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Protests, questions in Elizabeth City follow man's shooting by deputies

For the second night in a row, a crowd gathered in downtown Elizabeth City to demand the body-camera footage be released after a man was shot by a Pasquotank County deputy.

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ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — For the second night in a row, a crowd gathered in downtown Elizabeth City to demand the body-camera footage be released after a man was shot by a Pasquotank County deputy.

On the day of the shooting, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said deputies were conducting a search in the 400 block of Perry Street around 8:30 a.m. when a deputy shot Andrew Brown Jr.

In a pre-recorded statement on Thursday, Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said deputies were serving a warrant related to felony drug charges, but he did not say what prompted the deputy to shoot.

“Our deputies attempted to serve the arrest warrant. They fired the shots. They’ve been put on administrative leave until we know all the facts,” Wooten said.

"Mr. Brown was a convicted felon with a history of resisting arrest. Our training and our policy indicate under such circumstances, there is a high risk of danger," Fogg added.

An eyewitness said Brown 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.

A car authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and a broken rear windshield.

Forty-year-old Andrew Brown was shot by a Pasquotank County deputy on April 21 while deputies were executing a search warrant.

Brown's aunt, Glenda Thomas, said he was known to law enforcement for drug-related charges, but others added that Brown was not known to have a gun or be a "violent person."

"You know, with the trouble he's been in, they knew Andrew Brown Jr. They knew his daddy, I'm sure. So, why would you shoot and kill him," Thomas asked.

"Why would you do that? If you had a warrant for his arrest, and he decides to run, then you could always go back to his house later and get him," she said.

Thomas said Brown was in his 40s and had several children.

"He loved his family, and his laugh would light up the house," described Thomas. "If his kids wanted anything, he'd buy it for them."

“The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” said Martha McCullen, an aunt of Brown who said she raised him after his parents died. McCullen stood on the stoop of Brown’s rental home, her eyes moist with emotion.

Wooten said the deputy involved in the shooting has been put on administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigation looks into the shooting, a standard practice whenever a law enforcement officer fires a weapon.

During a press conference on the shooting Wednesday afternoon, Wooten said deputies did have body cameras, and they were on during the shooting.

Andrew Brown, who family members say is the father of several children, was shot by a Pasquotank County deputy executing a search warrant on April 21.

He added that law enforcement was working to release the body camera footage from the shooting.

A crowd of people gathered at the scene of the shooting Wednesday morning and demanded to know what happened.

On Wednesday night, about 100 people blocked the streets outside an emergency City Council meeting and demanded the sheriff tell them what happened.

"We're not going away until [we get] some cooperation, until we get some transparency. What are you hiding? There was body camera footage. Tell the community," said Keith Rivers, with the North Carolina NAACP.

"Aside from blocking off the roads, we haven't broken any laws, but we do want answers and justice. The sheriff should come out here," said one person who did not want to be identified.

Inside the emergency meeting, Black members of the City Council spoke emotionally about the fears of their community amid multiple police shootings across the country and implored investigators to remain transparent.

“I’m afraid as a Black man,” an emotional Councilman Gabriel Adkins told his colleagues. “I’m afraid that I may be the next one that my family might have to see on the news that I was gunned down.”

“Not only do we need transparency ... we need accountability,” said City Councilman Darius Horton, who called for the immediate release of bodycam footage, the search warrant and a speedy explanation of what led to the shooting. “We need answers. ... Let’s not hide behind anything.”

Others councilors urged the community to remain calm until all of the facts about the shooting are known.

Brown's family members said that, while they are mourning, they have plenty of questions and very few answers.

"The life he lived, he still had it in his heart to do things for his family," said Thomas.

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