NC civil rights leaders call on US DOJ to expedite probe of Andrew Brown’s death
Civil rights leaders gathered in Elizabeth City Friday to call on the federal government to expedite their investigation of the April 21 killing of Andrew Brown Jr. by Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office deputies and to launch a broader probe into the law enforcement agency’s conduct.
“We are not satisfied in Pasquotank County,” said Keith Rivers, president of the Pasquotank County NAACP. “We are not satisfied with Sheriff (Tommy) Wooten’s lack of structural integrity, decision making, inability to enforce his own policies. We will not be satisfied until he resigns. We are not satisfied with District Attorney (Andrew) Womble and his inability to do his duties without prejudice and concern for the Brown family.”
Deputies killed Brown as they attempted to serve arrest and search warrants at his Perry Street home. Brown attempted to flee in his car, and deputies opened fire, hitting him several times in the arms and killing him with a shot to the back of the head. Womble, the district attorney for the region that includes Pasquotank County, announced this week that the deputies who fired at Brown would not face criminal charges in the incident.
Civil rights leaders called Friday for the U.S. Department of Justice to launch “pattern-or-practice” investigations into potential discrimination or civil rights violations by both the Pasquotank Sheriff’s Office and the Womble-led District Attorney’s Office in the First Judicial District, which spans seven counties in Northeastern North Carolina.
During a press conference, Womble characterized the shooting as tragic but justified, The News & Observer reported. Womble said the deputies believed they needed to use force to protect themselves and others from Brown.
In a statement emailed to the News & Observer on Friday, Wooten said he would cooperate with any federal investigation.
““The District Attorney and an independent use of force expert who has reviewed more than 2500 police uses of force already reviewed this tragic incident,” Wooten wrote. “Both of these law enforcement professionals determined the deputies acted legally. While we will cooperate with any investigation, the facts remain the same.”
At Friday’s press conference, Rev. William Barber responded to the officials’ portrayal of the incident.
“I don’t know normally cuss,” he said, “but what the hell kind of fools do you think we are?”
Barber called for protests over Brown’s death to spread across the state, and said he had spoken to activists from across the state to organize them.
Brown’s family members and legal team have insisted that he did not pose a threat to law enforcement at any point during the incident. The shot that killed Brown struck him in the back of the head.
The Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the NC NAACP, said he has been haunted by Womble’s portrayal of Brown’s death, as well as by Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten’s decision to keep the deputies on the force.
“For far too long, and on far too many occasions, we have stood by and watched the obstruction of justice unfold before our very eyes,” Spearman said, “while the justice that was sought for the dead gets buried in the graves of those that have been killed by law enforcement. ... How long will it take before those who are called to uphold justice finally uphold justice?”
One federal investigation underway, another requested
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a federal civil rights probe into Brown’s killing. Shelley Lynch, an FBI spokeswoman, previously told The News & Observer that agents will work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to determine whether deputies violated Brown’s rights.
Barber invoked the 2015 killing of Walter Scott. Michael Slager, a former North Charleston police officer, shot Scott in the back, killing Scott as he attempted to run away. After a state murder trial ended with a hung jury, Slager pleaded guilty to violating Scott’s civil rights and is serving a 20-year sentence.
“We are concerned. We are disturbed,” Barber said. “If this becomes the pattern of the law of the land and the law of North Carolina — that a warrant is a license to kill and that a district attorney (makes) the decision that, ‘We couldn’t let him go’ and allows murder — who is safe?”
Rivers, the head of the Pasquotank NAACP, told The News & Observer it is vital that the federal civil rights investigation conclude as soon as possible so that the city can begin to heal from the shock of Brown’s killing and begin charting a path forward.
“The longer that this investigation goes on, it seems the more questions that we have,” Rivers said. “So the pattern and practice will show whether this is an isolated incident or whether this is a continuous behavior or pattern of practice that the sheriff’s department along with the district attorney have been doing.”
A Justice Department “pattern-or-practice” investigation would include an investigation into patterns of misconduct or discriminatory policing by the sheriff’s office while also trying to determine why those practices are taking place. The investigations, which include input from community members and law enforcement, typically end with a public report.
In North Carolina, the Department of Justice opened a pattern-or-practice investigation into the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in June 2010, concluding that deputies participated in “unlawful discrimination” by stopping and searching Hispanic drivers without cause, violating the drivers’ Fourth Amendment rights.
A federal judge ultimately dismissed the government’s claims, but Sheriff Terry Johnson entered into a settlement. That agreement required the department to collect data about who deputies stop and search, and required deputies to receive anti-bias training, The News & Observer has reported.
A month of protest
Protests have taken place in Elizabeth City every night since deputies shot Brown one month ago, generally starting at the Pasquotank County Public Safety building. Protesters have chanted Brown’s name and called for the release of the entire, unedited body-camera footage of the incident.
A judge allowed Brown’s family to view about 20 minutes of footage and played a portion of that at his press conference, but none of the recordings have been made available to the public or the media.
The Elizabeth City protests have remained peaceful. Wednesday evening, however, law enforcement declared the protest an unlawful assembly after a man jumped on a police car, according to the Staunton News Leader. That led police to make multiple arrests, including of activists who were working to bail people out of custody and of journalists from the USA Today Network.
After Friday’s press conference ended, many of the people who have attended those protests lined up to sign a petition calling for the federal investigation. Cheryl Morrison, 72, waited in a nearby parking lot.
“I’m just tired of people thinking that they can tell us anything,” said Morrison, who has marched every night for the past month. “We’re seeing things with our own eyes, too, but they’re still going to try to tell us something different.”
News & Observer Washington bureau reporter Brian Murphy contributed to this story.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 1:59 PM.