Andrew Brown, Jr., a 42-year old unarmed Black man shot to death by police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, died from a “penetrating gunshot wound of the head,” according to his death certificate, CNN reports. Brown was killed by police one day after a jury handed down a guilty verdict in the police killing of George Floyd.
Police, who were trying to serve a warrant to Brown, reportedly unloaded at least ten shots as he drove away from his home.
North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper last week had urged police to allow the family view the video but only now has the city agreed to allow they to see it, and not until after police have edited the video.
As of 1:40 PM CNN’s updated reporting says Brown’s family still has not been allowed to view the video.
Elizabeth City officials Monday morning declared a state of emergency ahead of the video being viewed.
Earlier reports stated Brown had been shot in the back.
Raleigh, North Carolina’s News & Observer on Sunday published a lengthy piece looking at the shooting from the point of view of a neighbor of Brown’s, Michael Gordon.
“One of the shots deputies fired tore through Gordon’s house,” the paper reports. “Above the numbers next to his front door was a small hole where a bullet entered.”
The bullet “shattered the glass of a clock on the other side of the wall. The bullet went from there through a picture frame on the opposite wall, above a chair where Gordon’s wife often sits in the living room. From there the bullet continued through the kitchen.”
“It hit my Crockpot,” Gordon said in a matter-of-fact way, pointing at it on Thursday, “and landed on the floor.”
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“That’s the right height of my damn head,” he said, looking at the broken glass of his clock.
“Normally,” the paper adds, “Gordon would have been home Wednesday morning, at the time of the shooting, and a day later he was still thanking God that he had not been home — that his wife hadn’t been, either; or that the grandkids hadn’t been over to visit.”