NC judge declines to release body-cam footage to public in Andrew Brown death
A North Carolina Superior Court judge declined Wednesday to release to the public the body camera footage of the shooting and killing of Andrew Brown Jr. by Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies last week.
Some of Brown’s family will be allowed to view, but not get copies of, the videos. Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster said the videos will be disclosed to Brown’s son Khalil Ferebee, a few immediate family members and one attorney within 10 days.
Officers’ faces, name tags and any other identifying information will be blurred or redacted in those videos, the judge said. There are four body camera videos and one dash cam video from a vehicle that the family will be able to view.
The videos will be held from release to the family for no less than 30 days and no more than 45 days, which will allow ongoing investigations to be completed, Foster said. The court will consider release at that point, depending on any potential charges.
H.P. Williams, a lawyer representing deputies in the case, clarified that release is delayed 30 to 45 days, but if charges are brought, the footage likely will not be shown until trial.
Foster’s ruling at the Pasquotank County Courthouse runs counter to arguments from both the sheriff’s office and the county, who pushed for the release of the video to the family and the public.
Brown, 42, was shot and killed in his car outside his home in Elizabeth City a week ago as deputies were serving search and arrest warrants related to felony drug charges.
The incident happened less than 24 hours after Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.
A ‘disappointing’ ruling
Brown’s family emerged from the courtroom after the ruling in a somber line, his 92-year-old grandmother Lydia Brown leading in her wheelchair. They have pressed for answers for a week and hoped Wednesday’s ruling would give them comfort beyond a 20-second clip of footage that some have seen.
“I would loved to have seen it today,” said cousin Elisha Dillard. “He had his hands on the steering wheel. They had the advantage.”
The shooting has spurred nightly protests in Elizabeth City, where hundreds of people have demanded that the footage be made public.
For activists, Foster’s ruling brought a familiar sting, and they promised to resume a week of protest marches.
“This is typical of what goes on in Pasquotank County,” said Keith Rivers, local NAACP president. “They have failed to give this family any closure. How can we trust them? ... They continued to display that they will slow-walk this in hopes that it will go away.”
Mike Tadych, attorney for the more than 20 state and national media outlets seeking release, said the ruling is “disappointing” but within the judge’s discretion.
“We still believe release would be appropriate and even helpful in this case,” Tadych said.
The media organizations can file an emergency appeal to the ruling once the order is certified by the judge.
Foster ruled that the media did not have standing in this case, but even if it did “good cause does not exist.”
Amanda Martin, another attorney representing the media, said in a statement that if media members don’t have standing to petition the court for release of law enforcement video, the general public does not either. And her team believes that is legally incorrect, she said.
“We will review the judge’s written order when we receive it and decide at that point how best to appeal it immediately,” Martin said.
Foster also denied the immediate release of the footage to Ferebee. He said the court will reconsider the release after an investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation and a decision on potential criminal charges.
‘An execution,’ family’s lawyers say
Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, an Elizabeth City attorney representing Brown’s family, saw a 20-second snippet of the video on Monday with Brown’s son Ferebee and Ferebee’s mother. They called the shooting “an execution.”
At a news conference Tuesday, Ferebee said a private autopsy commissioned by the family and attorneys also confirmed that. That autopsy showed Brown was shot 5 times, with a fatal bullet wound to the back of his head.
But at Wednesday’s court hearing, Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble criticized Lassiter’s description of the incident that she saw from a clip of body-cam footage. He said her comments were “patently false,” and he recapped what he says were the movements of Brown’s car as shown in the footage.
Womble said Brown’s car was stationary when deputies approached him and shouted commands. Then, the car went in a reverse direction and made contact with law enforcement and then stopped, Womble said. At that point, officers were positioned around the car, according to Womble’s description of the video. Then the car moved forward toward officers and again made contact with them, he said.
“It is then and only then that you hear shots,” Womble said.
Arguments over body-cam footage
Also in court Wednesday, Mike Cox, attorney for Pasquotank County and its sheriff’s office, said the sheriff’s office wants to release the video to the family and the media, in accordance with the law.
“While the body-cam footage only shows one perspective for a limited period of time, it might give the public some ability to understand what happened that day,” Cox said.
Cox also said the release of the footage would not impede independent investigations by the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation.
But Womble said that while there’s a compelling public interest for accountability, the release would hinder a fair trial, risk the safety of deputies and affect active investigations.
“What I know is that you cannot swing a skunk in front of a group of people and ask them not to smell it,” Womble said, referring to the footage that future potential jurors could see.
Womble, who would be the one to bring criminal charges in this case, said the footage should be released as evidence, if and when there’s a criminal trial. If no charges are brought, he said he would release the video at a press conference where he explains that decision.
“I want your honor to give me an opportunity to complete this investigation, or the SBI to complete this investigation, let me review it, make my decision,” Womble told the judge. “And then everyone can Monday morning quarterback me.”
Williams, the attorney for unnamed deputies, also argued against the release. But he said he would not oppose disclosure of the video to the family as long as faces of the officers involved are redacted so that they cannot be identified.
“The officers are very distraught over what happened. They feel for the family of Andrew Brown,” Williams said. “But, as Mr. Womble described to you, we believe that the shooting was justified.”
‘It needs to become public’
One of Brown’s aunts, Clarissa Brown Gibson, was among the family members in the courtroom while lawyers argued against the release of the police footage.
The argument that deputies were justified in shooting Brown left Gibson shaking her head as she walked out of the courtroom, trailing other members of the family.
“So you’re telling me it was justified to shoot an unarmed Black man?” she asked. “In the back?”
She wanted everyone to see the police footage. Not just members of Brown’s family, but also the public.
“It needs to become public,” she said. “They said that if they show it, then the jury will be biased, because they will form an opinion from watching the tape. We’re already forming a damn opinion. Excuse me.”
The attorneys representing Brown’s family released a statement saying they would keep the pressure on agencies until the truth is uncovered. They pointed to the murder of George Floyd and the footage that helped bring accountability for the officers.
“In this modern civil rights crisis where we see Black people killed by the police everywhere we look, video evidence is the key to discerning the truth and getting well-deserved justice for victims of senseless murders,” they said in a statement.
U.S. Congressman G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat, said in a statement that Foster’s decision to withhold the footage from the public during the investigation “leads to suspicion.”
“Police shootings in America are now an epidemic,” Butterfield said. “The public is losing confidence in our law enforcement and criminal justice system.”
Outside investigations
Robert Schurmeier, director of the North Carolina SBI, said in a statement that it’s customary for the agency to investigate officer-involved shootings in the state.
He said their role is to “pursue the truth” in Andrew Brown’s death through an “independent, thorough, and impartial investigation” and then share their results with the prosecutor.
“The family, the community, and all impacted by this event deserve no less and the SBI is fully committed to making sure that the true facts are known, no matter where those facts lead us,” Schurmeier said.
He said they defer to local authorities and the courts regarding relevant video, but support “transparency to the greatest extent possible.”
The FBI launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting, and N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper called for a special prosecutor in this case.
In a press conference Wednesday, Cooper didn’t directly address Foster’s decision because he said he hadn’t heard what was argued in court. But he reiterated his opinion that this video should be released as quickly as possible to build trust and confidence in the system.
“I have continued to support a change in the law that would presume that these kinds of videos are public record and that a court would have to come in and find reasons not to have them released to the public,” Cooper said. “The law is the other way now.”
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said in a statement that he is disappointed the body camera footage won’t be released to the public, but he respects the judge’s ruling.
“Although we’re unable to show the public what happened right now, the independent investigators are working to complete their investigation,” Wooten said.
Once given all the facts, Wooten said he will be transparent and “act quickly to ensure accountability.”
‘Advocating for transparency’
At the court hearing, Tadych argued that the footage needs to be released to help bring facts to a subject that has generated much speculation and rumor. He also highlighted the national discussion ongoing about police accountability issues as a reason to release the footage.
“The petitioners are not here to indict or vindicate law enforcement. And they are not here to indict or vindicate Mr. Brown,” Tadych said. “They are here in the interest of advocating for transparency in the hopes of aiding the national conversation we find ourselves in about citizens’ interaction with the police.”
The Council on Criminal Justice’s Task Force on Policing has found that agency use of body-worn cameras “best enhance transparency if video footage of high-profile incidents is released promptly to the public,” according to an April 2021 report.
Brown’s family and its lawyers and supporters arrived at the courthouse at 9:45 a.m., and lined up outside under the cover of old trees.
A crowd of about 50 media members also gathered outside — some waiting to gain entry. But the members of the media were kept outside as the hearing began.
On Tuesday, Elizabeth City shared a city-owned video that shows several deputies in tactical gear arriving at Brown’s home in the back of a pickup truck. That footage camera, which is mounted on a utility pole along Brown’s street, captures the moments before Brown was shot and killed.
The black pickup truck turns toward the driveway and deputies jump out of the truck bed, yelling “Get your hands up!” the video shows.
After seeing that footage, attorneys for Brown’s family said in a statement Brown was “brought down by an inflamed modern-day lynch mob.”
“The footage shows an eerie resemblance to what we saw in Ahmaud Arbery’s modern-day lynching, except these were no vigilantes — these murderers were on the clock as law enforcement,” the statement said.
They hope the body camera footage will help hold the officers responsible for Brown’s death accountable.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021, 10:30 AM.
