Family of Andrew Brown Jr. to view bodycam video
The family of the Black man shot and killed during a warrant executed by North Carolina sheriff’s deputies last week will see body camera footage for the first time Monday.
An independent autopsy contracted by the attorneys representing the family of North Carolina man Andrew Brown Jr. revealed that he was shot five times – four times in the right arm, and a fifth in the back of his skull.
Ben Crump, the high profile civil rights attorney who secured the $27 million settlement in Minneapolis for the family of George Floyd, said at a press conference on Tuesday outside the Pasquotank County Public safety building in Elizabeth City, North Carolina that Brown suffered a "kill shot to back of the head."
Attorney Wayne Kendall further explained that the independent autopsy showed four non-fatal bullet wounds to Brown's right arm and a fatal shot to the back of the head.
A copy of the independent autopsy -- obtained by Fox News -- said the procedure was conducted Sunday by Dr. Brent Hall, a family commissioned forensic pathologist.
The report states that the fatal gunshot entered the back of the head and sequentially perforated and penetrated the skull and brain. The trajectory was listed as bottom to top, left to right and back to front. There was no exit wound, the report said.
"Yesterday I said he was executed. This autopsy report shows me that was correct," Brown's adult son Khalil Ferebee said at the press conference Tuesday. "It's obvious he was trying to get away. It's obvious. And they're going to shoot him in the back of the head?"
Ferebee was part of the Brown family group that was shown 20 seconds of footage of the shooting from a police body camera on Monday.
Anatomical sketches presented at the press conference and later shared with Fox News illustrated where the gunshots entered Brown's body.
A gunshot to the right upper arm subsequential perforated and penetrated the arm and right shoulder and did not exit. A second gunshot wound to the right arm perforated skin and subcutaneous tissue and penetrated muscle and did not exit. The other two gunshots to the right arm were categorized as graze wounds, the autopsy report said.
Pathologist Hall could not determine the distance from which the gunshots were fired, the report said.
Attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr., Wayne Kendall, left, and Ben Crump, center, hold a news conference Tuesday, April 27, 2021 outside the Pasquotank County Public safety building in Elizabeth City, N.C., to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP) (AP)
The details about Brown's wounds emerged amid increasing calls for the public release of body camera footage of last week's shooting. A court hearing on access to the body camera footage was scheduled for Wednesday.
A judge will consider petitions to release the footage, including filings by a media coalition and by Pasquotank County Attorney R. Michael Cox on behalf of the sheriff.
A North Carolina law that took effect in 2016 allows law enforcement agencies to show body camera video privately to a victim's family -- which is how the aforementioned 20 seconds were shown to Brown's family. However, for a wider public release, it generally requires a court to approve the petition.
Local authorities have released few details about the circumstances of Brown's death besides Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II confirming that Brown was fatally shot on April 21 as deputies were serving drug-related arrest and search warrants at his home in Elizabeth City, a municipality of about 18,600 residents about 165 miles east of Raleigh.
ANDREW BROWN JR. SEARCH WARRANT: DRUG DEALS CAPTURED ON CAMERA WEEKS BEFORE FATAL POLICE SHOOTING
It's not clear how soon a judge could rule, or how quickly the video would be released if approved. In similar cases, it has sometimes taken weeks for the full legal process to play out.
The slow movement has prompted an outcry from protesters, the family's lawyers and racial justice advocates, who noted that law enforcement agencies in other states have moved faster. In Columbus, Ohio, the day before Brown was shot, body camera footage was released within hours of an officer fatally shooting a 16-year-old Black girl who was swinging a knife at another girl.
Members of the New Black Panther Party from Washington, D.C. and Raleigh, N.C. chapters rally as attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. hold a press conference to announce results of the autopsy they commissioned outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety building Tuesday, April 27, 2021, in Elizabeth City, N.C. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP) (AP)
North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation, which initially was tasked with probing the shooting, did not return Fox News' voicemails left Tuesday. The state’s official autopsy has not yet been released.
The FBI Charlotte Field Office also announced Tuesday that it opened a federal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting.
A group of people dressed in Black Panthers garb and waving the red, green and black Pan-African flag showed up with megaphones at Crump's press conference before he and other attorneys began to speak. People heard off-camera later loudly interrupted the news event.
Elizabeth City declared a state of emergency Monday and all schools in the area were to remain remote this week.
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At a previous press conference Monday, attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, who said she took three pages of notes as she watched the 20 seconds of body camera footage, said the video depicted "an execution," as Brown had his hands on the steering wheel and was not threatening deputies as he was fired upon. Cherry-Lassiter said Brown backed out of the driveway and drove away from deputies, who did not stop firing even when his vehicle crashed into a tree.
Crump has called for more footage to be shown from other body-cameras, dash cam and a post at the scene.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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