Andrew Brown’s Family Decry His ‘Execution’ By Police After Finally Seeing 20-Second Snippet of Body Cam Video

Sarah RumpfApr 26th, 2021, 6:25 pm
 

“This was an execution.” That was the blunt assessment of an attorney for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. after they were finally able to view a 20-second snippet of the body cam video of the police shooting him while they sought to execute an arrest warrant.

The family had been requesting the video for days since Brown’s death, but had been unable to do so until today because of restrictions of North Carolina law, which says that such videos can only be released under a court order if it will not damage the ongoing investigation.

The family was shown a short segment of one video on Monday, and they had harsh criticism of the Pasquotank County Attorney, whom they blame for the delay in releasing the video. The family also said he was disrespectful of them.

“This was an execution,” said Chantal Lassiter, one of the family’s attorneys. “Andrew Brown was in his driveway. The sheriff’s truck blocked him in his driveway so he could not exit his driveway. Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel. He was not reaching anything. He was not touching anything. Not throwing anything around. He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel. They ran up to his vehicle shooting.”

“He still stood there, sat there in his vehicle with his hands on the vehicle while being shot at,” Lassister concluded.

Benjamin Crump, another of the family’s attorneys, told CNN later that there were seven or eight police officers on the scene, but only that 20-second snippet of one of the videos was released. He also pointed out that the video clip began after the police were already shooting, making it unclear how the incident began. Recordings of 911 calls from the scene include several mentions of Brown being shot “in the back.”

The family is continuing to demand the release of the full videos from the body cameras of all the police officers involved.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.