A JUDGE is considering demands for the full body cam footage of the moment Andrew Brown Jr was “executed by cops” to be released.
A hearing is being held this morning in Elizabeth City as the family’s attorneys and protesters push for the whole video to be made public.
Pasquotank Sheriff Tommy Wooten has said he would have released the video days ago as soon as investigators allowed, reports WAVY News.
It comes after his family and legal team viewed 20 seconds worth of body cam footage showing the death of the 42-year-old.
After seeing the allegedly shortened version, Attorney Ben Crump said: “We do not feel that we got transparency, we only saw a snippet of the video where we know that the video started before and after what they showed the family.
“They determined what was perfect – why couldn’t the family see all of the video they only showed one body cam video even though we know there were several bodycam videos,” he fumed.
When asked how many shots were fired, one of the family’s legal team said “we lost count in 20 seconds how many shots.”
Meanwhile, the FBI is opening a civil rights investigation into Brown’s death.
Brown was fatally shot during a drug-related warrant executed by police on April 21. He was hit five times in all; four times in the arm, and once — the alleged fatal “kill shot” — in the head.
Brown was confronted by a Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempting to serve him a warrant at around 8.30am on Wednesday of last week.
The deputy fired a gun while Brown was allegedly driving away from his home.
But family attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter said the video showed Brown in his vehicle in his driveway and blocked in by law enforcement, making it so he couldn’t have driven away.
“He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel. They run up to his vehicle shooting. He still stood there, sat there in his vehicle, with his hands on the steering wheel while being shot at.”
Elizabeth City declared a state of emergency on Monday ahead of the possible release of the body cam footage of Brown’s death. Protests demanding transparency have erupted in the area.
Since the April 21 shooting, authorities have provided limited information about the situation in which Brown was killed, and the body cam footage has not been released to the public.
North Carolina law requires that in order to release critical evidence such as body camera footage, a court order must be issued.
Read our live blog below for the very latest on Andrew Brown Jr’s death…
