Amir Locke 's cousin was arrested in connection with a murder case that ultimately led to thepolice shooting of Locke.- Mekhi Speed was charged with two counts of murder in a Minnesota shooting on January 10.
The cousin of Amir Locke has been arrested by authorities in connection with a murder case that ultimately led
Locke's cousin, Mekhi Speed, 17, was arrested and charged on Tuesday with two counts of second-degree murder for the January 10 death of Otis Elder, according to the Saint Paul Police Department and court documents.
Elder, 38, was shot and killed in the city of Saint Paul, authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether Speed had retained an attorney.
As part of the Saint Paul Police Department's investigation into Elder's murder, the department secured search warrants for three units at a Minneapolis apartment building and asked the Minneapolis Police Department to execute them.
One of those warrants was for an apartment in which Locke had been staying.
Locke, 22, was shot to death as a SWAT team carried out a no-knock warrant at one of those units in the Bolero Flats apartment building on February 2.
Graphic footage of the incident from a police body-camera shows Locke under a blanket on the couch when police stormed into the home just before 7 a.m.
Locke can be seen in video footage on the couch with a pistol in his hand moments before he was shot dead. Locke was a legal gun owner, his family has said.
Police have said that Locke was not named in the no-knock warrant.
The young man's death has triggered outrage and protests from the public.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Locke's parents, told Insider earlier Tuesday that the family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Minneapolis Police Department for the killing.
According to a probable cause statement filed in Ramsey County District Court, Speed's brother's girlfriend was the registered occupant of the apartment where Locke was at the time of the police raid.
Speed's brother also lived in the apartment and Speed, who resided in a neighboring apartment in the complex with his mother, had access to his sibling's apartment, the court documents state.
"Police and fire had been to the apartment on numerous occasions in the past," the court papers say.
Speed's brother, his girlfriend and Locke were in the apartment at the time of the raid, said the statement, which only identified Locke as "A.L."
Investigators recovered a black Canada Goose jacket with fur that they believed was worn by Speed, the documents say.
"Officers also recovered a bullet, a gun in A.L.'s possession and marijuana from the apartment," according to the probable cause statement.