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Who was Andrew Brown? Here’s what we know about Black man fatally shot by NC deputy

Tensions were high in a small North Carolina city on Wednesday after a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a Black man.

Deputies were executing a search warrant Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City when Andrew Brown Jr. was shot, the Pasquotank County sheriff said.

The sheriff, Tommy Wooten, offered few other details about what happened and said the State Bureau of Investigation is taking the lead.

Protesters gathered in the town Wednesday evening as the city council hosted an emotional emergency meeting.

Here’s what we know so far about Brown.

Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed when deputies were executing a search warrant Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City.
Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed when deputies were executing a search warrant Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City.

A friend and father

Brown was 42 years old and a father of 10, according to relatives and online records. He had seven biological children and others that he cared for, Harry Daniels, an attorney for Brown’s family, said in a news conference that WVEC streamed on its Facebook page.

Brown’s son, Khalil Ferebee, said his father didn’t own guns, according to the The Virginian-Pilot.

“He wasn’t a violent person,” Daniel Bowser, who said he and Brown were friends for nearly 30 years, told The News & Observer. “He didn’t mess with guns, he didn’t tote no guns.

“I don’t care what they put out there, he didn’t deserve to die.”

A grandson and nephew

Brown’s grandmother, 92-year-old Lydia Brown, told the Associated Press she learned of his death on the news.

“He was a good grandson,” she said, according to The News & Observer. “Everybody loved him. He had this smile because he had deep dimples. I cared so much for him because his father is deceased and he looks so much like his father. Like looking at my own son.”

Clarissa Brown Gibson, his aunt, said she didn’t understand how her nephew’s encounter with deputies cost him his life, the AP reported.

“We want to know if he was served with a warrant, why the shooting over a warrant?”

Another aunt, Martha McCullen, said she raised Brown after the death of his parents.

“The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” McCullen told the AP. “Andrew Brown was a good person. He was about to get his kids back. He was a good father. Now his kids won’t never see him again.”

‘Beautiful smile, infectious laugh’

Jadine Hampton told the website Heavy that Andrew Brown was her cousin. She said she last saw him in October, during a birthday celebration for a family member.

“We exchanged numbers with hopes of him visiting me in Atlanta once the pandemic lifted,” she said. “He had a beautiful smile, infectious laugh. A great storyteller like a comedian. A wonderful father, who pushed his kids to be honor roll students even though he never finished school.”

Demetria Williams, a neighbor and friend, said Brown had been trying to get some of his children back in his custody.

“He was a real, for real, nice guy,” she said, according to The News & Observer. “I’m not just saying that.”

#AndrewBrown

Hours after the shooting, the hashtag #AndrewBrown was being used on Twitter.

Many people noted that Brown’s death came one day after a former Minneapolis police officer was convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man — and also one day after police in Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a 16-year-old Black girl.