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NEW YORK (77WABC) – The prosecutor in the April shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr. says North Carolina sheriff’s deputies were justified in their use of deadly force, in a press conference Tuesday. District Attorney Andrew Womble said that Brown ignored the sheriff’s deputies commands and drove his car directly at one of them before they fired any shots.
Womble said he wouldn’t be filing any criminal charges against the deputies and that he wouldn’t release bodycam video of the confrontation between Brown, a Black man, and the officers. However, 44 seconds of the video were shown during the news conference, broadcast live by multiple outlets.
“Mr. Brown’s death, while tragic, was justified because Mr. Brown’s actions caused three deputies to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others,” Womble said. “When you employ a car in a way that puts officers’ lives in danger, that is a threat.”
Brown was shot by Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies in Elizabeth City, North Carolina on April 21 when they tried to serve Brown two felony warrants and a search warrant at his home. The video shows the officers arriving to arrest Brown as he sat inside his vehicle. Brown reversed his car into a corner, causing a deputy to fall, then drove off nearly hitting another deputy. Officers proceeded to fire multiple times into the vehicle, where it ended up stopping against a tree.
The shooting sparked weeks of protests as well as a civil rights probe from the FBI. Currently, three deputies involved in the shooting are on leave, while four others who were at the scene were reinstated.
