Lawsuit From Andrew Brown Jr.’s Estate Alleges Illegal Warrant

By Alyssa Wilson Published: November 15, 2021

Lawsuit From Andrew Brown Jr.’s Estate Alleges Illegal Warrant

Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by deputies from the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office on April 21, 2021.

In Summary

Changes to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Andrew Brown Jr. allege an officer "altered" his gun before handing it in as evidence and the search warrant was not legal.

A lawsuit filed by the estate of Andrew Brown Jr. has been amended and alleges new details about the death of the Black man at the hands of police.

Brown was shot and killed by deputies from the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office on April 21, 2021. Brown’s family spoke to BNC after they viewed a 20-second clip of body camera footage. Brown’s cousin described the encounter, saying, “The first word that comes to mind is execution-style. They killed my cousin.”

In May, Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble ruled the shooting was justified and declined to charge the deputies involved, BNC previously reported. Womble said officers received information from a confidential source that Brown was allegedly selling drugs.

When officers located Brown, they said he tried to flee in his car. Womble alleged a deputy had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by the vehicle. Shots were then fired from the side and back of the car as Brown drove across a vacant lot.

During a press conference on the shooting, Womble showed body camera footage to the public for the first time after previous requests to have the video released to the media were denied. Months later, in May, Brown’s estate filed a federal lawsuit.

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The estate’s attorney Harry Daniels said the lawsuit’s changes include specific allegations against the officers involved. The new additions allege one of the officers who shot Brown altered his gun before handing it in as evidence, CNN reported.

According to the suit, during an interview, Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Investigator Daniel Meads allegedly told the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation that he “altered the gun he used to shoot at Brown’s vehicle while he was in a dark room inside Brown’s house and before his weapon was confiscated as evidence.”

The lawsuit also alleges the warrant officers used to confront and stop Brown was not legal because a judge did not sign it. Additionally, it alleges two officers on scene told investigators in interviews that they did not shoot at Brown because they did not think he had a weapon or thought Brown’s car would hit them.

The amendments to the lawsuit allege assault and battery, wrongful death, wrongful death negligence and gross negligence. According to CNN, it requests a jury trial and seeks more than $30 million in damages.

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