street in front of the Salt Shed
Read 12 tweets
UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Jul 12, 2024
Nyah Mway, a 13-year-old refugee, was killed by police in Utica, NY the day after he graduated from middle school.

Learn more here: unicornriot.ninja/2024/protests-…
On the evening of June 28, Mway and his friend were stopped by three police officers from the Utica Police Department and two Oneida County Deputy Sheriffs on their walk home from a Bible study class and a graduation party.
Body camera footage was released by UPD, but only from three of the officers who were on the scene. The footage shows a pedestrian stop, otherwise known as a stop-and-frisk — a controversial tactic of interrogating and searching someone based solely on “reasonable suspicion.”
Read 6 tweets
UNICORN RIOT Profile picture
Jun 29, 2024
A year ago French police killed Nahel Merzouk, 17, during a traffic stop, leading to a week of mass revolt.

A pattern of deadly traffic stops in France show that police in the U.S. aren’t the only authority figures who regularly kill Black motorists.🧵

unicornriot.ninja/2023/french-po…
The two French police officers who killed Nahel Merzouk on June 27, 2023 initially stated that they were in danger of being run over and fired in self-defense. However, video footage from witnesses shows a different version of the story. Both officers were standing to the side of the car as it started moving again and one of them fired the shots. The car continued to move for about 50 meters and then crashed into a pole. The driver was killed instantly, one of the two other passengers escaped and the third was arrested.

The arrested passenger in the car says one officer urged the other to shoot Nahel at point-blank range. The youth alleged that “the first officer asked Nahel to roll down the window. He told him ‘turn off the engine or I will shoot you’. And he hit him with the gun. Then the second officer arrived and stood in front of the windshield at Nahel’s height. From there, the first officer standing at the level of the window put a gun to his temple and said “don’t move or I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

He went on to report that the second officer told him “shoot him,” and when a frightened Nahel let his foot off the pedal, which was an automatic and not in a parked position, it started moving and the officer in front of the vehicle fired point blank.

Full story from 2023: unicornriot.ninja/2023/french-po…Monument at the traffic pole where Nahel Merzouk’s car crashed after he was fatally shot by French police on June 27, 2023, in La Defense, Paris. A sign reads “How many Nahels have not been filmed?” Photo taken July 2, 2023, contributed by Yegor Halva.
The man who killed Nahel Merzouk is 38-year-old police officer Florian Menesplier. Menesplier previously served in Afghanistan under France’s 35th infantry regiment and was a motorcyclist with the Direction de l’ordre public et de la circulation (DOPC, Directorate of Public Order and Traffic). Before that he belonged to the compagnie de sécurisation et d’intervention 93 (CSI 93, Security and Intervention Unit 93), which was ordered to disband in 2020.

The unit was the subject of 17 judicial investigations for “violence, racist remarks, unlawful arrests, extortion of dealers” and more. He was also a member of the BRAV-M (Motorized Brigades for the Repression of Violent Action), a unit decried for its violence during the Yellow Vests movement, which he joined shortly after its creation on October 1, 2020.

Full story - French Police Kill Teen During Traffic Stop, Leading to Mass Revolt: unicornriot.ninja/2023/french-po…Florian Menesplier poses for a picture while serving in Afghanistan. Menesplier went on to be a French police officer and killed teenager Nahel Merzouk in the summer of 2023.
Read 11 tweets

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