FBI Opens Federal Civil Rights Investigation Into Deadly Police Capturing of Andrew Brown Jr.

Less than 24 hours after the family of Andrew Brown, Jr. Only 20 seconds of video was shown from one of the eight bodycams the police wore when they shot the unarmed 42-year-old man whose hands were on the steering wheel. The FBI has announced that it will initiate a federal civil rights investigation by police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Brown was killed by a bullet in the back of the head on April 21, according to an autopsy and death certificate. This was one of five bullets struck by Brown while the police tried to execute, arrest, and search Brown’s home. News reports that the bullet that killed Brown came from a deputy of a Pasquotank County sheriff.

“The agents will work closely with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to determine if federal laws have been violated,” said Shelley Lynch, spokeswoman for the FBI, according to Danielle Battaglia of The News & Observer.

The state newspaper also reported on the investigation.

The family’s lawyers call the deadly police shooting an “execution”.

The news of the civil rights investigation comes just a day after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ opened an investigation into the Louisville, Kentucky Police Department into which Breonna Taylor, a black, unarmed medical worker, was shot. Taylor was asleep when police forced entry into her home.

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The post FBI Opens Federal Civil Rights Inquiry into Fatal Police Shootings of Andrew Brown Jr. first appeared in the New Civil Rights Movement.