Brown Jr.'s Attorney Calls Deadly Encounter An 'Ambush'

ELIZABETH CITY, NC —An attorney for Andrew Brown Jr.'s family said Tuesday afternoon that Brown had been shot and killed by police in his driveway despite his hands clearly being visible and free of a weapon. He also disputed claims made by a local district attorney that Brown had hit officers with his car, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Attorney Chance Lynch spoke to reporters outside the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office after he and members of Brown's family viewed an additional 20 minutes of body camera footage from the night of April 21, when Brown was killed by Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office deputies who had gone to serve an arrest and search warrant alleging Brown, 42, had sold a small amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine to an informant.

Prior to Tuesday, Brown's lawyers and family members only had been permitted to see 20 seconds of footage.

Lynch said Brown had been "ambushed."

"There were so many shots that we had difficulty in counting the number," Lynch said.

Brown's son Khalil Ferebee also viewed the new footage, though said he only learned a few more details than he had from watching the 20-second clip.

"He did nothing wrong at all," Ferebee said. "What's in the dark is going to come to the light."

Even the 20 minutes of footage viewed on Tuesday represents only a portion of the body cam and dashboard camera footage that exists from the police officers at the scene of the shooting.

People outside the sheriff's office Tuesday reportedly chanted "Release the tape! The whole tape! The real tape!"

The Rev. William Barber II speaking earlier Tuesday said the family should be able to see the whole tape.

"This is cruel and unusual punishment. What are they hiding? What do they have to hide? To kill a young man, driving away, with a back shot and then hide the tape," Barber said.

The shooting led to several days of mostly peaceful protests in Elizabeth City and calls for justice from attorneys and local and national civil rights leaders.

Elizabeth City District Attorney Andrew Womble said the officer shooting was justified because Brown hit officers with his car before they started shooting, the Washington Post reported. Lynch disputed that claim Tuesday saying Brown's car did not move until the first shot was fired.

Meanwhile, attorney Bakari Sellers, speaking on behalf of the Browns, said Tuesday he has asked Womble to recuse himself from the case because the DA has an "incestuous" relationship with the sheriff's deputies, with whom he shares an office building.

Speaking last month after viewing the 20-second video, a group of attorneys for the Browns said the footage showed at least five officers running to the driver's side of Brown's vehicle with guns drawn and shooting as both of Brown's hands gripped the steering wheel. Brown attempted to back away from officers, not toward them, as he tried to evade getting shot. After his car crashed into a tree, they continued to shoot at him, the attorneys said.

"They were shooting and saying, 'let me see your hands,' at the same time. Let's be clear, this was an execution," said attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter.

On April 27, the Brown family released autopsy results indicating Brown had been shot five times, four non-lethal gunshot wounds on his right arm and a fatal shot to the back of the head.

From the beginning, Brown's attorneys had been calling for the body cam videos from all the officers at the scene to be released the public. That view was echoed by local and state officials, including Gov. Roy Cooper. However, North Carolina law requires a judge to order the release of body cam footage.

On April 28, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster denied the requests to release the footage publicly, saying that doing so would put the safety of deputies involved at risk and also potentially affect any future trial proceedings.

Foster did rule that a portion of the footage could be disclosed to the family and one attorney within 10 days, though the full video would not be released to them for at least 30 to 45 days.

Last Thursday, Foster issued the written order spelling out the ruling, which allowed the family to watch portions of five existing videos. Three of the five available videos are at least 30 minutes long, but the most the family was allowed to see of any of them was 4 minutes, 50 seconds. They also were allowed to see 4½ minutes of a 17-minute video and all 3 minutes of another video, according to WRAL.

"The portions of the videos withheld are found to not contain images of the deceased, and thus are not appropriate for disclosure at this time," Judge Foster wrote in his decision.

On April 28, the FBI Charlotte field office announced it had launched a federal civil rights investigation into Brown's death.

"Agents will work closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were violated," FBI Charlotte said.

The shooting of Brown occurred a day after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted for his role in the death of George Floyd in a trial that gripped national attention due to footage of the incident.

Now, the Brown case is in the national spotlight, with calls for greater transparency to help lawyers and authorities arrive at the truth.

"We want to see all of the evidence, so we can make our own independent determination as to what happened, whether or not any laws were violated, whether or not any civil rights were violated," Wayne Kendall, one of the Brown's family attorneys, said last week according to WRAL. "Eventually, I expect we will obtain all videos fully and completely in an unredacted format."