Andrew Brown Jr. shot 5 times, once fatally in back of his head, independent autopsy requested by family shows; FBI investigating

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – North Carolina sheriff's deputies shot a Black man five times, including a fatal shot to the back of his head, according to an independent autopsy commissioned by the man's family.

Andrew Brown Jr. was shot four times in his right arm and once in the head as deputies in Pasquotank County were serving a warrant last week, Wayne Kendall, an attorney for Brown's family, said at a news conference Tuesday. 

The FBI said Tuesday that it was launching a federal civil rights investigation into the case. Brown's family and their legal team responded with a statement that said:

"We have great faith that this caliber of an investigation will prevent any obscuring of the facts released to the Brown family and public, and will overcome any local bias that may prevent justice from being served.''

Also Tuesday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called for a special prosecutor as pressure built on authorities to release body camera video of last week's incident. A judge scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider formal requests to make the video public.

Brown's family reviewed a partial clip of the footage Monday and described his death as an execution.

"Yesterday, I said he was executed. This autopsy report showed me I was correct,'' Khalil Ferebee, one of Brown's seven children, said outside the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office. “It’s obvious he was trying to get away. It’s obvious. And they’re going to shoot him in the back of the head?”

Kendall said the four gunshot wounds to Brown's arm were "not fatal." The autopsy report is consistent with what the family saw on the partial video, he added.

Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, another lawyer representing the Brown family, said Monday that the 20-second clip she and the family saw showed Brown with his hands on the steering wheel and not a threat to deputies, who fired as he backed his vehicle out and tried to drive away.

Brown then crashed into a tree and died within minutes of the gunshot wound to the head, Kendall said.

Sheriff Tommy Wooten issued a statement calling the private autopsy "important,'' but added that it is, "just one piece of the puzzle. The independent investigation being performed by the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) is crucial and the interviews, forensics, and other evidence they gather will help ensure that justice is accomplished.”

Brown's death sparked protests and calls for accountability as activists demanded release of the full body camera footage. The shooting occurred one day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd.

Early Tuesday evening, protesters marched toward one of the two entrances into Elizabeth City, at the Camden Causeway Bridge, where they planned to block access.

Kirk Rivers, the brother of Pasquotank County NAACP President Keith Rivers, led the way and asked demonstrators around 7 p.m. to remain with the march as a curfew approached an hour later.

“This can happen in your neighborhood,” Kirk Rivers said. “It seems like every week we say no justice, no peace, but nothing gets better. We should all be tired of this so it doesn't become a weekly event. They have to improve the training. They have to improve community policing.” 

Sheriff's deputies were serving drug-related search and arrest warrants on Brown last Wednesday when multiple deputies fired shots, Wooten has said. Seven deputies are on leave pending an inquiry by the SBI.

The sheriff's office and the county prosecutor have released few public details.

Although a judge will consider Wednesday whether to release video of the shooting, it's unclear how soon the judge could rule. Similar cases have taken weeks to play out.

More on Andrew Brown Jr.:Brown's family says police 'executed' him, then only showed a 20-second video clip from bodycam

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump railed against the lack of access to body camera footage.

"We believe they're trying to hide the truth," said Crump, who is representing the Brown family. "If they were making transparency a priority, we would all have seen that video by now.” 

Family lawyers said the video shown to the family was heavily edited and began after the shooting had begun.

“They’re shooting and saying ‘Let me see your hands’ at the same time,” Cherry-Lassiter said, adding: “Let’s be clear. This was an execution.”

Family lawyer Harry Daniels said Brown was driving away "because he was scared for his life."

"He left, tried to save his life and they continued to shoot and put a bullet in the back of his head," Daniels said.

Wooten said Monday that the shooting was "quick" and occurred over the course of 30 seconds.

"Body cameras are shaky and sometimes hard to decipher. They only tell part of the story," he said after the family viewed the partial footage.

State law allows for family members and lawyers to view body-cam footage in similar cases, but public release of video requires a judge's approval.

“I don't think anybody is really getting any information,” said Kathryn Gregory, who was at the news conference Tuesday. “They are being as vague as they can.” 

Family seeks answers:Why did police fatally shoot Andrew Brown Jr.?

A warrant for Brown released Monday said investigators used information from an informant, including recordings of drug buys. Court documents said an informant told an investigator the person had been buying drugs from Brown for more than a year. Narcotics officers also conducted controlled purchases from Brown twice, according to the warrant.

Crump said the information in the warrants was released to cast Brown in a negative light. On Tuesday, he tweeted a clip of what he called "the militarized police force rushing to kill Andrew Brown,'' showing a truck with the word "Sheriff'' painted on the side and packed with armed personnel.

Crump also tweeted that the video was provided by the Elizabeth City Council, but USA TODAY could not verify whether the deputies portrayed in the video were the actual deputies on their way to serve the Brown warrant.

Protests sparked by the shooting have generally been peaceful, but Monday, Mayor Bettie Parker declared a state of emergency ahead a possible release of the video. The emergency status will continue “until deemed no longer necessary to protect our citizens,” the declaration said.

Elizabeth City, with 18,000 residents – about half of them Black – is in eastern North Carolina.

Students at Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black school, were told to gather their belongings and leave their dorms by noon Tuesday in the wake of the emergency declaration.

Classes already had been scheduled to conclude this week, but the university ended on-campus instruction for the remainder of the school year. Students learned Sunday that they had to vacate campus and were told final exams scheduled for next week must be taken online.  

“It's a bit of a shock, to be honest,” freshman Noah Jacobson said. 

Contributing: John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz and Will Carless, USA TODAY; The Associated Press