Fox News Flash top headlines for June 22
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Minneapolis is hiring a new police chief two years after the killing of George Floyd, a report says.
ABC News reported Tuesday about a nationwide search notification advertising the job opening as a "rare and incredible opportunity to lead a police agency in a major U.S. city eager to make comprehensive and positive changes that build community trust and ensure public safety."
The notification says the Minneapolis Police Department currently has 756 sworn officers and 170 civilian employees, according to ABC News.
That count contradicts a recent order issued by the Minnesota Supreme Court stating that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has not hired the adequate number of police officers required under the city charter.
The charter requires 0.0017 sworn police officers per Minneapolis resident. Based on the most recent census from 2020, that means the city should have at least 731 officers.
In this Feb. 17, 2021, file photo, former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo speaks during a news conference accompanied by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in Minneapolis. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
The ruling notes that City Council has fulfilled its obligation in allocating enough funding in the 2021 city budget for 770 sworn officers – well above the charter’s threshold. Yet, despite having the funding to bring on new officers, the Minneapolis Police Department struggles with recruitment.
Since Floyd’s death ushered in violent riots and anti-police protests, more than 300 officers have left the Minneapolis Police Department. In response to Monday’s ruling, the interim city attorney acknowledged that such an "unprecedented loss of personnel that is not easily corrected."
Fox News Digital reached out to Minneapolis police and Frey’s office Wednesday morning seeking more information about the job listing for chief but did not immediately receive a response.
Medaria Arradondo served as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department from 2017 to 2022.
A George Floyd mural in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP)
After enduring the height of the defund police movement, he announced in December that he would not seek a third term and would retire from the force in January of this year. He had worked for the department since 1989 and spent three decades rising through the ranks until becoming chief.
Frey named Amelia Huffman, a 27-year-veteran of the department, as interim chief.
Just weeks at the helm, Huffman handled the fallout from the Feb. 2 killing of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer serving a no-knock warrant.
In this image taken from Minneapolis Police Department body camera video and released by the city of Minneapolis, 22-year-old Amir Locke wrapped in a blanket on a couch holding a gun moments before he was fatally shot by Minneapolis police as they were executing a search warrant in a homicide investigation on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, in Minneapolis. (Minneapolis Police Department via AP)
Despite his death prompting protests and rioting, prosecutors ultimately did not pursue criminal charges against the officer after body camera footage showed the SWAT team announced themselves as police and Locke lying on the couch beneath a blanket had pointed a gun toward officers.
Fox News Digital previously confirmed that the no-knock warrant was signed off by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, the same judge who presided over the trial for former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
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Locke’s then-17-year-old cousin, Mekhi Speed, was the subject of the warrant stemming from the investigation into the Jan. 10 murder of 38-year-old suspected drug dealer Otis R. Elder in the neighboring city of St. Paul. Speed, prosecuted as an adult, accepted a plea deal in May.
