A New York Times review of bodycam footage showing the fatal police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. in April raises questions about whether officers were in imminent danger when they used lethal force as he drove away to avoid arrest.
The officers have not been charged in the shooting. R. Andrew Womble, the district attorney for North Carolina’s First Judicial District, determined that they were justified in their actions because Mr. Brown was using his car as a “deadly weapon.” He said police body-camera videos “clearly illustrate the officers who used deadly force on Andrew Brown Jr. did so reasonably” and only when their lives were in danger.
Mr. Brown’s family members and their lawyers have described the shooting as an “execution.”
A review of slowed-down bodycam footage by The Times shows that 13 of the 14 gunshots — including the fatal one — were fired as Mr. Brown was driving away from officers, not at them. The footage was presented by the district attorney at a press conference and is from four officers’ cameras.
Sheriff Tommy Wooten II of Pasquotank County said that “while the deputies did not break the law, we all wish things could have gone differently. Much differently.”
Here’s what the videos of the 20-second interaction show.
The police officers arrive in a Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office pickup truck at Mr. Brown’s house at 8:23 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, to execute search and arrest warrants. According to the prosecutor, the police team had been briefed that morning that Mr. Brown, 42, had previous convictions and a history of resisting arrest.
Mr. Brown is sitting in his vehicle outside his house after returning from a drive that morning, the prosecutor added. The officers approach him with their weapons drawn, shouting orders at him
Mr. Brown does not comply with officers’ orders. The situation escalates.
As two officers reach the driver’s-side door, Mr. Brown backs up the vehicle, and grazes but does not injure an officer.
Mr. Brown ignores officers’ repeated commands to stop the car, and lurches the vehicle forward while steering it sharply to the left, putting officers at risk.
The car initially moves toward the same officer who had been grazed moments earlier. This officer does not move away from the vehicle, but takes a step into Mr. Brown’s path. It’s unclear if the officer is trying to obstruct Mr. Brown’s escape, or trying to evade the car.
The officer briefly places his left hand on the hood of the car, and this is when another officer fires a shot that Mr. Womble said “entered the front windshield” of the car and was not fatal. That contradicts a preliminary internal investigation report, which found that no bullet went through the windshield.
The video shows that there is a brief pause in shooting while Mr. Brown steers his car between two officers. At this point, as Mr. Brown accelerates and drives away, three officers fire 13 more shots into the side and rear of Mr. Brown’s car. One of the shots is fatal, hitting Mr. Brown in the back of his head. His car crashes into a tree 50 yards from his home.
In justifying the police's use of lethal force, Mr. Womble said Mr. Brown “drove recklessly and endangered the officers." He also argued that “they could not simply let him go.”
But the legalities around this can get complicated. “The Supreme Court has never authorized the use of deadly force simply because someone is resisting arrest or fleeing,” Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and former federal prosecutor, said in an interview about the footage. He also said that “sometimes the best policing is to let the suspect go.”
The officers’ actions may have violated their department’s guidelines. The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office’s use-of-force policy states that shooting at a moving vehicle is “rarely effective,” and that officers should fire at a moving vehicle only “when the deputy reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle.”
Seth Stoughton, a law professor and policing expert at the University of South Carolina, questioned the officers’ actions at the time Mr. Brown was speeding away. “Deadly force is only justified while there is an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm,” he said. “Once the vehicle has driven past the officers and they are now to the side of it, or behind it, as it's going away from them, there is no more imminent threat.”
Beyond the shooting of Mr. Brown, the videos show that officers may have placed some of their colleagues and others at risk. In their line of fire was a neighbor’s house and an unmarked white police minivan.
Mr. Womble said that while the white minivan was in the path of the bullets, there was no danger to the officers inside.
Michael Anthony Gordon Sr., whose house was in the line of fire, told The Times that a bullet from the shooting entered his kitchen, and that no one was home at the time. Mr. Womble stated that one shot fired by the police was believed to have ricocheted, and hit the house.
The district attorney’s decision not to press charges closes a state-level criminal case, though a federal civil rights case is ongoing (Koettl and Kim 1-4).
[The following are excerpts from the April 26 airing of the MSNBC program “The ReidOut” hosted by Joy Reid]
Reid:… in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, yet another black life came to a premature end after a police interaction. Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by multiple sheriff`s deputies who the sheriff`s department claims were carrying out search and arrest warrants. He now joins Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Ma`Khia Bryant, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, just to name a few other black Americans killed by police, and that`s just recently.
Also today, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice would investigate whether there was a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing in Louisville, Kentucky, which may have led to the death of Breonna Taylor. And we`ll have more on a little bit later.
For several nights now, hundreds have taken to the streets in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, demanding that the sheriff release the body cam video of Andrew Brown`s killing. Elizabeth City Mayor Betty Parker has joined those calls, and so has Governor Roy Cooper, writing in a tweet that Brown`s death is extremely concerning and body camera footage should be made public as quickly as possible.
Now, what we know about Andrew Brown Jr.`s death is murky because the sheriff`s department has not release very much information. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten has not made himself available to the public since a press event last Wednesday. The deputies who shot Brown were wearing active body cameras at the time of the shooting. Sheriff Wooten declined to identify the officers involved and declined to say how many shots they fired.
Media reports citing police scanner audio indicate that Brown seems to have been shot in the back while in his car. And today a family lawyer told reporters that Brown was shot in the back of the head. One eyewitness told the Raleigh News and Observer that she heard the first shot and ran outside and watched deputies continue firing. She said the deputies unloaded on him, meaning Andrew Brown Jr.
…
REID: And on Saturday, Sheriff Wooten posted a Facebook live video reading from prepared remarks, he said he would release the video if granted permission.
SHERIFF TOMMY WOOTEN II, PASQUOTANK COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: Only a judge can release the video. That`s why I`ve asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to confirm for me that the releasing of the video will not undermine their investigation. Once I get that confirmation, our county will file a motion in court, hopefully on Monday to have the footage released.
REID: The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is leading a probe into the shooting. Today, Andrew Brown Jr.`s family was allowed to view body camera footage, but only after deputies redacted it. And Brown`s family was ultimately allowed to see only a 20-second snippet of the video. It remains unclear when or if the full video will be released to them or the public. The video has not been viewed by NBC News.
Joining me now, Bishop William Barber, Co-Chair of The Poor People`s Campaign and a former president of the North Carolina NAACP, and Ben Crump, attorney for the Family of Andrew Brown Jr.
And, Ben, I saw that press conference today. There were a lot of angry folks there, a lot of angry local people. I want to play a couple of them. This is Andrew Brown Jr.`s son, Khalil Ferebee.
KHALIL FEREBEE, ANDREW BROWN`S SON: It`s like we`re against all odds in the world. My dad got executed just by trying to save his own life.
REID: Multiple people calling that an execution. Were you able to see that video yourself, Ben, and would you characterize it as an execution?
BENJAMIN CRUMP, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, Joy, our co-Counsel, Chantel (ph), got to see the video (INAUDIBLE). And the reason was this county attorney, they are for whatever reason, and we don`t understand it, they continue to try not to be transparent. They said no lawyers who were not barred in North Carolina could come with the family to see the video.
So we had Attorney Lassiter go in and see the video, and she took copious notes of the 22nd video that said three main things to us, Joy, and it was number one, the fact that when they turned on the video, they were already shooting. And so we don`t know what transpired to them shooting the video. They were swearing at him, telling them to show the hands. He had both his hands on the steering wheel.
And you can see that clearly from the video, his son, as well as Attorney Lassiter said, and the fact that he never used a car to put them in any jeopardy or danger. He was evading them the whole time. They were shooting at him from the side and behind while he was getting away from them.
And the final point is it confirmed what we had already heard, that all the shots were from the back.
…
REID: … Do you feel like this is an attempted cover-up? I have never heard of a video being redacted before even the family could see it. Does that sound normal to you?
CRUMP: It doesn`t at all, especially when it`s the family. We`re not talking about what`s released to the public. Bishop Barber knows Eastern Carolina better than I will ever know. But the one thing that just was appalling to us was the fact that not only would you only show them 20 seconds, you redacted their faces, but you then release the warrant and all the criminal history of Andrew Brown to assassinate his character, but you will blot out the faces of those officers and not give their names. Well, we want to see their rap sheet since they are putting out the rap sheet of Andrew Brown.
And finally, Joy, my eight-year-old daughter could understand that, that if you`re only showing 20 seconds of a video, then you`re hiding something, because of Andrew Brown would have did something bad in there, we wouldn`t need a judge to silent. They would have that all over the news.
…
BISHOP WILLIAM BERBER, CO-CHAIR, THE POOR PEOPLE`S CAMPAIGN: This a city where there the state university is. It`s in Eastern North Carolina. There is a long history of police conduct in Eastern North Carolina. And people know it. They know the arrogance. This is where Jesse Helms and others had his stronghold.
…
… I talked to the attorney general of the state along with Dr. Spearmon. You should know this. The D.A. right now, Brother Crump knows this as well, could call the state attorney general, just like they did in Minnesota, and say take this case. Now, North Carolina, the local has to ask for it. The state can`t take it from him. But the local D.A. could right now say, this is too messy, we`ve messed it up. Give to it the state A.G. and they can handle this. All that could be done in 20 seconds.
...
REID: I just want you to clear up something first in the law. People keep talking about the fleeing felon rule. You said something today that I thought was very important to repeat. You said the most dangerous thing apparently to police is a black man running from them. Under the fleeing felon rule, police are not allowed to shoot somebody simply because they are fleeing, correct?
CRUMP: Absolutely. The United States Supreme Court has a rule that it is not against the law to flee from police. And it should not be the death penalty just because you`re black and you`re running away. We never hear about them Joy and Bishop Barber shooting white men in the back. But them shooting black men in the back in America is almost like a cliche. I mean, Jacob Blake Jr., in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Walter Scott in South Carolina, Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Christian Hall, Oakland, Pennsylvania, I mean, Anthony McClain in Pasadena, California, who literally ran out of his shoes and they shot him in the back.
...
BARBER: Then you have to have proper -- when you find that someone has murdered someone, shot them in the back and they`re a police, a warrant, a badge and a gun is too much powerful for someone trigger-happy, there needs to be prosecution without immunity, there needs to be imprisonment and there needs to be fellow investigation of pattern and practice. It`s been a long time overdue in Eastern North Carolina. This case needs to make it happen.
And you`re right. We need to get these things passed. We don`t need Sinema or Manchin blocking this. This is serious business. This is about people`s lives. And we can see clearly if you don`t have the kind of federal law to standardize this stuff, then you have one thing happening in one county, another thing happening in other county, depending on the sheriff, depending on the D.A. No. We need accountability, transparency and truth, and we need it right now.
REID: Absolutely. And I will add to that, just from my -- you know Bakari Sellers said something. He is very familiar with the media, to people in my profession, don`t fall for the banana in the tailpipe. Don`t run with Andrew Brown Jr.`s history, because police do this on -- Rudy Giuliani used to do this when he was Mayor of New York. Police would kill somebody, and their whole juvenile record comes out, everything about them, well, they`re not a choir boy. Don`t fall about that. This is not about this dead young black man`s history. This is about him getting killed. Don`t fall for that.
We don`t want to hear stories all about whatever he ever did wrong in his life. We need to know why he was shot and killed, whether he was shot in the back while he was driving away. That is the story that just my plea to those of us who are covering the story. Bishop William Barber, Ben Crump, thank you both very much. Really appreciate you both (Transcript 1-5).
When a jury last week found former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the second-degree murder of George Floyd, the rare conviction of an officer on the job brought relief and a glint of hope that a transformative moment for policing in America was within reach.
While no one expected a shift overnight, a string of shootings by law enforcement officers nationwide — particularly the killing of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man, in North Carolina — in the hours after the verdict was announced is viewed by some as a major setback. Civil rights leaders, activists and some law enforcement experts say the deadly violence points to a difficult realization that belies the outcome of Chauvin's trial: People will continue to die at the hands of law enforcement, and one ex-officer's conviction was never going to rewrite a system that many agree remains critically flawed.
"Sending Chauvin to prison doesn't make Floyd's family whole, it doesn't change an individual cop from pulling the trigger, and, most importantly, it doesn't change the system that's broken," said Dawn Blagrove, a lawyer who is executive director of Emancipate NC, an advocacy nonprofit that seeks to end mass incarceration in North Carolina. "It's going to take America growing a conscience about the deplorable systemically and institutionally racist system and challenging the status quo."
The events of the past week have crystallized broader conversations about effective and constitutional policing, particularly in communities of color, as well as about tracking and reducing agencies' use of excessive force and what alternatives to lethal and excessive force should look like.
…
"The law enforcement model is set up so that a measure of a good officer is the number of arrests and the number of lockups. Even for small traffic stops, they're looking for a gun and drugs — those are the big scores where officers get rewarded," said James Nolan, a professor and chair of sociology at West Virginia University, who is a former police officer in Wilmington, Delaware.
"So even the conviction of Chauvin isn't going to change anything, because the police mindset is still in place. It's what keeps them being hypervigilant and suspect of everyone," he said. "That's why cars look like weapons, cellphones look like weapons, and everything looks dangerous" (Ortiz 1-2).
[Paste the following on Google to watch a CNBC produced video of the police arriving on the scene of the shooting and commentary made by attorneys for the Brown family]
Video shows moments leading up to police shooting of ...
[Paste the following on Google to watch TMZ produced bodycam video of officers shooting at Brown’s car and chasing after it]
Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting Video Released, Cops Keep Job ...
Works cited:
Koettl, Christoph and Kim, Caroline. “Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting: Videos Cast Doubt on Police Use of Force.” The New York Times, May 22, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/22/us/andrew-brown-jr-shooting-body-cam-video.html
Ortiz, Erik. “Andrew Brown Jr.'s Shooting Exposes 'Enduring Flaws' in Policing, Experts Say.” NBC News, April 28, 2021. Net. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/andrew-brown-jr-s-shooting-exposes-enduring-flaws-policing-experts-n1265541
“Transcript: The ReidOut, 4/26/21.” MSNBC, April 26, 2021. Net. https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-reidout-4-26-21-n1265447
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