ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina was shot in the back of the head and had his hands on his car steering wheel when they opened fire, attorneys for his family said Monday after relatives viewed body camera footage.

The account was the first description of the shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed by deputies serving drug-related search and arrest warrants. His death last Wednesday led to nightly protests and demands for justice in the town of Elizabeth City.

Authorities have released few details, and the video has not been made public.

Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter watched a 20-second portion of body camera video with Brown’s family. Lassiter said Brown did not appear to be a threat to officers as he backed his vehicle out of his driveway and tried to drive away from deputies with guns drawn.

“Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel. He wasn’t reaching for anything, firmly on the steering wheeling, run up to his vehicle shooting. He sat there in the vehicle while being shot at,” Cherry-Lassiter said.

She said Brown did not appear to be a threat to officers as he backed his vehicle out and tried to drive away.

“He was not threatening them in any kind of fashion,” Cherry-Lassiter said.

When asked whether Brown was shot in the back, attorney Harry Daniels said, “Yes, back of the head.”

An eyewitness account and emergency scanner traffic had previously indicated Brown was shot in the back as he tried to drive away.

“We are against all odds in this world. My dad got executed just by trying to save his own life,” Andrew Brown’s son Khalil Ferebee said. “The officers were not in no harm of him at all.”

Cherry-Lassiter, who watched the video multiple times and took notes, said shooting started as soon as the video started. She said she counted as many as eight deputies in the video, some wearing tactical uniforms and some in plainclothes.

“They’re shooting and saying ‘Let me see your hands’ at the same time,” she said. She added: “Let’s be clear. This was an execution.”

The family’s lawyers were also angry about what they described as rude treatment by Pasquotank County Attorney R. Michael Cox, to whom they attributed the decision to limit the amount of footage shown. They criticized authorities for sharing only 20 seconds of video from a single body camera.

“They’re trying to hide something,” attorney Benjamin Crump said.

New bill in NC Senate calls for change in release of body cam footage

Attorney Bakari Sellers said Cox used profanity toward him. “I’ve never been talked to like I was talked to in there,” Sellers said.

Cox did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has said that multiple deputies fired shots. Seven deputies are on leave pending a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation.

In a video statement, the sheriff said Monday that Cox had filed a request to have the video released, which in North Carolina must be authorized by a judge. He asked for patience while the State Bureau of Investigation probes the case.

“This tragic incident was quick and over in less than 30 seconds, and body cameras are shaky and sometimes hard to decipher. They only tell part of the story,” he said.

Earlier Monday, a search warrant was released that indicated investigators had recorded Brown selling small amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine to an informant. Crump argued that authorities were trying to release negative information about Brown while shielding themselves by holding back the video.

The warrant was sought by Wooten’s office and signed by a judge to allow the search of Brown’s Elizabeth City home. It said that an investigator in nearby Dare County was told by the informant that the person had been purchasing crack cocaine and other drugs from Brown for over a year. The informant described purchasing drugs at the house that was the target of the search.

In March, narcotics officers used the informant to conduct controlled purchases of methamphetamine and cocaine from Brown on two separate occasions, according to the warrant, which said both drug transactions were recorded using audio and video equipment.

The search warrant said investigators believed Brown was storing drugs in the home or two vehicles. The document, which indicated the search was not completed, did not list anything found.

Two arrest warrants released last week charged him with possession with intent to sell and deliver 3 grams of each of the drugs.

Brown’s fatal shooting last Wednesday in Elizabeth City has prompted days of protests, calls for the public release of deputy body camera video and civil rights leaders decrying that warrants should not lead to a fatal shooting.

Wooten said if the deputies involved violated the law, they would be held responsible.

“If any of my deputies violated the law, or policies, they will be held accountable,” Wooten said.

The Pasquotank county attorney also released a statement saying officials are continuing “efforts to get a court order that would allow the video to be released to the public.”

Calls have been growing to release the body camera footage. A coalition of media organizations have sought the footage, and city officials plan to do so as well.

Short of releasing it publicly, state law allows law enforcement to show body camera video privately to a victim’s family.

Calls for the release of the body camera footage have brought police transparency to the forefront once again. While Brown’s family and the community push for the video to be made public, critics said it’s not an easy process.

Channel 9 has learned there is now a new effort to change the way North Carolina handles body camera video.

Currently, a judge has to sign off on the process, which some feel is a complicated and takes a long time. Under a proposed bill that has been filed in the Senate, the burden would be placed on law enforcement agencies to release police video within 48 hours after an incident.

Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a senator from Mecklenburg County, is a bill sponsor.

“When I have conversations in the halls of the North Carolina General Assembly, I think most Republicans and Democrats realize that we’ve got to do more to increase transparency and build trust with law enforcement,” the senator said.

The Fraternal Order of Police does not support the change, though. The organization feels the existing law does more to protect privacy and the integrity of the investigation.

Also Monday, Elizabeth City officials declared a state of emergency amid concerns about how demonstrators would react to a possible video release. Protests since the shooting in the eastern North Carolina town of about 18,000 have generally been peaceful.

Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools also announced it would be fully remote for the week.

Danielle McCalla, who grew up in Elizabeth City before recently moving to Virginia, joined demonstrators who came to watch the news conference by the family attorneys. She said it left her in tears.

“As soon as they started going into details, I started crying,” she said. McCalla, 30, said she met Brown and had several conversations with him, making her sad about what’s happening in her hometown and about police shootings elsewhere.

“It’s the same thing that keeps happening,” she said. “It’s a bigger monster than we think it is.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Redactions delay showing body cam video of Black NC man’s fatal shooting, attorneys say

Attorneys for Andrew Brown’s family said body camera video of his fatal shooting was delayed Monday morning because deputies wanted to redact it.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II said Saturday that he would ask a court to release body camera video as soon as he’s confident it won’t compromise an investigation of how the shooting happened.

The statement came as the sheriff faced sharp criticism and calls for transparency.

Wooten said in a recorded video statement that he would ask a local judge as early as Monday to allow the release of deputy body camera footage of the shooting death of Brown. Wooten said that he will first check with the State Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the shooting, to make sure that releasing the video will not hamper their efforts.

“Only a judge can release the video. That’s why I’ve asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to confirm for me that the releasing of the video will not undermine their investigation. Once I get that confirmation, our county will file a motion in court, hopefully Monday, to have the footage released,” he said.

Asked for comment on Wooten’s remarks, SBI spokeswoman Anjanette Grube referred back to a statement earlier in the week that said, “It is not the SBI’s decision as to when and how body camera video is released.” The statement directed questions about the footage back to the sheriff and local prosecutor.

Wooten released the statement just after a family attorney, local clergy and civil rights leaders, including Rev. William Barber II, who leads the Poor People’s Campaign, held a news conference to demand that the footage be released.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office allowed Brown’s family and their attorneys to see the body camera video Monday.

During a morning press conference, the family’s attorneys said they were supposed to see the body camera video Monday morning but it was delayed. They said the police told them they wanted to redact it.

“If we don’t have transparency, we can never get to accountability,” attorney Ben Crump said. “And if we never get to accountability, we can never get to healing and trust.”

Attorneys for the family said they arrived at 11:30 a.m. to find the doors to Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office locked. An email to the family’s attorney informed them the sheriff’s office was working to redact some of the video.

The family’s attorneys said they were promised by officials that they would be allowed to see the raw video and not a redacted version.

In a lot of other states, police videos are public record, but not in North Carolina.

Under North Carolina law, a judge must generally sign off on the release of law enforcement body camera footage. Leaders of the Elizabeth City government have demanded the release of the footage, and a coalition of media filed a petition in court to make it public.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statement calling for the swift release of the footage. Attorney General Josh Stein also released a statement calling for the release of the video.

Dr. Janne Gaub of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte criminal justice department is an expert on police body camera video. She thinks that any department that doesn’t release the videos right away takes a public relations hit.

“A huge reason that agencies will get them is because they want to improve relations with their community, and you can’t do that if you say, ‘Well we have this whole thing on video, but we’re not going to show you what happened. We’re doing our investigation, we’re doing this, and we’re doing that, but we’re not going to show you what we have,’” Gaub said.

Call for transparency grows after deputy fatally shoots Black man in NC

Seven deputies have been placed on leave amid indications, including emergency scanner traffic and an eyewitness account, that Brown was shot in the back as he tried to drive away in an Elizabeth City neighborhood.

Wooten has said deputies from his department, including a tactical team, were attempting to serve drug-related search and arrest warrants when Brown was shot. He said multiple deputies fired shots, but he released few other details.

Nearby Dare County had issued two arrest warrants for Brown on drug-related charges including possession with intent to sell cocaine. Brown, 42, had a criminal history dating back to the 1990s, including past drug convictions.

The shooting sparked an outcry from the community, with protesters demanding the release of the body camera footage.

Full statement from Attorney General Josh Stein:

“I continue to be gravely concerned about the circumstances surrounding Andrew Brown’s death in Elizabeth City. I know his family and friends are grieving, and my heart is with them.

“My office has reached out to District Attorney Andrew Womble to offer our assistance. The NC Department of Justice stands ready to assist should DA Womble request our help. I believe the bodycam video should be made available to the family and released publicly without undue delay. Transparency is critically important in situations like this.

“People in Elizabeth City and across North Carolina are hurting, and they are understandably engaging in protests in response to this tragic loss of life. I urge them to do so peacefully and lawfully.”

A bill has also been introduced in the legislature that makes it easier to get police videos. If approved, it would give agencies 48 hours to release footage once requested.

“We really got to stop and think about things before we jump,” said Yolian Ortiz, with the Fraternal Order of Police.

The FOP does not think the law should be changed because of safeguards that protect cases and privacy.

“I think that right now, the way it is works, it works for us because it gives us time to not do a knee-jerk action and just release information that could be detrimental to the case in the future,” Ortiz said.

The bill was filed on April 5. It passed its first reading and has been referred to committee.

Warrant: Drug buys recorded weeks before Black man shot dead

A search warrant being served when deputies shot and killed a Black man in North Carolina says that investigators used information from an informant, including recordings of drug buys, according to court documents released Monday.

The search warrant has been cited as the reason that deputies came to Andrew Brown Jr.’s house last Wednesday. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has said that deputies shot and killed Brown while serving drug-related search and arrest warrants but released few other details. An eyewitness account and emergency scanner traffic indicates that Brown was driving away and may have been shot in the back.

The search warrant released Monday offers new details. The warrant obtained by the Pasquotank County sheriff’s office and signed by a local judge said that an investigator in nearby Dare County was told by the informant that the person had been purchasing crack cocaine and other drugs for over a year from Brown. The warrant said that in March, local narcotics officers used the informant to conduct controlled purchases of methamphetamine and cocaine on two separate occasions. The warrant says both buys were recorded.

Previously disclosed arrest warrants from Dare County included charges of possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine and methamphetamine against Brown.

His shooting death has prompted days of protests, with demonstrators calling for transparency. Seven deputies are on leave over the shooting, and the State Bureau of Investigation is probing it.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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