Advertisement

North Carolina deputies in fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. won't face charges; protesters hit the streets

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — The sheriff's deputies who shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr., an unarmed Black man in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, were justified in their actions and will not be criminally charged, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The State Bureau of Investigation found Brown "drove recklessly and endangered the officers" and "used his vehicle as a deadly weapon" while attempting to resist arrest last month, Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble said at a news conference. He said the actions of the officers were consistent with their training.

"Mr. Brown's death, while tragic, was justified," Womble said. "His actions caused the three deputies to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others."

About 70 protesters in Elizabeth City marched in protest Tuesday night, shouting “No justice, No peace.”

The city has been protesting for almost a month since Brown was shot on April 21. Many in the street Tuesday night were familiar faces that have been involved in the protests since last month.

"Get out of your cars and get into the street!" A young boy, torso poking out from the sunroof of a car, shouted through a bullhorn.

At a gathering in an intersection, one speaker scoffed at the police's explanation of the shooting. "So you got to understand," he said, "exactly how dumb that they really think we are!"

Brown, 42, was shot April 21 after Pasquotank County deputies attempted to serve him with arrest warrants. The deputies shot Brown five times, including once in the back of his head, according to an independent autopsy commissioned by his family. Though the official autopsy report has not been finalized, Womble said it shows Brown suffered two gunshot wounds: one nonlethal wound to the shoulder or arm and another to the back the head.

The shooting led to widespread protests in the area as demonstrators demanded transparency and the release of body camera footage. A judge ruled last month that the footage would not be immediately released to the public, but the court ruling allowed the family to see less than 20 minutes of more than two hours of video.

On Tuesday, Womble declined to directly release copies of the video but played portions of it during the news conference.

Bodycams haven't lived up to promises of exposing police misconduct. One reason: The police decide what to release.

Attorneys for Brown's family disputed the DA's narrative of the shooting in a statement Tuesday, saying the vehicle was moving away from officers, and they demanded the release of the full video to "help shed some much needed daylight on this case and bring a small measure of justice to this family and this community."

The lawyers raised questions about the contention that Brown was driving toward the deputies when he was killed by a shot to the back.

"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 the statement. "We certainly got neither transparency nor justice today.''

Some experts agreed Brown's actions did not deserve to be met with deadly force.

Stephanie Hartung, a Northeastern University law professor with an expertise on state and federal criminal procedure, pointed out that Brown was not charged with a violent crime. She said the video unveiled Tuesday indicates Brown was not trying to use his car to injure the deputies but rather to flee them.

Asked what determines when shooting at a suspect in a car is justified, Hartung said, “It’s a function of the severity and the nature and the immediacy of the threat involved. Here, if you look at the underlying warrant and the nature of the crimes alleged, and if you look at the incident itself and the direction of travel relevant to the officers, that threat level doesn’t seem to be elevated in a meaningful way, certainly not to warrant deadly force.’’

Family lawyers called the shooting "unequivocally unjustified," saying Brown was not armed and did not drive toward deputies or pose a threat.

Womble said Tuesday that deputies "simply couldn't let him go" because delivering the warrant "was their job on that particular day."

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, called on federal officials to investigate, adding in a statement: “Public confidence would have been better served with a special prosecutor and by quickly making public the incident footage.”

Womble, a Republican who has said he intends to run for superior court judge in 2022, resisted calls for a special prosecutor.

At the news conference, he showed photos and clips from four body camera videos as officers surrounded Brown's car, the first time some of the footage had been made public. A video clip shows officers surrounding the vehicle as Brown tries to maneuver away. A deputy is shown near the front of the car before he pulls slightly away when Brown drives forward.

Womble said Brown reversed his car when deputies approached him at his home. One of the deputy's hands was on the hood of the car, and officers shouted for Brown to stop the car, but "Brown ignored officers' demands," he said. The deputy had to take "evasive action" to get out of the way of the front left tire.

When Brown accelerated forward, the first shot was fired and entered through the front window of the car, Womble said. He said as Brown's car continued forward, several shots were fired and one entered the passenger window, striking Brown in the shoulder. Several more entered through the rear passenger's door and window.

'I know a con game when I see it': Al Sharpton calls for release of Andrew Brown Jr. bodycam at funeral

Womble acknowledged Brown was trying to escape, not necessarily harm the deputies, and said it didn't matter how fast or slow he was driving.

"When you employ a car in a manner that puts officers' lives in danger, that is a threat," Womble said. "And I don't care what direction you're going – forward, backward, sideways – I don't care if you're stationary, and neither do our courts in our case law."

Womble emphasized the deputies did not shoot until after Brown's car moved, and the videos seem to confirm that, although he appears to try to avoid them.

Charles "Sid" Heal, a retired commander from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has written extensively about using nonlethal force. Heal said an officer is justified in using deadly force on the driver of a vehicle "when a suspect is using it to enhance his ability to kill or injure someone, or (in extremely rare instances) when his escape would endanger others."

The three deputies involved – Investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Robert Morgan and Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn – have been on leave since the shooting. The sheriff’s office said Morgan is Black and Meads and Lewellyn are white. In a video statement Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Tommy Wooten said they will keep their jobs but will be “disciplined and retrained.”

Four others who were at the scene were reinstated after the sheriff said they didn’t fire their weapons.

The deputies were serving two arrest warrants over "the sale of uncontrolled substances" to Brown, Womble said. He said officers were briefed in advance about Brown's alleged history of possessing and dealing drugs, as well as resisting arrest.

Womble said he had not spoken with Brown's family about the announcement Tuesday, saying discussions with the family's attorneys "did not go well."

"That's not the way I would normally want to do this," he said.

The shooting came one day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all charges in the murder of George Floyd, prompting protests demanding the release of body camera footage in Elizabeth City.

Contributing: Christal Hayes, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern

'Release the tapes': Protesters demand footage after sheriff identifies deputies involved in fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr.

More: Bodycam video will not be released for now in Andrew Brown Jr. fatal shooting; family allowed to see more footage, judge rules

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Andrew Brown Jr. shooting: 'Justified' deputies won't face charges