The family of Andrew Brown Jr. has called his death in North Carolina an “execution” Monday after being allowed to view only 20 seconds of body-camera video of his fatal encounter with Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies.
The video footage was heavily redacted.
“My dad got executed just by trying to save his own life,” said Khalil Ferebee, Brown’s son. “Those officers were in no harm of him at all.”
The video has not been released publicly and the department has offered up very little information surrounding the 42-year-old’s death. He was shot and killed by officers who attempted to carry out a warrant for his arrest.
CNN reports that first responders are heard saying a man had gunshot wounds to the back in dispatch audio from that day, but a copy of his death certificate says he died due to a gunshot wound of the head.
“We do not feel that we got transparency,” Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers representing the family, said at a news conference. “We only saw a snippet of the video. … And they determined what was pertinent. Why couldn’t the family see all of the video? They only showed one body-cam video, even though we know there were several.”
CNN obtained footage of the moments following Brown Jr.’s death taken by a neighbor, which shows a swarm of officers surrounding him.
Protesters are demanding the bodycam footage be released. Mayor Bettie Parker declared a state of emergency in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, ahead of the video’s release.
“There may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage,” she said.
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten has said that multiple deputies fired shots and seven deputies are on leave pending a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation.
