The shooting of Andrew Brown, a black man, during the execution of a drug warrant in mid-April was “justified,” the top prosecutor for the county said on Tuesday.
At approximately 8:00 a.m. on April 21, law enforcement arrived at Brown’s Elizabeth City, North Carolina, home and blocked him inside his driveway as he sat in his vehicle, District Attorney Andrew Womble said during a press briefing. Deputies tried to open the 42-year-old’s car doors, but he backed up, throwing an officer over the hood of his car and nearly striking him with his front left tire.
Brown then ignored commands from law enforcement at the scene and drove directly at the deputy he nearly ran over prior, Womble added. A volley of gunfire commenced with the first shot passing through Brown’s windshield, striking him in the shoulder while subsequent rounds passed through the rear passenger-side door and window.
Brown then drove directly at an investigator in an unmarked van before five more shots went through his rear windshield and trunk. The 42-year-old crashed into a tree, and law enforcement subsequently administered medical aid. The entire incident lasted no more than 44 seconds.
FAMILY OF ANDREW BROWN TO SEE 18 MINUTES OF BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE AFTER DELAY
“Mr. Brown’s death, while tragic, was justified because Mr. Brown’s actions caused three deputies with the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others,” Womble said.
Womble presented the first publicly viewed body camera footage of the incident after the top government brass and media organizations demanded the release of the footage for weeks. Twenty seconds of the video was previously shown to Brown’s family in late April before they were permitted to watch 18 minutes of footage on May 11.
North Carolina law has held up the showing of the footage to the public as attorneys for Brown have capitalized on the state’s supposed unwillingness to share the events.
Brown’s apprehension was sought by law enforcement after undercover officers purchased cocaine from him in a staged drug buy on March 17, Womble said. On March 29, Brown purportedly sold heroin, which was laced with fentanyl, to investigators.
The district attorney also listed the 42-year-old’s storied criminal history, which included multiple resisting arrest charges, convictions for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with serious injury, in addition to instances where he “barricaded doorways” to prevent policemen from entering his home.
During an autopsy after the shooting, Brown was found to have had crystal meth in his mouth.
The officers involved had no previous “excessive force complaints.”
In the days after April 21, multiple attorneys claimed Brown’s death was an “execution.”
“This was an execution,” lawyer Chantel Cherry-Lassiter said during an April 27 press conference. “Andrew Brown was in his driveway. The sheriff truck blocked him in his driveway, so he could not exit his driveway. Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel. He was not reaching for anything. He was not touching anything. He wasn’t throwing anything around. He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel.”
The incident prompted the FBI to conduct a “federal civil rights investigation” on the same day as Cherry-Lassiter’s claims.
“The FBI Charlotte Field Office has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the police-involved shooting death of Andrew Brown, Jr,” the FBI told the Washington Examiner via email at the time. “Agents will work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were violated. As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further.”
In Tuesday’s press conference, Womble took the time to rail against “falsehoods” in the aftermath of Brown’s death.
“Describing the legal analysis and the basis for the decision in this case, I find myself unfortunately in the position of correcting misinformation that has been shared both on social media and in the news media,” he said. “People made claims on camera that were knowing falsehoods and that were directly refuted by the body cam video,” adding that information wasn’t immediately released to protect the “integrity” of the investigation.
Following the conference, Brown’s legal team insisted Womble’s decision on the matter was an “attempt to whitewash” Brown’s “unjustified killing.”
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“Andrew Brown Jr., his grieving family, and this community deserve answers. And they received anything but from D.A. Womble’s attempt to whitewash this unjustified killing. To say this shooting was justified, despite the known facts, is both an insult and a slap in the face to Andrew’s family, the Elizabeth City community, and to rational people everywhere,” they said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Not only was the car moving away from officers, but four of them did not fire their weapons – clearly they did not feel that their lives were endangered. And the bottom line is that Andrew was killed by a shot to the back of the head. Interestingly, none of these issues were appropriately addressed in today’s press conference.”
