The Hennepin County judge who presided over Derek Chauvin's state murder trial is likely the same who signed the no-knock warrant that left 22-year-old Amir Locke dead last Wednesday (February 2).
Judge Peter Cahill was the designated signing judge last week, a courthouse employee confirmed to NBC News, meaning the longtime Minneapolis judge was most likely the one to review and sign-off on the search warrant application that led to the fatal police shooting of Locke.
"The warrant granting authority to search the apartment is not publicly available so the Court cannot comment whether Judge Cahill specifically signed that application," a spokesperson for the court told the outlet.
"Judge Cahill cannot comment on this particular application or any application for a search warrant," because state law prohibits judges from commenting on active or pending cases.
Graphic body camera footage released by the city following the shooting shows SWAT member Mark Hanneman opening fire on a sleeping Locke within 10 seconds of breaching the residence.
Locke, lawyers say, was not named on the warrant Cahill may have signed off on.
Community members and local activists have called for transparency in the investigation and for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to resign.
Many cite the City's pledge to limit the number of no-knock warrants it uses after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in May 2020 as yet another of the leaders' failed promise.
"Like the case of Breonna Taylor, the tragic killing of Amir Locke shows a patterns of no-knock warrants having deadly consequences for Black Americans," civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement Thursday (February 3).
"This is yet another example of why we need to put an end to these kinds of search warrants so that one day, Black Americans will be able to sleep safely in their beds at night."
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