Deputies Serve Warrant on Black Man, End Up Killing Him

North Carolina sheriff's deputies showed up Wednesday to execute a search warrant on a Black man, and that man is now dead after a deputy fatally shot him. Per ABC News, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten says Andrew Brown Jr., believed to be in his early 40s, was killed around 8:30am when deputies arrived at his home in Elizabeth City to serve the warrant. A witness tells the AP that deputies fired multiple shots at Brown as he was driving away, and that Brown's car veered off the road and crashed into a tree. "When they opened the door ... he was slumped over," she says. Few other details about the shooting were mentioned, including how many shots were fired or what the search warrant was for. "It's been a tragic day," Wooten said, adding that the officer did have an active body camera and that, while he wasn't ready to release that footage, the department is vowing to be "transparent" about what happened.

Court records show Brown has a history of drug charges, as well as a conviction for drug possession, a misdemeanor. Protesters gathered later Wednesday, expressing frustration at how little info has been made available about the shooting and demanding bodycam footage be released. "There is a moment of hurt in Elizabeth City," Councilman Darius J. Horton said at an evening meeting, per USA Today. A friend tells the News & Observer that Brown, said to be a father of 10, wasn't violent, noting, "He didn't mess with guns." The friend adds, "He didn't deserve to die." The deputy who killed Brown, meanwhile, has been placed on leave pending a probe into the shooting by the State Bureau of Investigation, which will then share its findings with District Attorney Andrew Womble. Womble, for his part, says his office will seek "accurate answers and not fast answers." (More police shooting stories.)