Black North Carolina man shot dead by police a day after Chauvin verdict

Law enforcement were called to search property and shot man as he was driving away from officers

A man from North Carolina was shot and killed by police who had been called to search his property.

Police arrived at the scene early on Wednesday. Relatives identified the man as 40-year-old Andrew Brown.

Mr Brown, a Black man and a father of 10, was shot by police around 8.30am as he drove away from officers in Elizabeth City, witnesses say. The city is in the northeastern part of the state on the Atlantic coast.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement: “During the execution of the search warrant, a citizen who was subject to the search warrant was shot and fatally wounded.”

Neighbours say they heard anywhere between six and eight shots being fired. Mr Brown’s family stated that he didn’t carry a gun and that he didn’t hurt anyone, local outlet WAVY reported.

The investigation will be taken over by The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. An emergency meeting has been called by the city council and was to be convened on Wednesday evening.

The death of Mr Brown comes amid high tensions across the country as former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering George Floyd on 25 May 2020.

Around 20 minutes before the announcement of the guilty verdict in Minneapolis, police in Columbus, Ohio shot and killed a 16-year-old Black girl who allegedly was carrying a knife and confronting another girl.

“The sheriff needs to address these people,” Keith Rivers, president of the Pasquotank County NAACP said, referring to a group of people who had gathered on Mr Brown’s street.

“In light of everything that’s going in America with the shooting of unarmed Black men, I came down to make sure that the facts are clearly disseminated,” Mr Rivers added.

Locals gathered at the scene to document what took place, protest the shooting, and mourn the loss of Mr Brown.

Police formed a line to block the area where Mr Brown died. His body was placed under a blue tent and remained there hours after the shooting.

Mr Rivers added to WAVY that the police acted as if they were in “riot mode” after the lethal shooting.

Relative Jadine Hampton told Heavy that Mr Brown was “a great storyteller like a comedian” and “a wonderful father, who pushed his kids to be honour roll students even though he never finished school”.

Elizabeth City councilman Darius Horton told 13News Now: “There’s a lot of speculation ... We demand answers here, that’s why we have been elected to talk to the people, to give them answers.”

Sheriff Tommy Wooten said that “it has been a tragic day” and pledged that his department would be transparent during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. He added that it was a Pasquotank County Deputy who fired their gun and that there is body camera footage of the incident.

WAVY reported that North Carolina district attorney Andrew Womble said that he wanted accurate answers, not fast answers, and that there will not be a rush to judgement.