A North Carolina judge delayed the release of videos of the death of Andrew Brown, an African-American who was shot to death by police officers last week, on Wednesday.
Brown’s death occurred on April 21 when a group of agents from the Pasquotank County, North Carolina Sheriff’s Office, shot him dead while he was going to arrest him on a warrant.
The magistrate, however, accepted that the family of the deceased can access the videos of the body cameras of the agents involved in the shooting.
Until now, Brown’s relatives and their attorneys had only had access to a 20-second video of the fatal moment, they consider an “execution”.
One of the family’s lawyers, Wayne Kendall, explained Tuesday at a press conference that Brown was shot dead in the never when he was trying to avoid bullet holes.
Brown, 42, was hit by another four gunshot wounds to his right arm before being fatally shot from “intermediate” distance, according to the lawyer.
Additionally, an independent autopsy revealed that Brown died minutes after the bullet pierced his skull.
Few details and no video have been released about the incident so far, although in audio footage from moments after the shooting, emergency services employees can be heard saying the man had gunshot wounds to his back.
As a result, the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office suspended seven officers implicated in Brown’s death.
Wright died on April 11 at the hands of a police officer, Kim Potter, who, according to the official version, mistook his electro-shock weapon for a firearm during a traffic control.
Faced with the possible disturbances that may occur when the video of Brown’s death is released, the city of Elizabeth City, in Pasquotank County, declared a state of emergency.
This case comes days after a Minneapolis court jury issued its ruling against the former agent. Derek Chauvin, whom he found guilty of three counts of the murder by suffocation of African American George Floyd in May 2020.
Floyd’s death sparked a wave of social protests and civil unrest across the United States.
In recent weeks, several racial minority people have also died from the shooting of police officers: African Americans Daunte Wright, 20, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in Ohio; and the latin Adam Toledo, 13, in Chicago.