Family attorneys for Andrew Brown Jr., 42, a black man killed in an attempted arrest last week in North Carolina, said Monday (26) that camera footage attached to the uniforms of the agents show that there had been execution and accused. evidence retention authorities.
Images of the approach were shown to the family on Monday. The case occurred last Wednesday, the day after the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer convicted of the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis.
After viewing the video, the defense reported that the victim put his hands on the wheel of his car at the entrance to his garage in Elizabeth City when between seven and eight officers started shooting him. Police continued to shoot after Brown left with his car, trying to get away from the scene.
According to lawyer Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, the 42-year-old black man has never shown himself to be a threat. “They would shoot and say, ‘Let me see your hands! “at the same time,” Cherry-Lassiter said at a press conference Monday. “Let’s be clear: it was an execution.”
The death certificate says Brown died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to CNN.
Another family lawyer, Ben Crump, said there was evidence of at least nine cameras, including those in police uniforms and others attached to cars, but only a 20-second portion of between them was shown to the defense. The decision not to post more images was made by the district attorney for Pasquotank County, where Elizabeth City is located.
“We don’t think we’ve achieved transparency. We only saw a fragment of the video, ”Cump said. “They were going to show the entire video, but decided at the last minute that they were going to edit it.”
Cox did not respond to Reuters news agency’s request for comment. The prosecutor released a statement on Monday explaining why it took so long to release the video evidence. He said state law allows police to be blurred if there is a need to protect an ongoing internal investigation, which is a long process.
There is also a bureaucratic obstacle to disseminating the images. The case is in charge of the National Investigation Agency (SBI), which owns the videos. The organization’s spokesperson, Anjanette Grube, said she could not release them without a court ruling.
Delegate Tommy Wooten said his office was seeking a court order that would make the video public. Lawyers for Brown’s family said a hearing to decide whether the footage could be released to the press was scheduled for Wednesday (28).
Brown’s death sparked small, peaceful protests in Elizabeth City, a city of 18,000 people, about half African Americans. The local government, however, declared a state of emergency before showing the footage to the family, anticipating larger protests.
Wooten and his deputy, Daniel Fogg, said last week that the shots took place as officers attempted to execute arrest and search warrants against Brown, stemming from a criminal drug charge, and that the victim had a history of resisting arrest.
They asked for the trial to be postponed on Monday until all the evidence could be assessed. “This tragic incident was rapid and ended in less than 30 seconds and [imagens de] Connected cameras are unstable and sometimes difficult to read. They only tell part of the story, ”Wooten said next to Fogg, in a video posted to his social network on Monday.
The delegate’s office said on Friday that seven officers had received administrative licenses after the case. Three other officers resigned, but reportedly said the exits were unrelated to Brown’s death.