Al Sharpton Pushes for Andrew Brown Bodycam Footage to Be Made Public: ‘Very Unproductive’ For It ‘Not to be Released Immediately’

President of the National Action Network Al Sharpton appeared on Alex Witt Reports to discuss the Andrew Brown shooting and the role of bodycam footage. He said the lack of footage in the case so far “absolutely sets off alarms.”

“To have the bodycams and footage, the footage from them held back, is to lead to the suspicion that something can be edited, there could be some tampering,” he said. “It goes against the whole spirit of having bodycams in the first place. It is very unusual and very unproductive at best for bodycam footage’s not to be released immediately.”

Brown, 42, was shot and killed outside his home in Elizabeth City, NC. Deputies shot him while serving a warrant for his arrest.

Protestors immediately began calling for the release of the footage. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said, “Because we want transparency, we want the body camera footage made public.”

Despite public outcry for the footage to be released, the Sheriff’s department cannot release the footage. Only a judge can legally do that.

Sharpton also spoke about the death of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who was shot by an officer while lunging at another girl with a knife.

“I think it’s important that we look at each incident differently,” Sharpton said. “At the same time, you have to ask the question, is this the only way this officer could have brought this matter down? Is there another way that he could have led to trying to de-escalate what we were facing there? All of that has to be a part of the investigation and the conversation.”

You can watch above, via MSNBC.