ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - Andrew Brown Jr.'s family attorneys released a statement after DA Andrew Womble announced Tuesday that the shooting death of Brown was justified.
On Tuesday, the DA said after reviewing the investigation, Brown’s death was justified. Womble says Brown’s actions made it reasonable for deputies to use deadly force.
During the briefing, Womble said Brown's vehicle was considered a threat and a deadly weapon to officers. The attorneys are demanding the release of the full footage to bring full transparency.
They state the issue of Brown being shot in the back of the head was not appropriately addressed during Womble's press conference.
Attorneys for the family have released the following statement in response to these claims:
“Andrew Brown Jr., his grieving family, and this community deserve answers. And they received anything but from D.A. Womble’s attempt to whitewash this unjustified killing. To say this shooting was justified, despite the known facts, is both an insult and a slap in the face to Andrew’s family, the Elizabeth City community, and to rational people everywhere. Not only was the car moving away from officers, but four of them did not fire their weapons - clearly they did not feel that their lives were endangered. And the bottom line is that Andrew was killed by a shot to the back of the head. Interestingly, none of these issues were appropriately addressed in today’s press conference.
“We demand that the court release the full video and State Bureau of Investigation report that will help shed some much needed daylight on this case and bring a small measure of justice to this family and this community. Because we certainly got neither transparency nor justice today. We request that the Federal Department of Justice intervene immediately.”
Despite Womble showing clips of the body cam footage to the media during Tuesday's briefing, Womble says the rest of the video will need to go through the courts for release to the public.
Brown's family attorneys are now demanding the full release of the video from the courts.
