No-knock warrants: A growing legacy of controversy, revised laws, tragic deaths

Police departments around the country have narrowed policies and states have passed laws banning or partially banning no-knock entries in the wake of deaths during unannounced raids.

But early Wednesday in Minneapolis – nearly two years after the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky – a 22-year-old Black man was fatally shot after being roused from sleep on a couch at 6:48 a.m. by SWAT officers with a no-knock warrant.

"It happens with far too much regularity when it comes to Black people in Minnesota and across this country," said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. "There has been tragedy after tragedy of police officers using hypervigilant, militarized and aggressive tactics in circumstances that are often unwarranted."