Judge denies requests for video in NC shooting
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday denied requests to release body camera video in the case of a Black man who was shot to death by North Carolina deputies as they tried to arrest him on drug-related warrants.
Judge Jeffery Foster said he believed the videos contained information that could harm the ongoing investigation or threaten the safety of people seen in the footage. He said the video must remain out of public view for at least 30 days.
"The release at this time would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice," Foster said.
However, he said, videos from multiple body cameras and one dashboard camera must be shown to Brown's family within 10 days. He said some portions of the video may be blurred or redacted, including conversations between officers. The family previously saw only a 20-second portion of one body camera video.
The decision came shortly after a North Carolina prosecutor said that Andrew Brown Jr. had hit law enforcement officers with his car before they opened fire.
District Attorney Andrew Womble told the judge that he viewed the body camera video and disagreed with a characterization by attorneys for Brown's family that his car was stationary when the shooting started. Womble said the video shows that Brown's car made contact with law enforcement twice before shots could be heard on the video.
Calling the family attorney's description "patently false," Womble said the video shows that Brown's car made contact with law enforcement twice before shots could be heard on the video.
"As it backs up, it does make contact with law enforcement officers," he said, adding that the car stops again. "The next movement of the car is forward. It is in the direction of law enforcement and makes contact with law enforcement. It is then and only then that you hear shots."
Womble said that officers shouted commands and tried to open the car before any shots were fired.
The Pasquotank County sheriff, Tommy Wooten II, has previously indicated that none of the deputies were injured. At a news conference hours after the shooting, he said, "They're fine," when asked about the deputies.
Womble argued that body camera video from the shooting, a portion of which was shown to the family on Monday, should be kept from the public for another month so that state investigators can make progress on their probe of the shooting.
The hearing comes amid pressure on authorities to release the video and calls for a special prosecutor to take the state's case over from Womble. The judge said he planned to issue a decision Wednesday after a short recess.
On Tuesday, Brown's family released an independent autopsy showing he was shot five times, including in the back of the head.
The FBI's Charlotte field office, which opened the civil rights investigation into Brown's death, said in a statement Tuesday that its agents planned to work closely with the Department of Justice "to determine whether federal laws were violated."
The independent autopsy was performed Sunday by a pathologist hired by Brown's family. The exam noted four wounds to the right arm and one to the head. The state's autopsy has not been released yet.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal investigators executed search warrants Wednesday morning at the Manhattan home and office of Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump's attorney, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The former New York City mayor has been under investigation for several years over his business dealings in Ukraine. Details of the searches were not immediately available, but it comes as the Justice Department continues its investigation into the former New York City mayor and staunch Trump ally.
Investigators executed warrants at Giuliani's home on Madison Avenue and his office on Park Avenue and seized electronic devices, a person familiar with the investigation told the AP.
The officials could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. News of the search was first reported by The New York Times.
The federal probe into Giuliani's overseas and business dealings stalled last year because of a dispute over investigative tactics as Trump unsuccessfully sought reelection, and amid Giuliani's prominent role in subsequently disputing the results of the contest on Trump's behalf.