Photo: Gerry Broome (AP) A Black man in North Carolina was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy who was delivering a warrant. In other w...
A Black man in North Carolina was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy who was delivering a warrant. In other words, it’s a Thursday in America.
According to ABC News, a man identified as Andrew Brown Jr., was fatally shot by a deputy from the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday morning. The deputy was there to serve Brown a search warrant for his home in Elizabeth City, N.C. According to court records, Brown was only 46 years old. Police officials haven’t said what led to the shooting, and while the yet-to-be-identified officer was wearing a body camera, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said he won’t be releasing the footage at this time.
“We are currently working that right now as hard as we can,” Wooten told reporters. “We will be transparent with this situation, absolutely.” According to the Associated Press, Brown’s neighbor, Demetria Williams, was an eyewitness to what transpired.
Authorities wouldn’t provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him multiple times. The car skidded out of Brown’s yard and eventually hit a tree, said Demetria Williams, who lives on the same street.
Williams said after hearing one gunshot, she ran outside, where she saw other shots being fired at the car.
“When they opened the door he was already dead,” Williams told The Associated Press. “He was slumped over.” She said officers tried to perform chest compressions on him.
A car authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and a broken rear windshield.
So apparently getting into his car was enough justification to use deadly force. If white men can shoot up multiple Asian spas, a church, a school, a movie theater and be brought in alive, then a Black girl with a knife and a man being served a warrant in his home should receive the same treatment.
That’s literally all we’re asking for; to be treated the same as mass shooters. That’s it. All we want is for cops to extend the grace and care they seem to only reserve for white men who had “a very bad day” and decided to commit mass murder.
An investigation into the shooting will be conducted by officials with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, with their findings then being sent to District Attorney Andrew Womble. Womble told reporters that his office would be looking for “accurate answers and not fast answers.” The officer responsible for the shooting has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation.
Protesters gathered at both the site of the shooting as well as outside of the Elizabeth City City Hall, where the City Council was having an emergency meeting. The protesters held signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop killing unarmed Black Men.”
AP spoke to Brown’s aunt, Martha McCullen, outside of Brown’s home. She described Brown as “a good man” who was in the process of trying to regain custody of his kids, and said that she’d raised Brown after his parents died.
“The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” McCullen told AP. “Now his kids won’t never see him again.”
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