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
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 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.
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…
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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🧵: 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:
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.
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
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
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
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.”
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.
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.
🔎 New investigation 🔎
Cobwebs Spy Software Locks Onto Protesters:
Israeli Social Media Mining Contract with Homeland Security Revealed
Israeli Firm “Cobwebs” Linked to 2020 Protests, Provides Monitoring Services to Homeland Security for Tracking Dissenters
An Israeli spy software tech firm licenses web surveillance tools to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The software contract shows new details about this sensitive technology DHS has used to spy on activists during the last several years. Story: unicornriot.ninja/2024/cobwebs-s…
Last year, Unicorn Riot reported how Cobwebs, a privately owned Israeli spyware firm, helped the Department of Homeland Security monitor the online presences of Americans—including protesters and journalists.
[Aug 2023]unicornriot.ninja/2023/aimed-at-…
For 5+ hours last night in Los Angeles, pro-Israel Zionist agitators violently beat, pepper sprayed & threw fireworks at hundreds of college students & protesters as they held UCLA’s Palestine solidarity encampment while security & police stood by idly. 🧵 unicornriot.ninja/2024/masked-is…
Despite the prolonged, violent attack on UCLA students by masked pro-Israel vigilantes, the Palestine solidarity encampment stayed intact with students repelling the continuous onslaught as they defiantly chanted “we’re not leaving” & “Free Palestine.” 🧵