A judge in North Carolina has just ruled to delay the release of police bodycam footage to the public which showed the death of Andrew Brown after he tried to escape officers in Elizabeth City, NC.
BREAKING: A Pasquotank County judge denies request to release body camera video of #AndrewBrown death to the public right now.
Judge says video will not be released until investigation is complete between 30-45 days. Then he’ll reconsider a public release. @13NewsNow pic.twitter.com/UxzDGA44XR
— Evan Watson (@EvanWatsonNews) April 28, 2021
On Monday the family of Andrew Brown and hack lawyer Ben Crump got to see twenty seconds of and subsequently claimed that it was an ‘execution’.
Just as a reminder of what happened…
Last week we told you about a police shooting in North Carolina that left a black man dead as he was reportedly trying to escape. Police had had arrived to conduct a search warrant.
According to Fox News, “the search warrant for Brown’s home in Elizabeth City states that a drug task force had been watching him for more than a year and had confidential information from an informant about buying crack, meth and heroin.”
There were few other details about what actually happened from officials, but a neighbor claimed that police shot the man as he was driving away in his vehicle.
Today in court we learned from the District Attorney that there are certainly more pertinent details in the shooting that have not been reported yet, namely that Brown tried to run over officers as he was trying to escape:
Womble on body cam video: The car of #AndrewBrown was stationary when deputies approached and grabbed door, Brown backed up and “made contact” with law enforcement, then drove forward and “makes contact” with deputies, and *then* shots are fired. @13NewsNow
— Evan Watson (@EvanWatsonNews) April 28, 2021
They neighbor who claimed he saw the shooting didn’t see this part? Either he told the media about it and they refused to report it or he didn’t disclose it. It’s possible that he didn’t see the whole thing, but this wouldn’t be the first time that a witness lied about what they saw in order to inflame tensions. Remember ‘hands up don’t shoot’ in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson?
The police officers are said to be distraught over the shooting, but believe it was justified:
An attorney for “unnamed defendants” (presumably deputies) says “officers are distraught” and “we believe the shooting was justified.”
He opposes public release of video, saying there isn’t a “compelling public interest” (that community wants, but doesn’t *need* it) @13NewsNow
— Evan Watson (@EvanWatsonNews) April 28, 2021
If indeed Brown tried to run over the officers, then it was absolutely justified and wasn’t an ‘execution’ as hack lawyer Ben Crump said the other day.
I would note that the family will get to see the video in about ten days, with the faces and any identifying labels of the officers blurred out to protect them as the investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation continues.