Police Shoot NC Black Man, a Day After Chauvin Conviction
posted by Tyjahn Stokes | April 23, 2021 | In NewsThis past week, the verdict was reached for the Derek Chauvin trial. Chauvin was the officer who murdered George Floyd in the street. But the brief glee people felt could not last long enough, when others were protesting another police-related shooting in North Carolina only a day later.
At 8:30 a.m. in Elizabeth City in North Carolina, Andrew Brown, Jr., 42, was shot and killed by police deputies of the Pasquotank Sheriff Department, witnesses told CNN. According to a statement released by the sheriff department, deputies were trying to carry out a search warrant. At the time of print, it is not clear if the warrant had been for Brown or someone else.
According to Pasquotank Sheriff Tommy Wooten II, the deputies who fired at Brown have not been named yet and have since been placed under administrative leave. Officials tied to this case have provided little to no information regarding the matter with the State Bureau of Investigation opening an investigation to take a closer look at the issue.
Wooten did say, though, that the deputies involved had body cams. The sheriff, however, could not give a timetable for when this footage will be released to the public.
As many as 200 people showed up to protest Brown’s death in, and were calling for justice and peace, chanting “Say his name! Andrew Brown!” and “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” as they marched through downtown, according to the News & Observer.
Demetria Williams, who lived in the same area as Brown, detailed the incident and even described how many bullets had hit the ground, according to the News & Observer. Williams said there were 14 bullets on the floor. Williams even explained that the windshield at the front of the car had been shot through.
“I got down there, and they were shooting at the car,” Williams said to the News & Observer. “He didn’t get far because the sheriff deputies were in the driveway. He was getting away. He wasn’t a threat.”
The city council held an emergency meeting Wednesday evening to vent and voice their concerns, according to the Charlotte Observer.
At the meeting Councilman Gabriel Adkins said: “There are a lot of people hurting in our city. We have a lot of hurt people.” Adkins even went further by even empathizing with the people and sharing their same fears by saying, “I’m afraid. You know, I mean, let’s be real. We talk about transparency, I’m gonna be transparent. I’m afraid as a Black man walking around 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 seat belt, trying to make sure that [I] do everything right.”
Later, Adkins told the people to remain calm, and let the authorities do their job.
Friends and family mourned the loss of Brown, with one friend, Daniel Bowser, told the Independent: “I’ve been knowing for him 30 years, and he wasn’t a violent person. I don’t care what they put out there, he didn’t deserve to die.”
Brown’s aunt, Martha McCullen, who raised him after his parents passed, even offered a comment: “The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” McCullen told the Associated Press. “Andrew Brown was a good person. He was about to get his kids back. He was a good father. Now his kids won’t never see him again.”
Photo courtesy of Loren Kerns
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