Veteran officer says Pasquotank deputies had no legitimate reason to shoot Andrew Brown

A law enforcement consultant said Wednesday that the Pasquotank County deputies who opened fire on a fleeing drug suspect in Elizabeth City last month, killing him, posed more of a threat to the community than the man who was shot.

Andrew Brown Jr., 42, was shot April 21 by deputies trying to arrest him on drug charges and to serve a warrant to search his home and car. Authorities said Brown had a history of resisting arrest, so more than a half-dozen deputies went to his home.

Three deputies – Investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Robert Morgan and Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn – fired their weapons during the encounter, and Pasquotank Country District Attorney Andrew Womble cleared them of wrongdoing on Tuesday. The shooting was justified, he said, because Brown posed a threat as he tried to drive off.

"The facts of this case clearly illustrate the officers who used deadly force on Andrew Brown Jr. did so reasonably and only when a violent felon used a deadly weapon to place their lives in danger," Womble said.

The prosecutor showed video of the 44-second encounter recorded by some of the deputies' body-worn cameras to illustrate his decision.

But Roy Taylor, who has worked in law enforcement for more than 40 years and now serves as a consultant to various agencies, came to a different conclusion after watching the videos.

“Using deadly force was not justified, in my opinion," Taylor said.

The videos showed the deputies surrounding Brown's BMW outside his Perry Street home and yelling at him to show his hands. His car could then be seen backing up and then driving off through a vacant lot next door as deputies opened fire.

"When you watch the video, it is obvious Mr. Brown is turning to the left away from that officer, trying to avoid him," Taylor said. "He was not trying to use the vehicle as a weapon. He was trying to use it as a means of escape. ... I think that is clearly evident in the video."

Womble argued that another deputy who was trying to open the driver's door was almost hit by the BMW as Brown backed up and then again as Brown drove away.

"As tragic as this incident is with the loss of life, the deputies on the scene were justified in defending themselves from death or great bodily injury," Womble said. "Once a threat is perceived and the officers fire the first shot, if the first shot is justified, the last shot is justified until the threat is extinguished."

Most of the shots rang out as Brown sped off through the vacant lot. He was killed by a shot to the back of his head.

"A majority of the shots that were fired and the fatality shot occurred after the car already passed [the deputies], so where was the danger that was authorized causing them to use deadly force?" Taylor said. "As soon as that vehicle was past those officers, all firing should have stopped.”

He also noted that one of the shots hit a nearby house.

"Using those type of weapons in a residential neighborhood, that was very reckless and dangerous," he said. “The officers' actions were more devastating and dangerous to the neighborhood than Mr. Brown’s actions."

Because the deputies knew where Brown lived, they easily could have apprehended him later or waited until he left home to stop him on the street, Taylor said.

"When it became obvious in the first few seconds that Mr. Brown was not going to be compliant, as they expected, they should have opened up that horseshoe shape around the vehicle and let it go past and tried to stop him on the road," he said.

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation of the shooting, but Womble's decision effectively ends the criminal investigation.

Media attorney Jon Buchan said the public should now be able to view all of the video of the shooting recorded by body-worn and dashboard cameras.

Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Foster said he wouldn't allow any of the video to be publicly released until after the State Bureau of Investigation and the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office completed their investigations of the shooting.

Foster allowed Brown's family to see about 19 minutes of the more than two hours of video of the incident. They have said what they saw shows the shooting wasn't justified.

“The public ought to have an opportunity to draw its own conclusion," Buchan said. “It is that transparency that gives the public confidence in the decisions made by public officials like the district attorney.”