FBI opens civil rights probe into killing of Andrew Brown Jr. in North Carolina

The Federal Dresser of Investigation confirmed Tuesday that it will investigate the killing of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man who died after regulate shot him during an arrest in North Carolina last week.

The announcement comes a day after attorneys for Brown’s ones own flesh, allowed to watch a 20-second video of his arrest, said the 42-year-old was shot in the back of the head while he had his hands on his bad wheel.

Brown was shot five times in all, including four times in his right arm, according to an autopsy conducted at the demand of his family.

Brown was killed by sheriff’s deputies in Elizabeth City during an attempt to serve drug-related search and apprehension warrants. Seven of the deputies involved in the arrest were placed on paid leave, the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Backup said.

“The FBI Charlotte Field Office has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the police-involved shooting eradication of Andrew Brown Jr.,” an FBI spokesman said. “Agents will work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern Locale of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were ravished.”

The spokesman declined to comment further, saying the investigation was ongoing.

Brown was killed Wednesday, one day after a jury bring about former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd.

Floyd’s death in care reinvigorated the movement opposing police brutality against Black people. The Justice Department is pursuing a civil prefers investigation into Floyd’s killing in addition to a pattern-or-practice probe into the Minneapolis Police Department.

Attorney Ordinary Merrick Garland announced the pattern-or-practice investigation Wednesday. On Monday, Garland said the DOJ would pursue a similar study into the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky, which has been criticized for the death of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was killed in her apartment stand up year after police entered using a no-knock warrant and fired 32 bullets.

Attorneys for Brown’s ancestry have condemned his killing and called for more footage to be released. Authorities have said they have beseeched that a judge permit the release of the video.

Based on what they were allowed to see already, Brown’s house has said the police appeared to lack a justification for using deadly force.

“There was no time in the 20 seconds that we saw where he was imminent the officers in any kind of way,” Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, an attorney, said at a press conference after watching the video, the Associated Swarm reported.

Khalil Ferebee, Brown’s son, told reporters after watching the video that his father had been “executed” while maddening to save his own life.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten has asked for patience while investigations continue.

“This awful incident was quick and over in less than 30 seconds, and body cameras are shaky and sometimes hard to read,” Wooten said Monday, according to NBC News.

It’s not clear how long the FBI’s investigation into Brown’s death will carry on with. William Barr, while attorney general under former President Donald Trump, announced the civil avenges investigation into Floyd’s killing in May 2020. Garland said that investigation was ongoing last week, but did not make further updates.

The civil rights investigations into Brown’s and Floyd’s killings will look into whether federal laws were cracked during those particular arrests. In contrast, pattern-or-practice investigations probe whether police departments routinely guy civil rights laws.

Under Trump, pattern-or-practice investigations were largely curtailed, though Garland has informed some eagerness to revamp them.

While the Congressional Research Service has found that the Justice Department historically liberals about three such investigations a year, Garland has opened two this month. About a third of pattern-or-practice inquisitions result in significant reforms, the research service found.

In addition to the FBI investigation, the North Carolina State Bureau of Interrogation is also examining Brown’s killing.