Source: Sean Rayford / Getty
Andrew Brown Jr. marked the second high-profile police involved shooting following the death of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on Tuesday.
Brown, a 42-year-old father of 10, was shot on Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City, North Carolina as Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputies attempted to serve a drug-related search and arrest warrant. According to Brown’s family, he exited the home to his vehicle unarmed, where he attempted to drive away as police fired shots at his vehicle.
The deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.
Details are unclear regarding how many deputies were involved in the shooting, as well as what led up to the incident. According to CNN, Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said that Brown previously resisted arrest, but the outlet could not find any of the said charges against him.
Brown’s family states he left peacefully during the warrant serving and demand that police release the body cam footage so that an accurate representation of what transpired on the day he was shot to death takes precedence.
“That’s my favorite nephew. He never carried a gun. He didn’t own a gun,” Brown’s uncle Pete Brown told CNN.
“Great heart,” Brown’s cousin Jadine Hampton, 51, told U.S. News & World Report. “Everybody would just wait to hear him tell a story because it would be like a comedian telling the play-by-play about something that happened.” Family described him as a loyal father who was working to ensure that his children had better opportunities than himself.
Demonstrators peacefully gathered in the streets of Elizabeth City on Wednesday and Thursday in an effort to advocate for more transparency and justice in the wake of another police involved shooting.
However, in Pasquotank County where the shooting took place, body camera footage cannot be released without a court order.
Source: Sean Rayford / Getty
According to USA Today, Brown’s family will file a court order on Friday to request the release of the video.
Because of the scarce details, community and civil rights activists say the release of the video is important in presenting what transpired as police served the warrant. In too many cases relying solely on police account has proven to be unreliable, most notably in the George Floyd case.
“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,” reads a statement by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. “The murder of Andrew Brown in Elizabeth City, NC, Black man … and a father of 10 on the morning after the guilty on every count verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin screams for increased scrutiny of the policing system.”
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Family Of Andrew Brown Jr. Demands Release Of Bodycam Video As Demonstrators Take To The Streets was originally published on newsone.com
