The family of Andrew Brown Jr has spoken out and called for justice as they dubbed the father’s death an execution.
42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr was a father-of-ten from North Carolina who was allegedly shot in the back of his head by several Pasquotank County deputies while they were serving a search warrant.
Following the deadly shooting, the officials provided scant details about the incident and refused to release bodycam footage of the involved sheriff’s deputies.
Now, the family of the father called Brown’s death an execution after the police finally allowed them to review 20 seconds of the fatal shooting that took place last Wednesday.
According to the family’s attorneys, up to eight officers fired shots at the 42-year-old while he remained still in his car with his hands resting on the steering wheel.
The short clip that the family was allowed to see doesn’t show what had happened prior to the shooting. As the family insisted, the shots were already getting fired in the clip they saw even though Andrew allegedly complied with the officers’ orders.
“My dad got executed just trying to save his life. It is messed up how this happened. He got executed,” one of Andrew’s sons, Khalil, expressed.
Amid allegations that Brown was shot in the back of his head while trying to drive away as officers closed in on him while executing a drug-related search warrant, seven deputies have been placed on leave.
According to court documents, the search warrant was issued after Brown was recorded selling drugs to an informant.
Elaborating on the deadly shooting, attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter insisted that Brown wanted to escape after officers blocked his driveway and “rode up to his car while shooting.” She also claimed deputies were shouting obscenities at the man even though “at no time was he threatening officers.”
After he slammed into a tree, Brown’s car was “riddled with bullets” whereas the officers allegedly continued shooting at the 42-year-old even though he complied.
“They’re shooting and saying let me see your hands at the same time,” Cherry-Lassiter said.
Meanwhile, Attorney Benjamin Crump suggested the authorities “are trying to hide something” after showing just 20 seconds of bodycam footage to the grieving family. Moreover, the family was only allowed to see footage from one officer who was allegedly farthest from the scene of the shooting.
“It’s clear to us there is something bad on that bodycam video. Transparency is essential,” Crump said.
On Monday, the attorney also accused the law officials of blurring the faces of deputies in the clip they showed the family in order to “redact the face of the officers that killed Andrew Brown.”
“Now, you all may have noticed that they released a warrant saying all kinds of things about Andrew Brown, but they want to redact the face of the … officers that killed Andrew Brown,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II reassured Brown’s family and the upset public that he will ask the court to release footage from the deadly shooting.
The case remains under investigation.
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