Tensions are escalating in North Carolina as the family of Andrew Brown Jr., who was fatally shot by police last week, waits to see the full police body camera footage.
Brown, a 42-year-old black man, was shot by police serving a warrant in Elizabeth City last Wednesday. Details about the shooting and what led up to it are not immediately clear as authorities have released little information.
Lawyers for Brown’s family held a conference on Monday demanding the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office release footage from the shooting. Ben Crump, a nationally recognized trial lawyer who presided as the plaintiff attorney in the trial for Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis police custody last summer, was in attendance.
“What is on the video that is so damning?” Crump asked.
NORTH CAROLINA MAN FATALLY SHOT BY SHERIFF’S DEPUTY
Sheriff Tommy Wooten said deputies shot and killed Brown while serving drug-related search and arrest warrants. The warrants say investigators used information from an informant, including recordings of drug buys, according to court documents released Monday.
A crowd gathered outside the sheriff’s office where the conference was held as attorneys for Brown’s family and other crowd members chanted “we can’t breathe” in anticipation of the body camera footage.
“Show the tape,” Brown family attorney Harry Daniels said. “If you ain’t got nothing to hide, show the tape.”
The family’s private body camera viewing will be subject to some “redactions” in order to protect officers’ identities and the sanctity of the current investigations into the shootings, according to authorities.
Pasquotank County Attorney, R. Michael Cox released a Monday statement affirming that North Carolina law permits editing to some police body camera footage to “protect an active internal investigation.”
“As soon as these redactions are complete, we will allow the family to view this footage. We hope this occurs today, but the actual time will be driven by the completion of the redactions,” Cox wrote.
He added that efforts are underway to attain a court order to allow the body camera footage to be released to the public.
Prior to the conference, Mayor Bettie Parker declared a state of emergency while authorities work to finish edits to the footage. The order will allow the area “to take whatever steps necessary to” preserve both “life and property.”
“City officials realize there may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage,” Park said.
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Brown’s death is one of several high-profile incidents that have drawn attention and protests in the last few months. Violent riots and looting episodes plagued Minneapolis following the death of Daunte Wright, a black man who was killed after former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter mistook her gun for a Taser and shot him.
Potter has since been arrested and charged with manslaughter.
