Autopsy: Brown was shot in the head
Attorneys decry ‘false narrative’ in man’s death
A state autopsy report Thursday ruled Andrew Brown Jr.’s death a homicide after North Carolina sheriff ’s deputies, who do not face charges in the case, shot him in the head.
Brown, a Black man, was shot in April as deputies from the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office attempted to serve a warrant for his arrest. Law enforcement surrounded Brown’s car, and he tried to drive away, his family said, before deputies opened fire.
The state report confirmed the finding in a family autopsy released days after his death that Brown died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.
The report said Brown was shot in the right arm and suffered lacerations and other wounds to his right thigh, right arm and upper back. He had a low level of methamphetamine in his bloodstream, but it “likely did not play a role.”
Brown’s death prompted protests and calls for justice in Elizabeth City. Authorities did not immediately release bodycam footage of the shooting. State law requires a judge’s approval for release.
The prosecutor handling the case, Andrew Womble, said last month the deputies involved in the shooting wouldn’t face charges because they were justified in their use of deadly force.
Womble said Brown struck a deputy in his car and almost ran him over, ignoring deputies’ commands.
Brown’s family insisted he was not a threat to officers and drove away because he feared for his life.
“The autopsy results prove what we’ve always known to be true: Pasquotank County deputies executed Andrew Brown Jr. with a kill shot to the back of
“The autopsy results prove what we’ve always known to be true: Pasquotank County deputies executed Andrew Brown Jr. with a kill shot to the back of the head.”
Statement from Ben Crump and attorneys for the Brown family
the head. The false narrative that DA Womble has attempted to weave is completely discredited by this autopsy report,” attorneys for Brown’s family, including civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, said in a statement Thursday.
The FBI is investigating the case, and attorneys for the family said they plan to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the deputies and the sheriff’s department.
Last week, a sheriff’s deputy involved in the shooting, Aaron Lewellyn, resigned, Sheriff Tommy Wooten said, offering no reason for the resignation.
Two other deputies who had been placed on leave after the shooting, Daniel Meads and Robert Morgan, returned to work last week, Wooten said.