His family only saw 20 seconds of the bodycam tape. The attorneys representing Andrew Brown's family say he was executed. The toxicology report confirmed it was a gun shot wound to the back of the head that took him out. Did sheriff's murder Andrew Brown, Jr.? May questions remain. . .
The death of Andrew Brown. Jr. was a homicide an autopsy from the state of North Carolina confirmed on Thursday. The unarmed African American man who died when he attempted to get away after deputies showed up to his home with an arrest warrant on felony drug charges on April 21. The toxicology report indicated he died from a single "penetrating" gunshot wound to the head.
Brown, 42, was pursued by Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputies who shot him a total of 5 times. The shot to the head was listed as the cause of death in an independent autopsy. No deputies have not been charged in the shooting. A federal civil rights investigation was opened to further explore whether the situation was racially motivated or involved police misconduct.
District Attorney Andrew Womble previously determined the death was justified following an investigation. Womble's efforts have been shrouded in doubt and were the cause of protests since he refused to publicly reveal cell phone footage of the encounter. Following a court appearance, Brown's family was allowed to view bodycam footage. The family concluded that Mr. Brown did not pose a threat and was murdered unjustifiably.
The family's legal team, consisting of Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, Bakari Sellers, Harry Daniels, and Chantel Cherry-Lassiter released the following statement in response to the state's autopsy findings:
“The autopsy results prove what we’ve always known to be true: Pasquotank County deputies executed Andrew Brown Jr. with a kill shot to the back of the head. The false narrative that DA Womble has attempted to weave is completely discredited by this autopsy report. While we are not surprised by the findings, we are both astounded and disgusted that the authorities in this case didn’t even have the decency to share these results with the family – we were alerted of their release by the media. Every single opportunity DA Womble has had to do the right thing, he’s taken the route of cowardice and deceit. Shame on him. Despite law enforcement’s and the district attorney’s best efforts to hide the facts in this case, and paint Andrew as a villain, we are confident that the truth will be revealed and justice will prevail. We will continue to demand release of video footage from the day Andrew was killed, and we won’t stop fighting for transparency and accountability from law enforcement and the district attorney. From what we’ve seen thus far from both parties, we have a long way to go.”
The family and members of the community had already called the incident a homicide and demanded transparency from the DA and Sheriff's Department. Questions abound in the case.