Amir Locke, Killed By Minneapolis Police.

Amir Locke was born in the St. Paul suburb of Maplewood, his mother Karen Wells said, with “a headful of curly hair.” He grew up in the suburbs, where he played basketball in middle school and tried out for his high school football team.
“But he broke his collarbone, so that didn’t last,” Wells recalled.

His true passion was music, and he had a natural talent for it, his mother said. Locke enjoyed hip-hop, and speaking about “the realities of what’s going on in the neighborhoods,” Andre Locke said. He also wanted to work with young people, his mother said.

McClure also recalled Amir Locke as having “a big heart.”

When his grandmother died last year, Amir didn’t want to see her body in the casket so he stayed outside in the parking lot during the funeral, McClure said. After the funeral ended, Andre Locke and the funeral director arranged to have Amir go inside through a back door so he could be alone with his grandmother.

“We have these pictures with him, and he’s standing there and he’s saying goodbye to his grandmother,” McClure said. “And here’s the crazy part. The same funeral home that he was so heartbroken to go see his grandmother in because of the bigness of his heart, is the same one he’s going to be in.”