The family of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man who was fatally shot by Elizabeth City police officers last month, was able to view six additional bodycam and dashboard videos of his death.
On Tuesday (May 11), Chance Lynch, a local attorney representing the Brown family, said the videos showed Brown sitting in his vehicle in his driveway when the shooting started. The officers arrived and started yelling at Brown, saying, “Show your hands” and “Get out.” He then reversed his car to try to get away from the officers. The attorney said there were at least six bullet holes in the passenger window and one in the rear window. He also said that no weapon was visible and after the shooting, the officers removed Brown’s limp body from his vehicle and placed him face down on the ground.
“We were able to see some critical footage that yields some truth and transparency to what we thought we would see from the beginning,” Lynch said during a news conference Tuesday. “At no point did we see Mr. Brown pose a threat to the law enforcement officers,” he added, detailing the shooting as “absolutely, unequivocally unjustified.”
Pasquotank County Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said the video showed the officers’ attempt to serve an arrest warrant to Brown. He said it also showed the cops providing him with medical care directly after the shooting.
“It was my hope that we will be able to release the video publicly so everyone could see for themselves what happened,” said Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten. “We respect the court’s decision and took an oath to abide by North Carolina law and we’ve done just that.”
As REVOLT previously reported, Brown’s attorneys have called for District Attorney Andrew Womble to recuse himself from the case due to his ties to the Elizabeth City Sheriff’s Office. “Womble’s involvement would be a miscarriage of justice for Andrew Brown Jr., his family and the people of Elizabeth City,” said Attorney Bakari Sellers.
A state investigation into Brown’s death remains ongoing.