Andrew Brown Jr.’s death prompted days of protests and calls for the public release of body camera video. Civil rights leaders decried that warrants should not lead to a fatal shooting.
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. Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter watched a 20-second portion of body camera video with the family of Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed Wednesday by deputies serving drug-related search and arrest warrants. 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. “He was not threatening them in any kind of fashion,” she told reporters at a news conference. 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. Lassiter, who watched the video multiple times and took notes, said the shooting started as soon as the video began and that she lost count of the number of gunshots. She said she counted as many as eight deputies in the video, some wearing tactical uniforms and some in plainclothes.
