A Black man was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina last week, leaving many searching for answers in a case that has drawn national attention.
Update: New video and autopsy results
The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office has released few details after it said at least one of its deputies shot 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. while serving arrest and search warrants on Wednesday in Elizabeth City.
As the region grapples with the shooting, lawmakers and civil rights leaders have called for the public release of video from deputies’ body-worn cameras. While Sheriff Tommy Wooten said officials would petition a judge to release the footage, the process could take days.
Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about the shooting that ended Brown’s life.
Related Story: Andrew Brown Jr. search warrant: Drug deals captured on camera weeks before fatal police shooting; criminal rap sheet 180 pages long
What happened
The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were serving arrest and search warrants at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday when they came to Brown’s house on Perry Street.
“This is an arrest surrounding felony drug charges,” Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said in a video statement. “Mr. Brown was a convicted felon with a history of resisting arrest. Our training and our policies indicate under such circumstances, there is a high risk of danger.”
When Brown tried to leave in a car, deputies fired at the vehicle, killing him and leaving the back window shot out, witnesses told The News & Observer.
Officials have not said whether Brown had a weapon or how many rounds were fired by deputies. Neighbor Demetria Williams said she heard gunshots and saw more than 14 shell casings on the ground.
Brown was shot in his back and crashed into a tree, according to police scanner traffic.
It happened a few hundred feet from P.W. Moore Elementary School, which was closed to students for cleaning on the day of the shooting, The N&O reported.
After Brown’s death, seven Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies were placed on leave and three others resigned. A spokesperson has said the resignations weren’t linked to the shooting.
Wooten said the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation was taking over the case.
Video footage
In the wake of the shooting, community and state leaders have asked for the release of deputies’ body camera footage from the scene.
Well-known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd and is now representing Brown’s family, was in Elizabeth City on Monday to push for the release of the video.
“The most cowardly thing you can do is shoot somebody in the back,” Crump said. “They don’t shoot white people in the back.”
Related Story: ‘This was an execution.’ Attorneys for family of Andrew Brown react to body camera clip.
Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article250945179.html#storylink=cpy
Officials have not made public the names or the race of the deputies who shot Brown.
“I want to destroy the system that puts us in this position,” said Bakari Sellers, another attorney for Brown’s family. “I want to make sure that in the state of North Carolina they can no longer hide videos from individuals that need to see them. … Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
Gov. Roy Cooper was among those calling for transparency when he wrote in a tweet that the video “should be made public as quickly as possible.”
Timeline for release
Under North Carolina law, a judge decides whether to release officers’ body camera footage. Law enforcement agencies cannot release it on their own.
Wooten said he hoped Pasquotank County officials would file a court motion Monday to have the footage released.
It could take hours or days to release video after a petition from a law enforcement agency, according to Raleigh attorney Mike Tadych. It could take much longer if members of the public, including the media, make the request.
State of emergency
The anticipation of outrage linked to releasing the body camera video led Elizabeth City to declare a state of emergency on Monday.
“City officials realize there may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage,” the declaration said.
Case draws national attention
Brown was killed less than 24 hours after Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.
Brown’s death put a national spotlight on Elizabeth City, a predominantly Black community near the Virginia border. Protesters have taken to the streets of the town of roughly 18,000 people to beg for answers.
“Here we are again outraged to hear of yet another Black man dead, allegedly at the hands of those who are supposed to protect and serve,” the NAACP of North Carolina said.
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“Here is what we know”: Fact: Andrew Brown Jr. was a felon. Fact: Andrew Brown Jr. fled from the police. Fact: We have one less low life criminal in the world, a product of the welfare system. Fact: With one less criminal in the United States, the United States is a safer place.
FACT – HE WAS black, they were white (for the most part), so We will still get riot after riot, cause to the left, blm and antifa especially, FACTS DON’T matter.
Bad man run, good man shoot gun, bad man done running. Town quiet… why? Bad man white. Same story, but town burn….. Why? Bad man black, OK to run, cop no use gun anymore, town no burn.
sign says stop killing us…..well stop doing crime!!
and how bout yall stop killing each other.
IF we REALLY Were ‘killing them’ in the numbers they seem to THINK they are being targeted, there’d be a HELL of a lot more than 10k or so each year being killed (most of which is BY FELLOW BLACKS in gang violence).. IT woudl be more like 100k each year.
Apparently he had a criminal rap sheet over 180 pages long going back to May 1988, according to a copy of the search warrant and other records obtained by Fox News.
My first question is why was he still on the street?
One hundred and eight pages! How many victims is that? Per page?
Then, was he not lucky for a lot of years?
These days, who the hell knows, why scumbags like that are still out on the streets.. IF IT Was say in NY, or Wa, or CA, i could understand, since those states seem to CODDLE crooks… BUT IN NORTH CAROLINA>??
Isn’t it amazing how when police shoot blacks, regardless of the individual’s criminal record and what the individual was doing, blacks immediately seek a lawyer and cry foul. While blacks immediately cry for blacks but never raise their voices for whites killed. More whites were killed by police than blacks by far. These reactions only cause people to question their motive and become more insensitive to their demands.
That’s cause for YEASR< they've had it bashed into their brains by schools, by media, by music and BY THEIR PARENTS 'whites=bad, black=good.. IF they kill us, sue them!"..
Democrats seem to fully approve of Blacks killing each other. Being the “systemic racists” that they are they are only revolted by the thought of a white person being involved.
(Black Police officers are evidently white due to the authority vested in the uniform.)
Murdered by the police?? Hands on the steering wheel while cops executed him?? Is not an automobile a dangerous weapon?? Could it be a situation where this felon was trying to run the police over while trying to back out of his driveway? Is it a coincidence that his rear window was shot out while his vehicle was in reverse, and continued backwards until it stopped across the street?? Ambulance Chaser Crump Always seems to disagree with the FACTS in order to INFLAME the MOBS. We ALL know Mob Rule is NOW the Rule Of Law in our Country. Just look at Minneapolis as an example!!!
I’d lOve to see Crump be on the END OF needing to have 911 save his sorry ***, AND THEY REFUSE TO SHOW UP…
Do the crime do the time above or underground makes no difference to me.