Judge limits footage that family can see of deputy shooting in North Carolina
In this file photo, attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr., Wayne Kendall, left, and Ben Crump 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]
The family of a Black man who was fatally shot in his car by sheriff’s deputies in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, will only be shown a fraction of body camera footage recorded at the scene and could wait days longer to view it, under a judge’s written ruling.
Attorneys for Andrew Brown Jr.’s family had expected to see the video as soon as this week after Judge Jeffery Foster ruled from the bench on April 27 that the family would be shown the videos "within 10 days." The judge also said he would specify in a written order which portions they could view.
But it took the Superior Court judge until Thursday to issue the written ruling, which now says the 10-day time period starts from then.
The ruling limits the family to viewing less than 20 minutes of the nearly two hours of video that was recorded before and after Brown was killed.
"The portions of the videos withheld are found to not contain images of the deceased, and thus are not appropriate for disclosure at this time," Foster wrote.
Brown’s shooting on April 21 has drawn national attention to the small, majority Black city in the state’s rural northeastern corner. And many city residents — as well as nationally prominent civil rights leaders and attorneys — are demanding full release of the footage over concerns that the shooting was unjustified and that Brown was "executed."
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A prosecutor has said that Brown’s car ran into the deputies before they opened fire.
Foster’s order contained a brief description of the footage. The judge wrote that Brown "attempted to flee the scene and escape apprehension" and that "at least one and as many as three officers fired their weapons into the vehicle operated by Brown."
During the April 27 hearing on the matter, Foster said he would not publicly release the footage because it could jeopardize the ongoing investigation into Brown’s death or threaten the safety of people seen in the footage.
Foster said the video must remain out of public view for at least 30 days, but he would consider releasing it after that point if investigations are complete.
Family members have so far only been allowed to view a 20-second clip from a single body camera. Family attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter told reporters last week that shots were heard from the instant the clip started with Brown’s car in his driveway and his hands on the steering wheel.
She said he did not try to back away until after deputies ran up to his car and began shooting, and he did not pose a threat to deputies. "He finally decides to try to get away and he backs out, not toward officers at all," Cherry-Lassiter said.
Brown was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy commissioned by his family.
District Attorney Andrew Womble, who viewed the body camera videos, told Judge Foster at the hearing that Brown’s car made "contact" with law enforcement twice before shots could be heard on the video.
"As it backs up, it does make contact with law enforcement officers," he said, adding that the car stops again. "The next movement of the car is forward. It is in the direction of law enforcement and makes contact with law enforcement. It is then and only then that you hear shots."
Womble said that officers shouted commands and tried to open a car door before any shots were fired.
None of the deputies were injured, according to previous statements by the Pasquotank County sheriff, Tommy Wooten II.