Pastors rally, seek transparency in Elizabeth City shooting
May 8, 2021, 4:43 AM | Updated: 7:40 pm
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — Pastors and denominational leaders rallied in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on Saturday to call for greater transparency in the investigation into the death of a Black man who was fatally shot in his car by sheriff’s deputies.
More than 100 people marched to the Pasquotank County Courthouse, where they posted on its doors a series of demands related to the killing of Andrew Brown Jr., the News & Observer reported.
Brown’s shooting on April 21 has drawn national attention to the small, majority Black city in the state’s rural northeastern corner. The confrontation occurred while deputies were serving a drug-related search warrant at Brown’s home. Brown was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy commissioned by his family.
“A warrant is not a license to kill,” said the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, one of the leaders of the march and president of a group called Repairers of the Breach.
The demands of rally participants include the public release of the full videos from the officers’ body cameras and the appointment of a special prosecutor.
North Carolina law gives local courts authority over the release of body camera video, and family members have so far only been allowed to view a 20-second clip from a single camera. A judge has ruled that they will get to view more footage, though only still a fraction of the full amount.
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