ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (WAVY) — The attorneys for Andrew Brown Jr.’s family are asking Elizabeth City District Attorney Andrew Womble to recuse himself from the investigation into Brown’s police killing.
In a letter sent to District Attorney Womble’s office, civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Bakari Sellers, and Harry Daniels ask Womble to remove himself from the investigation due to his ties to the Elizabeth City Sheriff’s Office.
“Womble’s involvement would be a miscarriage of justice for Andrew Brown Jr., his family, and the people of Elizabeth City,” said Attorney Bakari Sellers.
Seven Pasquotank deputies were involved in the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., 42, as law enforcement attempted to serve a drug-related search warrant on April 21 at a home on Perry Street.
On Friday, the judge who ruled last week to delay the public release of bodycam footage in the Andrew Brown Jr. case filed the order for the release of footage to Brown’s family, nine days after his original ruling.
It’s unclear what caused the delay in the May 6 filing by Judge Jeffrey Foster, a visiting judge from Pitt County, but the timing meant the family might not have seen the footage for another 10 days. They are now expected to view it on Tuesday, May 11.
The family has seen one 20-second clip from one bodycam footage in the wake of Brown’s killing by Pasquotank deputies.
Over the weekend, local clergy members and Pasquotank County officials marched to demand truth, transparency and accountability regarding Brown’s death.
Clergy leaders from across the state came together to post their demands on the doors of the sheriff’s office. Those demands include appointing a special prosecutor to the case conducting an independent investigation into Brown’s death along with a pattern of practice investigation into the sheriff’s office.