‘HE WAS EXECUTED’
NC dad of 7’s family fumes after viewing cop bodycam video
The family of a North Carolina man fatally shot by cops last week viewed bodycam footage of the incident for the first time on Monday and called the killing “an execution” — as their lawyers ripped prosecutors for disrespecting the dead man’s kin and their legal team.
The attorneys said authorities in Pasquotank County only showed relatives a brief 20-second clip from one bodycam in Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed outside his Elizabeth City home while deputies executed a search warrant for his arrest on felony drug charges, according to authorities.
A search warrant made public Monday said a confidential source claimed to have purchased cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Brown numerous times over the course of a year.
“My dad was executed just for trying to save his own life,” Khalil Ferebee, one of Brown’s seven children, said after seeing the clip.
“He was executed,” Ferebee said. “It ain’t right. It ain’t right at all.”
Among those who saw the footage was family attorney Chantel CherryLassiter, who described the fatal encounter in detail for reporters.
“Let’s be clear, this was an execution,” Cherry-Lassiter said.
“Andrew Brown was in his driveway,” she added. “The sheriff’s truck blocked him in his driveway so he could not exit his driveway. He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel. They run up to his vehicle shooting.
“He finally decides to try to get away and he backs out,” she said. “He was trying to evade being shot. So he backs out — not forward, but backs out away from the officers who are still shooting at him . . .
“He drives off, the car runs into a tree, and they’re still running behind him,” Cherry-Lassiter said, adding that at least some of the officers were carrying assault weapons. “His car’s riddled with bullets.”
Prosecutors said they would release redacted footage of the fatal shooting after the family viewing, but had yet to do so as of late Monday.
Brown family lawyers also claimed they were disrespected by authorities.
“I want to highlight the disrespect to this family, I want to highlight the broken system of justice we have in this country,” lawyer Bakari Sellers said outside the county’s public safety building.
“I just want to say I’ve never been talked to like I was talked to in there,” Sellers said. “I went to the back and I know that we’re live on the news around the world, so I will say that Mr. Cox told me, a grown black man, that he ‘was not f--king going to be bullied.’ ”
The expected release of the bodycam footage comes amid rising tension in Elizabeth City in anticipation of unrest, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency Monday.
Elizabeth City Mayor Bettie Parker said her emergency order, which went into effect at 8 a.m. Monday, comes as officials expect a “period of unrest” when the full bodycam video is ultimately made public.
Parker said peaceful protests are welcome, but insisted, “Our citizens and businesses must be protected from violence or damage.”
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten had said that the bodycam footage would be released following a preliminary investigation, which remains ongoing.
Brown’s death was ruled a homicide by the county coroner, according to an autopsy report. He was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of his head, CNN reported.