The Police Murder of Andrew Brown (Elizabeth City, NC)

[aggierattler]

I don't know where else to put this, but it's too important not to post...


‘This was an execution.’ Attorneys for family of Andrew Brown react to body camera clip

BY MARTHA QUILLIN AND JOSH SHAFFER
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
APRIL 26, 2021 09:54 AM, UPDATED 2 HOURS 8 MINUTES AGO

ELIZABETH CITY - An attorney for Andrew Brown said Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies shot the Elizabeth City man multiple times while he sat in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel.

Attorney Chantel Lassiter addressed a crowd in Elizabeth City on Monday afternoon after viewing 20 seconds of body camera footage along with the slain man’s family.

She said the footage showed deputies blocking Brown in his driveway while serving a warrant and approaching his car while firing. Brown did not move toward them or use a weapon, and deputies fired AR 223 semi-automatic rifles and Glock 17 pistols as he attempted to back away, Lassiter said.

“Let’s be clear,” Lassiter said. “This was an execution.”

The news that Pasquotank County Attorney R. Michael Cox had limited the amount of video to 20 seconds did nothing to assuage the frustration of local residents who have gathered and marched in town since the shooting last week.

‘WE WANT WARRANTS’
About 200 people, including national media, waited outside the Public Safety building on Monday to hear from the family and their lawyers after being shown the video.

Angela Lewis, 47, said she wasn’t surprised by officials’ handling of the video. “If this had been a citizen, they would have been arrested,” Lewis said. “These officers need to be held accountable. Warrants. We want warrants.”

The Rev. William Barber II, Goldsboro pastor and national civil rights leader, said giving the family 20 seconds of video when there may be footage from eight body cameras, the dashboard camera of a police van and more footage from a camera on a pole on the street is insufficient.

“It absolutely makes no sense,” he said. “This is no way to do justice at all. This just creates even more mistrust and gives us more reason we need legislation to address body-cam video in the law.”

By Monday evening, more than 200 people marched through downtown, carrying signs and shouting a new chant: “Release the tape! The real tape!” Twice, they stopped to confront police officers who blocked traffic for them to pass. They yelled, “Say his name! Say his name!” before moving on.

Attorneys for the Brown family accused officials in Pasquotank County of deliberately hiding footage of his shooting death as tensions escalate over the video.

In a video statement released Monday afternoon, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said “this tragic incident was quick and over in less than 30 seconds.”

“And body cameras are shaky and sometimes hard to decipher,” Wooten said. “They only tell part of the story.”

The sheriff said outside investigators from both the State Bureau of Investigation and four other sheriff’s departments were interviewing witnesses and investigating.

Elizabeth City declared a state of emergency as it braced for fresh outrage over the shooting.

“City officials realize there may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage,” the city’s declaration said Monday.

But Brown’s family and its legal team decried the delay and possible redactions of the body-cam video, saying the slain man’s relatives were promised a chance to view raw footage.

“I want to destroy the system that puts us in this position,” said Bakari Sellers, family attorney. “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.”

Family attorney Ben Crump noted that the Parkland school shooter in Florida and other accused assailants who are white have been taken alive, unlike unarmed Black suspects.

”The most cowardly thing you can do is shoot somebody in the back,” Crump said. “They don’t shoot white people in the back.”

‘WE KNOW THE VIDEO IS VERY DISTURBING’
Dozens of local residents came to downtown Elizabeth City early Monday, setting up lawn chairs and many displaying signs.

Daija Mclean, 23, said she came out to support Brown’s family and to help put pressure on local officials to release the video, first to family members and then to the public.

“We know the video is very disturbing,” she said. “We know that much.”

Sellers asked how county officials can redact footage of the shooting without prosecutors present to monitor.

“They are trying to hide something,” said Crump. “They don’t want us to see.”

Brown, 42, died from gunshot wounds Wednesday after Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies arrived at his home on Perry Street to serve search and arrest warrants.

Carolina Public Press reported Monday that officers went to Brown’s home searching for crack cocaine and other drugs. An investigator with the Albemarle Drug Task Force applied for the warrant Tuesday, one day before Brown’s death, acting on information from confidential informants who said they bought cocaine and methamphetamine from the slain man.

‘HE’S JUST NOT VIOLENT’
Brown has a lengthy criminal history, mostly for drug offenses, but is described as nonviolent.

“I’ve never known him to resist any officer or anybody,” Jamaul Riddick, his bail bondsman and lifelong friend, told Carolina Public Press. “I mean he’s not that type of person. ... He’s never been a violent person in his life. He doesn’t carry a gun,” he said. “He’s never had a gun, never carried a gun, and he’s just not violent.”

Neighbors heard the shots and witnessed deputies shooting at Brown’s fleeing car, counting 14 shell casings near the driveway.

Brown was shot in the back, according to police radio traffic, and his car crashed into a nearby tree with its rear window shot out.

Hundreds filled the streets to protest the shooting and call for the release of body-camera footage.

By declaring a state of emergency, the city becomes eligible for state and federal aid.

City Manager Montre Freeman said there is no specific threat, and the declaration also allows him to pull resources from nearby cities.

“I invite the media and any protesters and other visitors, when we get through this, to come back to our beautiful city and visit,” he said Monday.

Barber addressed the crowd as family members and their attorneys were allowed into the public safety building at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

Barber prayed for the family: children, siblings, extended family.

”You know that all we have ever wanted is justice,” he said, along with truth and transparency.

The State Bureau of Investigation said Monday there are too many variables to provide a timeline for its work on the case.

LINK from the Charlotte Observer: www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article250945179.html?utm_source=pushly&intcid=pushly_962536

[DOOMS]

If it' true he was slangin' and he was executed in that fashion, he was slangin' for the police or with their tacit approval.

[aggierattler]

Autopsy shows ‘kill shot’ to Brown, attorney says. Ministers declare ‘moral emergency.’

BY KATE MURPHY, JOSH SHAFFER, ANDREW CARTER, AND MARTHA QUILLIN
RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER/CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
APRIL 27, 2021 11:27 AM, UPDATED 2 MINUTES AGO

ELIZABETH CITY - Attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr., at an emotional Tuesday news conference in Elizabeth City, said a private autopsy showed that he died when Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies fired a “kill shot to the back of the head.”

Brown, 42, was killed in his car outside his home in Elizabeth City last Wednesday as deputies were serving search and arrest warrants related to felony drug charges.

After hearing the autopsy results, Brown’s son Khalil Ferebee discouraged violence Tuesday as he addressed the crowd of about 100 people that stood outside the public safety building downtown.


“To my pops … yesterday, I said he was executed,” Ferebee said. “This autopsy report showed me that was correct.”

The autopsy also showed an additional four gunshot wounds to Brown’s arm.

“That wasn’t enough?” Ferebee said. “They’re going to shoot him in the back of the head? ... That’s not right at all.

“Man, stuff gotta change. It’s really gotta change for real.”

The press conference drew angry shouts from spectators, especially when mothers of other police violence victims spoke.

“All Black men are not terrorists,” said Tamika Thatch of High Point, whose son was killed in a church in November.

Motioning to Brown’s son, she said, “If his daddy killed them, he would never walk the streets again. We need to hold them to the same accountability. They need to be locked up today. Yesterday. Last week.”

Elizabeth City officials on Tuesday announced an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in the town starting Tuesday night.

Members of the New Black Panther party from Washington, D.C., stood in the parking lot for the news conference and called Brown’s death an “assassination” and sought the immediate release of footage.


Members of the New Black Panther Party from Washington DC and Raleigh chapters rally as attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. hold a press conference outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety building Tuesday, April 27, 2021 to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned, which they said showed five bullet wounds including one to the back of the head. They accused Pasquotank County officials of hiding information and keeping justice from being served in Elizabeth City. Travis Long [e-mail]

As attorney Ben Crump spoke, some members called him a “boot-licking ambulance chaser,” insisting the streets would get justice.

And while Ferebee urged against violence, attorney Bakari Sellers said calls for peace are not the family’s responsibility.

“If we want calm, if we want justice,” Sellers said, “that onus is not on family. That onus is on people who are hiding information.”

A CALL TO ACTION FROM MINISTERS
On Tuesday afternoon in Elizabeth City, the Rev. William Barber II, flanked by dozens of NC clergy, called for the state attorney general to take over the case, calling local authorities “inept, incompetent and incapable.”

Barber, local pastors, attorneys and NAACP leaders met privately Tuesday afternoon at Mount Lebanon AME Zion Church to declare a “moral emergency” in the country following Brown’s killing.

Following the meeting, Barber said the Pasquotank district attorney should request North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s aid. Barber called for such a request in the face of what he called poor handling by the sheriff and district attorney.

“These are not the days in the South when we put up with law officials and DAs that are inept, incompetent and incapable,” Barber said, repeating the three words to a chorus of church leaders. “Inept! Incompetent! And incapable! Because of that, babies are crying.”

Barber said he and the other pastors gathered in Elizabeth City will march to the scene of Brown’s death Wednesday.

“A warrant is not a license to kill,” he said. “No police have the right to carry out an execution. A warrant does not give someone with a badge and a gun to be a bigot.”

A PRIVATE AUTOPSY REPORT
Sellers said the family arranged an independent autopsy “because the medical report we got just said, ‘shot to the head,’ and we wanted to make sure that it was clearly denoted that he was shot in the back of the head.”

Attorneys Wayne Kendall and Crump described the details of the autopsy report with diagrams showing five bullet wounds, with the fatal shot killing Brown within minutes, they said. It caused him to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a tree, they said.

The bullet went into the base of his neck and “perforated and penetrated his skill and his brain,” Crump said.

The state’s official death certificate for Brown, which was filed Tuesday, also said the cause of death is “penetrating gunshot wound of the head” and that he died in minutes.


Attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr., including Harry Daniels, center, and Ben Crump take questions from reporters during a press conference outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety building Tuesday, April 27, 2021 to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned, which they said showed five bullet wounds including one to the back of the head. They accused Pasquotank County officials of hiding information and keeping justice from being served in Elizabeth City. Travis Long [e-mail]

Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, an Elizabeth City attorney who has worked with the family, said it was “an assassination of this unarmed black man.”

“That is painful,” Lassiter said. “We are tired. Mothers are tired. Sisters are tired. Fathers are tired. Communities are tired.”

She said people need to hear that pain and not tune it out and “justice will be served.”

Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed by a New York Police Department officer, stood at the podium in solidarity with Brown’s family. She said they’ve joined a club that no one wants to be part of.

“Don’t only have sympathy, have empathy. Put yourself in that position,” Carr said. “What would you do if you saw your child, your mother, your father, whomever being executed.”


A tear rolls down Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr’s face as attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. hold a press conference outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety building Tuesday, April 27, 2021 to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned, which they said showed five bullet wounds including one to the back of the head. They accused Pasquotank County officials of hiding information and keeping justice from being served in Elizabeth City. Travis Long [e-mail]

Carr said she knows what this family is going through because she had to watch her son’s killing over and over again. She said police kill Black and Brown men in their communities and then “it’s swept under the rug.”

“It’s horrible what they do to us,” Carr said. “And it has to stop.”

FBI CONDUCTING INVESTIGATION
Also Tuesday, the FBI said that it has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Brown’s death. The FBI will work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

“As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further,” FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said.

Stein, the state attorney general, tweeted support Tuesday for the State Bureau of Investigation’s work on the case.

“A number of people have asked me to take over this prosecution. I want to clarify that under North Carolina law, the District Attorney, not the Attorney General, controls the prosecution of criminal cases,” Stein tweeted. “For my office to play a role in the prosecution, the District Attorney must request our assistance. My office has reached out to District Attorney Andrew Womble to offer that assistance, which he has acknowledged.”

A COURT HEARING FOR BODY-CAM FOOTAGE
Lassiter was allowed to view a 20-second snippet of the video on Monday with Brown’s son Ferebee and Ferebee’s mother, Mia Ferebee. Lassiter said the video showed Brown was shot multiple times while he sat in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel, calling it “an execution.”

Lassiter said she watched the video more than 10 times, taking notes.

“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” she said Tuesday. “I had nightmares. The images from that video stayed with me.”

Though the family has seen the 20 seconds of body-worn camera footage, it has not been released publicly, despite pressure from lawmakers and civil rights leaders. Law enforcement agencies cannot release officers’ body camera footage, so it’s up to a judge in this case, per North Carolina law.

There is a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Pasquotank County Courthouse regarding a petition for the release of the footage.

Lassiter said the family’s legal team believes that detectives had been observing Brown for a year, in part through the use of a camera mounted to a pole near his house.

Attorneys have said officials should release footage from that camera in addition to officers’ body cameras and a dash camera in a police van.

PEACEFUL PROTESTS EXPECTED
Protesters have been marching in Elizabeth City nightly since Brown’s shooting, sometimes for hours, always with distanced police escorts.

Lassiter said Tuesday that despite the occasional business in town that has boarded up its windows this week, the marches and protests have been peaceful.

“That’s how you know, if something happens, if there is violence, it’s not us,” Lassiter said.

Elizabeth City remains in a state of emergency, which was declared in anticipation of protests surrounding the body-cam footage.

Around noon Tuesday, word about the curfew had reached Kirk Rivers, who has been among the community leaders of the protests in town. Rivers’ brother Keith is the local chapter president of the NAACP.

“The city officials have to do what they feel is the best interest of the city,” Kirk Rivers said. “And we the people have to do what’s in the best interest of the city. And so right now we’re in — we feel that the protests have been very effective, in terms of first of all making sure that we’ve sent direct actions on what we’ve been requesting.”

During the nightly protests, Kirk Rivers, 48, often plays a vocal role — directing marchers and reminding them of their purpose to gather in the streets. At the forefront, that purpose has been to pressure authorities to release the complete police footage of Brown’s killing. In another way, though, the purpose has to been to place a brighter spotlight on police killings of Black people throughout the nation.

“We’re glad that the media has come in,” Rivers said after Tuesday’s media conference. “Because it brings attention to what has taken place here, that could have taken place any place. This could have been in Seattle, Washington; Murphy, North Carolina.

“But wherever it takes it place, it’s an injustice for all, this whole country.”


Members of the New Black Panther Party from Washington DC and Raleigh chapters rally as attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. hold a press conference outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety building Tuesday, April 27, 2021 to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned, which they said showed five bullet wounds including one to the back of the head. They accused Pasquotank County officials of hiding information and keeping justice from being served in Elizabeth City. Travis Long [e-mail]

‘RELEASE THE TAPE!’
More than 200 people marched through downtown Monday demanding officials “Release the tape!” The News & Observer reported. Nearly every restaurant downtown was closed that night.

During Monday night’s march, Mallory Thornton of Durham used a bullhorn to call chants, and at least twice stopped to challenge police officers blocking traffic for the crowd.

At one intersection, Thornton and the crowd stopped and faced an officer sitting in her car and from 20 feet away, shouted, “Say his name: Andrew Brown! Say his name: Andrew Brown.”

The officer remained in her car but appeared to laugh, and Thornton said, “It’s not funny, sister. That could have been your brother.”

Seven Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies were placed on leave following Brown’s death. And three others resigned, but a spokesperson has said the resignations weren’t linked to the shooting.

Officials have not publicly released the names or the race of the deputies who shot Brown.

LINK: www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article250973724.html?utm_source=pushly&intcid=pushly_964140

[oleschoolaggie]

as a born and raised native of eastern north carolina, this entire episode of "excessive" police force and "cover-up" in elizabeth city is downright "embarrassing". yet, its very "typical" of policing in my home state...

[AggieMac]

Words can’t even explain how I feel. I’m from EC and the community back home is shocked. I hate to see it but if justice is not served, they will turn my town upside down for real!

[oleschoolaggie]

this case has "cover-up" written all over it! i do not "trust" law enforcement to tell the true story and i don't trust law enforcement to reveal "all" of the available video publicly nor "non-publicly"...

[aggierattler]

[aggierattler]

[lobengula]

Apr 27, 2021 6:48:37 GMT -5 DOOMS said:

If it' true he was slangin' and he was executed in that fashion, he was slangin' for the police or with their tacit approval.

Looking at the optics I am wondering if any of those police guys were ex military Afganistan based upon their mode of travel and rapidly firing their weapons in a search and destroy rather than search and capture.

[oldschool]

Yea this stinks like you know what , to first only release that 20 sec clip ,then to have a judge decide to only release 4 body cam and 1 dash cam ,but to have some sections redacted or blurred . Every body and dashboard cam should be released in it's entirety .
But all of this is made possible by our Republican led legislators ,they have stuck their paws in various F-ed up rulings all over the state ,this law they passed on body cams is only one of their screw ups ,but I would say it's the most egregious .

[lobengula]

May 3, 2021 23:21:24 GMT -5 oldschool said:

Yea this stinks like you know what , to first only release that 20 sec clip ,then to have a judge decide to only release 4 body cam and 1 dash cam ,but to have some sections redacted or blurred . Every body and dashboard cam should be released in it's entirety .
But all of this is made possible by our Republican led legislators ,they have stuck their paws in various F-ed up rulings all over the state ,this law they passed on body cams is only one of their screw ups ,but I would say it's the most egregious .

Let us be candid; this matter is in fact an execution similar to the murder of Fred Hampton. In the aftermath the cover-up always begin but in this instance it was in the beginning of the planning. Eastern North Carolina was the Mississippi and Alabama of North Carolina yesteryear civil rights era and prior.

[lobengula]

Apr 28, 2021 21:13:19 GMT -5 AggieMac said:

Words can’t even explain how I feel. I’m from EC and the community back home is shocked. I hate to see it but if justice is not served, they will turn my town upside down for real!

Quite frankly I don't give a ,,,, about his activities. His execution was intentional and state sanctioned. Therefore it is incumbent upon all of us to demand justice but also a national/state march on Elizabeth city with a call for the release of all drug offenders immediate release, including political prisoners against a backdrop of all that is occurring now; the continual slaughter of the Palestinians in their legitimate right to resist occupation by any means necessary as well as all efforts to discounts the January 6 2021 incident which is treason.

[Maxell]

Lord, help my home state!

[oleschoolaggie]

sad, just sad. i see the good ole boys network is still intact. this is what they mean by "systemic" racism...