Bodycam Footage Shows Andrew Brown Jr. Was ‘Executed’ by Cops, Family Says

After watching only 20 seconds of footage from a single police body camera, the family of Andrew Brown Jr. said he was “executed” and that an autopsy shows he was shot five times, once in the back of the head.  

“Violence is not the key,” said Khalil Ferebee, one of Brown’s children, during a press conference Tuesday. “To my pops man, yesterday I said he was executed. This autopsy shows me that was correct.”

On the morning of April 21, Brown was blocked into his driveway by squad cars and multiple cops as they were attempting to serve the 46 year old Black man with a warrant. While trying to arrest him, police opened fire, and Brown attempted to drive away, crashing his car into a nearby tree, according to Brown family attorney Harry Daniels. 

An independent autopsy report commissioned by his family found that Brown was shot four times in the arm, and fatally shot once in the back of the head, Daniels announced Tuesday. 

The FBI announced on Tuesday that it will launch a federal civil rights probe into Brown’s killing.  

Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, an attorney on Brown’s legal team who watched the bodycam footage on Monday, said Brown had his hands on the steering wheel when cops started shooting at him. The attorney said that at no point did Brown reach for anything or take his hands off his car’s steering wheel.  

“Let’s be clear, this was an execution,” Cherry-Lassiter said during a press conference Monday. “He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel, they run up to his vehicle shooting. He still sat there in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel while being shot at.”

Since Brown’s killing last week, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, has seen daily protests as the public waits for a judge to release police footage of the incident.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office put out a statement Monday after the family saw the video, and said while the sheriff wants the video released, they have no say on the matter per North Carolina law.

“We will comply with the judge’s orders,” Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said in the statement. “Those people who claim the sheriff’s office has the ability to release either don’t know North Carolina law or they are trying to purposefully inflame a tragic situation.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented George Floyd’s family, is also representing Brown’s family. He said the small video clip the family saw began while shots were already being fired, and offered no context to the events that led up to the killing. 

“It’s so important that we not let them sweep this under the rug,” Crump said in a press conference Monday. "We do not feel we got transparency. We only saw a snippet of the video. They were going to show the whole video, then decided at the last minute they were going to redact it."

“They are trying to hide something,” Crump added.

Elizabeth City issued a state of emergency prior to the Brown family watching the bodycam footage, and it remains in effect until further notice.

A hearing about releasing the video to the public is scheduled for Wednesday.