7 NC deputies placed on leave after fatal shooting of Black man
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Seven North Carolina deputies have been placed on leave in the aftermath of a Black man being shot and killed by members of their department serving drug-related search and arrest warrants, authorities said Friday.
The disclosure comes as calls increase for the release of deputy body camera footage amid signs, including emergency scanner traffic, that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot in the back and killed as he was trying to drive away.
Pasquotank County Sheriff ’s Office Maj. Aaron Wallio confirmed the number of deputies on leave due to the shooting in an email Friday. Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has previously said that multiple deputies fired shots and were placed on leave after Brown was killed Wednesday morning.
Wooten said Saturday he would ask a local judge as early as Monday to allow the release of deputy body camera footage of the shooting death of Brown. Wooten said he would first check with the State Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the shooting, to make sure that releasing the video would not hamper their efforts.
Asked for comment on Wooten’s remarks, SBI spokeswoman Anjanette Grube referred back to a previous statement that said “it is not the SBI’s decision as to when and how body camera video is released.”
Nearby Dare County had issued two arrest warrants for Brown on drug-related charges including possession with intent to sell cocaine. Brown, 42, had a criminal history dating back to the 1990s, including past drug convictions.
Recordings of scanner traffic compiled by broadcastify.com from the morning of the shooting include emergency personnel indicating that Brown was shot in the back. An eyewitness has said that deputies fired shots at Brown as he tried to drive away, and a car authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and a shattered back window.
Mideast tensions: Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired some three dozen rockets into Israel overnight Saturday, while the Israeli military struck back at targets operated by the ruling Hamas group. The exchange came as tensions in Jerusalem spilled over into the worst round of cross-border violence in months.
The barrage came as hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police in east Jerusalem. The clashes, in which at least four police and six protesters were injured, have become a nightly occurrence throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he held talks with top security officials about Gaza and Jerusalem. He said he instructed officials to be ready for “every scenario” in Gaza. In Jerusalem, he said Israel would guarantee “freedom of worship” for everyone, and he appealed for calm.
“We ask now for people to obey the law and I call for a calming of tempers on all sides,” he said
4 held in France attack:
French authorities detained a fourth person Saturday as anti-terrorism investigators questioned three others, seeking to establish a motive and uncover any ties to extremism after a police
official was fatally stabbed at a police station outside Paris.
French police killed the Tunisian suspect in the Friday slaying of an unarmed administrative employee at the entrance of her police station in the town of Rambouillet. The suspect’s father is among the four currently held, a judicial official said. A couple who had housed the suspect at one point and a member of his entourage, who was detained Saturday, also were being questioned.
The victim, a National Police employee, had left the station to extend her time on a parking meter and was followed into the entry area by the attacker, who was shot to death by a police officer.
The attack jolted the French government into taking a deeper look at new steps needed to protect police officers. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is to present a bill shortly giving new teeth to an anti-terrorism law, the
national intelligence coordinator, Laurent Nunez, said Saturday.
Sri Lanka arrests: Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested a prominent Muslim lawmaker and his brother over suspected connections to the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people.
Rishad Bathiudeen is a former Cabinet minister who currently leads an opposition party in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. He and his brother, Reyaj Bathiudeen, were arrested in the capital for allegedly “aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who committed the Easter Sunday carnage,” said police spokesman Ajith Rohana. He said the brothers have not yet been officially charged but were arrested based on direct evidence, as well as what he called circumstantial and “scientific” evidence.
Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group
have been blamed for the six near-simultaneous blasts at two Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church and three tourist hotels. Both Muslims and Catholics are minorities in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists make up 70% of the population.
Before his arrest Saturday, Rishad Bathiudeen wrote on Facebook that police were outside his house “since 1:30 a.m. today attempting to arrest me without a charge. ... This is unjust.”
Firefighters in Northern Ireland are spending a second day batting fires across difficult terrain on the Mourne Mountains.
More than 70 firefighters and 10 fire trucks from across Northern Ireland were involved Saturday in trying to contain the wildfire, while helicopters from both Britain and Ireland are set to join the effort.
The wildfire has been raging since Friday morning
Northern Ireland fire:
in the Slieve Donard area — the highest point in Northern Ireland, with a peak of 2,780 feet.
Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster, said the wildfire is “devastating and tragic,” adding that the impact on local wildlife and flora is “unimaginable.”
Prototype coin auctioned:
A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said.
Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at $312,000 Friday evening but “in less than a minute, intense bidding quickly pushed the coin to its final price.
The coin, formerly owned by businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, had been expected to sell for $350,000 to $500,000, Bradley said.