Story at a glance:
- The district attorney will not prosecute the officers involved in the shooting because their actions were “justified.”
- An independent autopsy shows that three officers shot him five times, including once in the back of his head.
- Four other officers did not shoot their weapons at Brown.
As they release some portion of the body cam footage, the North Carolina sheriff’s deputies said they were justified in killing Andrew Brown Jr. in April because his car was perceived as a weapon.
As reported by CNN, on Tuesday, District Attorney Andrew Womble will not prosecute the officers involved in the Brown Jr. incident because he said the officers were defending themselves.
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“The officers’ actions were consistent with their training and fully supported under the law in protecting their lives and this community,” Womble said during a press conference.
However, the Brown family’s lawyer is arguing that the footage does not indicate that Brown misused his car as a weapon, demanding the full release of the tape through the court system.
Furthermore, with the help of an independent autopsy, the family is wondering why Brown was shot five times, including once in the back of his head, which they say might rule out the deputies’ argument for defense.
The family said the DA is trying to “attempt to whitewash this unjustified killing,” according to CBS News.
On April 21 in Elizabeth City, Brown was stopped at his house because he had a drug-related warrant for his arrest.
Womble also notes that Brown was unarmed when he was fatally shot.
The three deputies, one of them being a Black officer, were investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Robert Morgan and Corporal Aaron Lewellyn, all of whom have been on leave since it happened.
However, four other officers who were there were reinstated, and they were not punished because they did not fire their weapons.
“Clearly they did not feel that their lives were endangered,” the Brown family’s attorneys said of the four deputies who didn’t shoot.
As Changing America reported, the incident has sparked outrage in the small North Carolina town.
The FBI has launched a civil rights probe of the shooting.
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