A demonstrator yells from her car as protesters took to the streets in Elizabeth City, N.C., on Monday, April 26, 2021, to protest the killing of Andrew Brown by police and to demand the full body camera footage be released. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — An independent autopsy shows that Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to a report released Tuesday by family attorneys.
A pathologist hired by Brown’s family examined his body on Sunday and noted four wounds to the right arm and one to the head, the report said. The state’s autopsy has not been released yet.
The family’s lawyers also released a copy of the death certificate, which lists the cause of death as a “penetrating gunshot wound of the head.” It describes the death as a homicide.
Brown was shot Wednesday by deputies serving drug-related search and arrest warrants in the eastern North Carolina town of Elizabeth City.
The autopsy results come a day after Brown’s relatives were shown body camera footage of the shooting. Another family lawyer, Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, who viewed a 20-second portion of the video, said Monday that officers opened fire on Brown while he had his hands on the steering wheel of a car. She said she lost count of the numerous gunshots while viewing the footage.
Brown’s son Khalil Ferebee questioned why deputies had to shoot so many times at a man who, he said, posed no threat.
“Yesterday I said he was executed. This autopsy report shows me that was correct,” he said at a news conference Tuesday. “It’s obvious he was trying to get away. It’s obvious. And they’re going to shoot him in the back of the head?”
The pathologist, North Carolina-based Dr. Brent Hall, noted a wound to the back of Brown’s head from an undetermined distance that penetrated his skull and brain. He said there was no exit wound.
“It was a kill shot to the back of the head,” family attorney Ben Crump said.
Two shots to Brown’s right arm penetrated the skin. Two others shots to the arm grazed him. The pathologist could not determine the distance from which they were fired.
The shooting prompted days of protests and calls for justice and transparency. The body camera footage has not been made public.
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