Sheriff deputies in North Carolina, who were trying to conduct a search warrant, shot and killed a black man as he was fleeing in his vehicle. Here’s what we know:
YAHOO NEWS – A North Carolina deputy shot and killed a Black man while serving a search warrant Wednesday, authorities said, spurring an outcry from community members who demanded law enforcement accountability and the immediate release of body camera footage.
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.
The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputy was placed on leave pending a review by the State Bureau of Investigation, Sheriff Tommy Wooten II said at a news conference. Court records show Brown was 42 years old and had a history of drug charges and a misdemeanor drug possession conviction.
That’s pretty much all we know at this point and it’s not very much. We don’t know if the man was armed, if he fought or shot at police, or anything of the important details yet. And the sheriff, as of right now, has said they are working to release the bodycam footage. As if releasing the bodycam footage would even matter after what we saw yesterday when the footage from Columbus was released.
But of course, without even knowing all the facts, there’s already outrage in the community:
Dozens of people gathered at the scene of the shooting in Elizabeth City, a municipality of about 18,000 people 170 miles (274 km) northeast of Raleigh, where they expressed their anger and rallied around Brown’s family members. A large crowd later stood outside City Hall while the City Council held an emergency meeting, some holding signs proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop killing unarmed Black Men.” As the evening wore on, a group gathered in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office and a crowd that grew to more than 200 blocked traffic on a main thoroughfare of the city, forcing cars to turn around.
And this from the NY Times:
On Wednesday evening, the City Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the shooting. “We all just want answers and nobody is giving us anything,” City Councilman Darius Horton said in a phone interview.
At the meeting, several Black members of the City Council expressed pain and anguish about the shooting and said residents were hurting.
As a Black man, “I feel like we are targeted,” said Councilman Gabriel Adkins, who was wearing a “Black Lives Matter” shirt.
“I’m afraid as a Black man walking around in this city, driving my car down the road, trying to make sure that I’m driving the speed limit, trying to make sure that I wear my seatbelt, trying to make sure that I do everything right, because I don’t want an officer to get behind me,” Mr. Adkins said.
This city council member beclowns himself, acting like it’s a death sentence if one gets pulled over by the cops. He is just stoking more fear of the police with his irresponsible rhetoric.
At some point soon the bodycam footage will come out and we’ll likely all get to see that this was another justified police shooting. But even if it isn’t, it won’t matter because this racist movement, which only cares when a black man gets shot by cops, is going to outrage nonetheless. Because they don’t care about the facts. They just care about creating civil unrest and potentially a revolution.
Here’s the short presser from the sheriff on this: