'God We Need Your Presence': Local Pastors Pray for Peace in Elizabeth City, NC After Death of Andrew Brown

After hours of anticipation, the family of Andrew Brown, Jr. was shown just twenty seconds of footage from only one police body camera, leaving them infuriated with more questions than answers about his death.

"It's ridiculous and it's outrageous and so disrespectful to the family," said Rosa Brown, a relative of Andrew Brown. "To have waited so long, not only mourning the death of how it happened but to wait this long to get disappointed like that is ridiculous," she told CBN News Monday.

The family had planned to see the video at 11:30 am Eastern time. But an hour before the meeting they were informed of an unexpected delay. Harry Daniels, one of the lawyers for the Brown family, said he received an email at 10:29 a.m. on Monday from Pasquotank County Attorney Michael Cox that redactions were being made to the video.

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Andrew Brown died last Wednesday when deputies in Elizabeth City, NC opened fire while serving multiple warrants on him for drug charges. Witnesses had previously said deputies opened fire when Brown tried to drive away.

But a family attorney says the short clip shown Monday begins with police firing their weapons at Brown sitting in his car – which was blocked by law enforcement officials – making it impossible for him to escape.

"We do not feel that we got transparency – we only saw a snippet," said family attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and most recently, George Floyd and Daunte Wright.

At a press conference after viewing the video, Chantal Cherry-Lassiter, the only attorney permitted to view the footage, said, "Let's be clear, this was an execution. Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel he was not reaching for anything."

Calls are growing for authorities to release unredacted footage from other body cameras and any police dashboard cameras, which requires a court order.

Pasquotank County sheriff's office Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg released a video statement Monday saying the office will comply if the court orders them to release the body camera footage, which is the law in North Carolina. 

"The taxpayers pay a lot of money for these video cameras to be retrofitted for police uniforms for this specific purpose so why is it where it's so critical we have transparency that they're denying the public from seeing this video," Crump said in an interview with CBN News. 

Family attorney Bakari Sellers is urging the public to demand that all footage of the shooting be made public.

"It's above us now. We need everybody to put pressure on them to show the world what happened," Sellers told CBN News.

Sellers, a civil rights attorney, and political commenter, claimed Pasquotank County Attorney Michael Cox tried to keep lawyers for Brown's family from viewing the footage.

"We went back and forth and I just want to say I've never been talked to like I was talked to in there," Sellers told reporters outside the Pasquotank County Public Safety Center.

"I went to the back and I know that we're live on the news around the world, so I will say that Mr. Cox told me, a grown black man, that he 'was not f-ng' going to be bullied," Sellers said. "So I walked out."

The city is now under a state of emergency and some fear that the peaceful protests following Brown's death will escalate. Monday night protestors marched to Cox's home, calling on him to resign.

"They're going to make people do things like start being more negative," said Elizabeth City resident Felicia Hickson. "Everybody's been trying to be positive and be peaceful but they're making it hard at this point. I just don't want to see the city have to go out in a riot."

Many are also calling for county Sheriff Tommy Wooten to step down. "I think the sheriff has failed us as a community," City Councilman Darius Horton told CBN News. "I support his resignation."

Local pastors are praying for peace.

"Right now we have many hearts that are hurting especially from what was heard today," said Pastor Matt Harrell of Forerunner Church. "You can feel it in the atmosphere now more than ever."

He shared how he is praying for Brown's family and for his city.   

"First prayer is that God's presence would be in this city in such a great way because in his presence there's healing, there's comfort, there's strength, there's peace and so my first prayer is, 'God we need your presence.'" 

Meanwhile, Brown's family continues to seek justice in his death.

"I don't care about nothing else. I just want to see justice for my cousin," Steve Sears told CBN News as he broke down in tears.