Andrew Brown Fatal Shooting: North Carolina Judge Refuses To Release Police Body Cam Footage
April 28 2021, Published 2:52 p.m. ET
A North Carolina judge involved in the investigation of the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. has denied the family's request to release to the public the police body camera footage of the incident.
On Wednesday, Judge Jeffery Foster announced his decision, arguing that releasing the video could potentially jeopardize the ongoing investigation and/or threaten the safety of the people – the officers – shown in the clip.
"The release at this time would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice," Foster said, ruling that the footage must remain out of public view for at least 30 days.
He did say that the videos from various body cameras and one dashboard camera had to be shown to Brown's family within 10 days but that some portions of the videos were allowed be blurred or redacted, including conversations among the cops. The family is also not allowed to make copies of the footage.
Up until now, they claim to have seen only 20 seconds of what they were told was a 30-second video from one of the police officer's body cameras. They say the faces of the cops in the clip they saw were blurred and that the video started with officers already shooting at Brown, who was inside his car.
However, a North Carolina prosecutor is now saying that Brown's car actually made contact with law enforcement officers twice before they opened fire.
District Attorney Andrew Womble told the judge that he reviewed the body camera video and disagreed with Brown's family's "patently false" assessment that his car was stationary when the shooting started.
"As it backs up, it does make contact with law enforcement officers," Womble alleged, adding that the car then stopped. "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."
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has stated that none of the deputies involved were injured.
Though Womble claims the cops on the scene shouted commands at Brown and tried to open his car door before any shots were fired, Brown's family maintains that that is not what they saw in the 20-second video they were shown.
Womble was in agreement with the judge's ruling on refusing to release the body camera footage to the public.
On Tuesday, Brown's family released the results of an independent autopsy, which indicated that he was shot four times in the right arm and once directly in the back of his head, which is the shot the family believes killed him. The state's autopsy has not yet been released.
The family's attorneys also released a copy of Andrew's death certificate, which lists his cause of death as a "penetrating gunshot wound of the head" and describes his death as a homicide.
Brown's relatives and attorneys are demanding to know why Pasquotank County Sheriff's deputies opted to use deadly force while serving Brown a warrant for his arrest on felony drug charges.
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The family claims multiple deputies started shooting at Brown, and when he tried to back out of the driveway to escape the onslaught, he ended up slamming into a tree.
On Monday, officials released the search warrant affidavit that had accused Brown of selling cocaine, crack, meth and heroin. His attorneys said Tuesday they wanted to know why that information was made public with no issue, while the family was still waiting to see the entirety of their loved one's last moments.
Following Brown's death, seven Pasquotank County sheriff's deputies were placed on administrative leave.
