Family of black man killed by police says he was executed
Los Angeles, Apr 26 (EFE).- The family of Andrew Brown, an African American who was shot to death, presumably by several sheriff’s deputies in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, last week, on Monday claimed that his death was an “execution.”
One of the family’s lawyers, Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, said as much at a press conference after which Brown’s relatives were allowed to view a 20-second video clip concerning the incident that still has not yet been made public.
According to Cherry-Lassiter’s account, the images show that Brown, 42, was shot multiple times while sitting in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel by deputies serving drug-related search and arrest warrants.
After the first few shots, Brown began backing his vehicle up to get farther away from the local sheriff’s deputies, who continued firing at him until the car crashed into a tree.
So far, few details and no video recordings about the incident have been released by authorities although in an audio recording a few moments after the shooting emergency services personnel can be heard saying that the man had bullet wounds in his back.
Another representative of Brown’s family said that he had been shot in “the back of the head,” and a copy of Brown’s death certificate, which was released on Monday by several US media outlets, does reveal that he died as a result of a bullet wound in the head.
Subsequent to the incident, the Sheriff’s Department in Pasquotank County on the weekend put seven deputies implicated in Brown’s death on administrative leave.
Given the potential disturbances that could arise when the video of Brown’s death is made public, Elizabeth City on Monday declared a state of emergency.
Bettie Parker, the mayor of Elizabeth City, which has a little more than 17,000 residents, about half of them black, said in a statement that “There may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage.”
The situation comes less than a week after a jury in Minneapolis, Minnesota, found local white ex-cop Derek Chauvin guilty on three counts – including murder and manslaughter – of asphyxiating George Floyd, another black man, in May 2020.
That incident, which was videotaped by passersby sparked a wave of social protests and riots across the US.
In recent weeks, several members of racial minorities have been killed by police in the US, including African Americans Daunte Wright, 20, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in Ohio; as well as 13-year-old Latino Adam Toledo in Chicago.
EFE
