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Andrew Brown's Family Lawyer On Shooting Video: It's 'Execution'

2021-04-28T20:53:39.458Z


Attorneys for Andrew Brown Jr.'s family were able to view 20 seconds of video from the body camera of one of the officers involved. 


The family of a black man who was fatally shot by police in North Carolina last week saw images from police body cameras on Monday.

(CNN) -

The family of a black man who was fatally shot by police in North Carolina last week viewed a brief snippet of the police body camera footage on Monday that a lawyer for the family described as a execution.

Andrew Brown Jr., 42, was fatally shot by Pasquotank County Sheriff's deputies in Elizabeth City last Wednesday as they attempted to serve him with an arrest warrant, the sheriff's office said.

  • Witnesses describe a chaotic scene when cops shot Andrew Brown Jr.

Not many details, or any video, about the shooting have been released.

In the audio from the headquarters that day, emergency teams can be heard saying that a man had gunshot wounds to the back.

A copy of his death certificate says he died from a gunshot wound to the head.

On Monday afternoon, after an earlier delay, Pasquotank County Prosecutor Michael Cox showed Brown's family and attorneys a short clip of a body camera from a deputy sheriff that, according to the family's attorney , Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, showed an "execution."

Cherry-Lassiter said the video was 20 seconds long and shows that Brown was shot by sheriff's deputies while he was sitting in his vehicle with his hands on the wheel.

"I wasn't reaching for anything, I wasn't touching anything, I wasn't throwing anything," he said.

Brown then reversed the vehicle and pulled out of the driveway, and police shot him as he drove away, he said.

The vehicle, riddled with bullet holes, crashed into a tree, he said.

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The family's lawyers denounced the lack of transparency and respect by showing only a short clip of the body camera of a single agent.

About seven or eight officers, each initially equipped with a body camera, were on the scene, Cherry-Lassiter said.

"They are trying to hide something," said civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

They don't want us to see everything.

Bakari Sellers, an attorney for the Brown family and CNN political analyst, said Pasquotank County Prosecutor Michael Cox tried to prevent several of the attorneys from viewing the video in the first place.

"Mr. Cox told me, to a grown black man, that he was not going to be bullied," Sellers said.

Seven Pasquotank County Sheriff's Deputies received an administrative discharge after the shooting, two more resigned and one more retired, County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said.

Not all the officers who have been put on administrative leave fired their firearms, he added, but all of them were part of the operation.

The deadly shooting came just a day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd in the most prominent case of the Black Lives Matter era.

However, the deaths at the hands of Brown police, as well as others in Ohio and Virginia in the past week, highlighted the pervasiveness of police violence.

  • ANALYSIS |

    Hopes grow for a commitment to police reform, but huge political hurdles lurk

The delay in releasing the video of Brown's death also highlights the growing importance of police body cameras for transparency and accountability.

In Columbus, Ohio, authorities released body camera footage of police shooting Ma'Khia Bryant within hours.

Family demands transparency

Protesters take to the streets for the fourth day in a row to call for the release of body camera recordings of Andrew Brown Jr.'s death at the hands of police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on April 24, 2021.

Under North Carolina law, police body camera recordings can only be made public with a court order.

Sheriff Wooten said the county plans to file a motion in court for the images to be released.

A coalition of media outlets, including CNN, also filed a petition in a North Carolina state court Monday morning for the video to be released.

For its part, Elizabeth City declared a state of emergency on Monday morning amid concerns that the broadcast of the video could lead to civil unrest.

According to the city's emergency declaration, city officials will also submit a formal request to the Sheriff's Office for the video to be released.

“It seems likely that the video and the audio recording will be released in the very near future.

In order to ensure the safety of our citizens and their property, city officials are aware that there may be a potential period of unrest within the city after the release of the images, ”the proclamation reads.

Pasquotank County deputies were authorized to search for cocaine, other controlled substances and "evidence of criminal activity" in Brown's two vehicles and at his residence, according to a search warrant signed by a judge on April 20.

According to the search warrant, Pasquotank Police Investigator D. Ryan Meads received information from the Dare County Narcotics Task Force in March 2021 “regarding the illegal sale of controlled narcotics by Andrew Brown, who resides on Perry St. in Elizabeth City. '

The task force had been in contact with an informant who claimed that he had bought drugs from Brown for more than a year, including at his home or at motels / hotels, according to the court order.

However, Brown's aunt, Betty Banks, said the family was informed that authorities did not find any drugs or weapons in Brown's car or at his home.

Elizabeth City, located in the northeast corner of North Carolina, has a population of just under 18,000 people, about half of whom are black, according to the United States Census.

- CNN's Kevin Conlon, Jamiel Lynch, Christina Maxouris, Devon M. Sayers, Hollie Silverman and Brian Todd contributed to this report.

Police violence

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-04-28

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