Pasquotank deputy changed gun, emptied bullets after Brown shooting, lawsuit says

A Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputy altered his gun after Andrew Brown Jr.’s fatal shooting in April, then later emptied all the bullets from the magazine without telling investigators, new documents in a lawsuit from Brown’s family allege.

After the raid on Brown’s house in Elizabeth City, Investigator Daniel Meads was “stressing out” about how many shots he had fired at the fleeing vehicle, an addendum in the lawsuit says.

During a search of Brown’s house, another detective shined a flashlight on Meads’ gun while he removed the magazine and counted the bullets. On the way to the sheriff’s office later, according to the lawsuit, Meads emptied his gun altogether.

“Defendant Meads’ admission came only after it was depicted on another officer’s body camera footage that he had removed his magazine inside Brown’s house,” said an addendum filed in a lawsuit against deputies. “Notably, Defendant Meads failed to mention in first interview with the SBI that he manipulated his magazine while inside Brown’s house in order to see how many shots he fired prior to surrendering his weapon as evidence.”

In July, attorneys for Brown filed a $30 million lawsuit filed on behalf of the slain man’s estate, arguing that two North Carolina sheriffs and seven deputies unlawfully used deadly force. The addendum names Meads, deputy Robert Morgan, Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn and Sheriff Tommy Wooten.

On the morning of April 21, members of a special operations tactical team arrived at Brown’s house while he sat in his car in the driveway. Video from the attempted arrest showed Brown speeding away across his yard as officers fired his fleeing vehicle. One bullet struck Brown in the back of his head, killing him as officers tried to revive him on the sidewalk. Another bullet pierced a neighbor’s house and hit a clock on the wall.

Deputies were trying to serve arrest warrants on two Dare County drug charges and search warrants on suspected drug charges in Pasquotank County, said Pasquotank District Attorney Andrew Womble, who has described Brown as a known drug dealer.

Womble declined to charge any officers in the raid, who called the shooting justified.

The lawsuit’s addendum notes that officers on the raid received in a briefing in advance, during which Meads and another sheriff’s deputy said there were no indications Brown would be armed.

Also, the addendum noted, two ranking officers on the scene at Brown’s house did not fire at him because they did not think he was armed and, as one of them told investigators, did not pose any danger.

“All individual defendants acted with a depraved indifference to human life and conscious disregard for the safety of the general public, constituted an intentional unwelcome and unprivileged touching of Brown, and was undertaken in bad faith and with actual malice,” the lawsuit said.

This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 10:27 AM.