Andrew Brown Jr.’s estate is suing the deputies involved in his death. According to a TMZ report, attorneys representing the estate filed a lawsuit against Pasquotank County and Dare County sheriffs for their use of excessive force amid their encounter with Brown.
Brown unfortunately lost his life in April at the hands of those deputies, who showed up to his home to execute a search warrant on suspicion of drug trafficking. Per court documents, his estate claims the warrant was not signed by a judicial officer and was therefore null and void.
Furthermore, the estate’s administrator and Brown’s aunt Lillie Brown Clark alleges that the deputies unnecessarily fired at her nephew, who posed no threat and was unarmed at the time of the incident.
In her account of the occurrence, the cops unexpectedly pulled up to Brown’s home on the morning of April 21 and discovered him in the driveway sitting in his parked car. Upon noticing the officers, Brown allegedly went into panic mode and attempted to escape. His estate claims he turned his wheel to prevent from crashing into any of the officers. Despite his precautionary measures, the police unloaded their firearms, striking Brown multiple times. Per the results of an independent and a state autopsy, the late man’s cause of death was homicide, specifically a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
District Attorney Andrew Womble — who believes the deputies were justified in their excessive use of force — announced in May that he would not file any charges against them. Four of the seven involved deputies who were initially on leave were later reinstated.
In an effort to obtain some semblance of justice, Brown’s estate wants more than $30 million in damages to make up for the excessive force, the assault and battery the late man experienced and his wrongful death.