ELIZABETH CITY, N.C., (Reuters) – A North Carolina judge yesterday rejected requests to release videos showing law enforcement’s fatal shooting of Andrew Brown, Jr., during an attempted arrest, siding with arguments their immediate disclosure could jeopardize active investigations.
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten and roughly 20 media organizations had filed petitions to release body camera video from sheriff’s deputies involved in the shooting death of Brown on April 21, arguing disclosure was in the public interest.
The shooting of Brown, a 42-year-old Black man, has led to a week of boisterous but peaceful demonstrations in Elizabeth City, a riverfront community near the Virginia border whose population of roughly 18,000 is half African-American.
In a presentation of private autopsy findings to reporters on Tuesday, Brown family lawyers said he was initially struck in his right arm with four shots fired by deputies through his front windshield before he threw the vehicle into reverse, spun around and tried to drive away as a fifth and fatal gunshot struck him in the back of the head.
Wooten has said deputies were attempting to serve search and arrest warrants to Brown related to felony drug charges and that Brown had a history of resisting arrest.
The shooting has revived a push by civil liberties advocates and Democratic lawmakers in North Carolina for legislation requiring release of police bodycam and dashboard-cam video within 48 hours if someone requests it, unless investigators obtain a court order to restrict access.
