North Carolina sheriff’s deputy fatally shoots Black man while serving warrant – Everett Post

Everett

(ELIZABETH CITY, NC) – A sheriff’s deputy shot dead a black man Wednesday while executing a search warrant in North Carolina.

The shooting occurred around 8:30 a.m. ET when MPs from the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office tried to deliver a search warrant to the man identified as Andrew Brown Jr. at his home in Elizabeth City, about 170 miles northeast of Raleigh. According to Tommy Wooten, Pasquotank County’s sheriff, Brown was fatally wounded during the encounter.

“It was a tragic day,” said Wooten at a brief press conference on Wednesday.

Wooten told reporters he was not sure about Brown’s age, but court records show he was 42 years old.

The unnamed MP who fired the fatal shot has been on administrative leave pending review by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, according to Wooten, who promised “to be transparent and to take the correct action based on the results seize “.

“I have put together a team of local law enforcement agencies to come to Pasquotank County to keep the citizens of our community safe and secure,” the sheriff said.

The deputy wore an active body camera, but the sheriff said he would not release the footage at the time.

“We’re working on it as hard as possible right now,” Wooten told reporters. “We will be absolutely transparent in this situation.”

Wooten declined to say what the warrant was for or how many shots were fired.

Masha Rogers, the special agent in charge of the northeastern district of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, said investigators would conduct a thorough investigation before forwarding their findings to Andrew Womble, the district attorney for North Carolina’s first law enforcement district.

“He will make a decision on any criminal charges,” Rogers told reporters.

Womble said his office will look for “exact answers, not quick answers”.

“There will be no rush to judgment,” Womble told reporters. “We will wait for this investigation because we are obliged to.”

Further details about the shooting were not immediately available.

Brown’s death is the latest in a series of officer shootings of black men, women and children that have sparked protests across the country and even overseas. Dozens of people, some with signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killing Unarmed Black Men,” gathered Wednesday at the location of the shooting in Elizabeth City and outside City Hall, where the city council was holding an emergency meeting.

The crowd grew as the sun set and hundreds blocked traffic on a high street in Elizabeth City and another group gathered outside the Pasquotank County sheriff’s office.