To this point has been on body camera footage from the officers involved. What it shows and what it does not. We, the public, dont know because that video still has not been released publicly. Andrew brown jr. s family has been allowed to see at least some of it. Theres been a lot of back and forth over that. Let me play for you as we are waiting here for this press conference to begin what two of his sons said after lets just hold right here. It looks like the District Attorney is beginning right now. Lets listen in. First of all, id like to thank everybody for being here today. Once again, just as a form of introduction, my name is andrew wombel im the elected District Attorney for judicial district one which is the seven counties of the northeast. Well have this conference today. I have some prepared remarks that ill be reading from. The i have copies of those already prepared that you may pick up. If you would like to have us email those to you, if you supply us with an email, well be happy to do so. On wednesday, april 21st, 2021, andrew brown jr. Of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was shot and killed by three deputies with the county Sheriffs Office. This incident occurred at the residence of mr. Brown located at 421 perry street in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. After reviewing the investigation, conducted by the North Carolina state bureau of investigation, mr. Browns death while tragic was justified because mr. Browns actions caused three deputies with the county Sheriffs Office to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others. While the officer involved shooting that resulted in the death of andrew brown occurred on wednesday, april 21st, Law Enforcement involvement with mr. Brown began in the weeks prior and put the wheels in motion that eventually led to the attempted service of arrest and search warrants on april 21, 2021. And in the early months of this year, detective johnson with the county Sheriffs Office received information from a reliable confidential source that andrew brown jr. From Elizabeth City was selling drugs in their county. Detective johnson contacted the county and confirmed mr. Browns identity and that he is a known drug dealer. Upon learning this information, the detective johnson with the aid of the confidential informant made two undercover buys from brown on march 17th, 2021 and march 29th, 2021. Those buys were of cocaine and heroin respectively. A later fbi lab analysis determined that heroin was laced with fentanyl. Arrest warrants were issued for his arrest on april 20th, 2021. Simultaneous with the activity of the county Sheriffs Office, the county Sheriffs Office began collecting their own intelligence on the drug activity of mr. Brown at his residence at 421 perry street. Detective ryan meets applied for and obtained a search warrant for the residence and vehicles of mr. Brown. On tuesday, april 20th, 2021, Law Enforcement now possessed two arrest warrants for the sale of controlled substances in their county and as well as a search warrant for the residence and vehicles mr. Brown. A joint team of the county was assembled. The county Drug Task Force was to provide surveillance and the officers president hasnt it day were detective johnson, sergeant roof and detective langley. The special operation and tactics team would serve the warrants and take mr. Brown into custody. Their team consisted of lieutenant judge, sergeant meedz, detective morgan, Deputy Bishop, Deputy Swindell and lunsford. Morgan, luellen, bishop and swindale were wearing body cameras. They were going to serve the warrant on the night of april 20, 2021, however he was not at his residence and could not be located by the surveillance team. On the morning of april 21, 2021 at approximately 5 30 a. M. , Law Enforcement held a briefing here at the county Sheriffs Office and plan to serve the warrants on mr. Brown. During the briefing conducted by sergeant meedz, the team was briefed on mr. Brown and his past involvement with Law Enforcement. It was relaid to the team that mr. Brown has multiple resist arrest charges and convictions dating back to 1995. Additionally mr. Brown has assault, assault with a Deadly Weapon and assault serious injury afflictions back to 1995. Further mr. Brown has barricaded doorways during previous home search warrants instances. No children were believed to be at the location and the mother plaintiff browns minor children was seldom at his residence. At approximately 8 00 a. M. Mr. Brown was located on speed street here in Elizabeth City by one of the members of the dare county narcotics team. Mr. Brown then drove his vehicle to his residence at 421 perry street and remained in his vehicle until Law Enforcement arrived. Upon receiving this information, the county team traveled to 421 perry street to serve the warrants in a clearly marked county Sheriffs Office truck with blue lights and emergency lights flashing. Detective langley drove the vehicle and Deputy Lunsford was in the passenger seat. The remaining members of the county team were in the truck bed as the truck was en route. Upon arriving to 421 perry street at 8 23 a. M. , mr. Brown was still sitting in his vehicle beside the residence. Detective langley pulled the truck in the driveway with his right front bumper close to the front bumper of browns vehicle to block any Forward Motion and brown was still seated in the vehicle. The six members of the county Team Approached browns vehicle, identified themselves, shouted commands to show them his hands and to exit the vehicle. All members were wearing clearly marked county Sheriffs Office gear and uniforms. Deputy lunsford headed directly to the drivers door with his weapon drawn and attempted to open the door. Deputy swindel accompanied Deputy Lunsford to the drivers side of the car. Deputy lou ellen went around the county truck and approached the vehicle from the front passenger side and Deputy BishopDeputy Bishop and Sergeant Meads were in front of browns car. Deputy morgan approached last and positioned himself between Deputy Bishop and Sergeant Meads. Nothing ever works the way its supposed to, does it . If youll just be patient. I want you to have a fuel, complete, and accurate view of what transpired and what the deputy saw that particular day. Right there. Stop. Once again, i will repeat, youre looking at deputy luellens body cam. He went around the county truck. He approached from the passenger side. Deputy bishop, Sergeant Meads were directly in front of browns vehicle and Deputy Morgan approached last and positioned himself between Deputy Bishop and Sergeant Meads. Brown was holding his phone when Law Enforcement approached. You skipped. Can you back up . Back up. All right. Brown brown threw the phone down and began to back his car way from the officers. Am i completely offline at thi s point . You need to back up to about five slides. Leave it right there. Youre at photo 11. If you would back up to photo 6. All right. Thank you. At this point, i give you the nod to move forward. Brown through the phone down and began to back the car way from the officers. Deputy lunsfords hand was still on the drivers door handle as browns car reversed and the handle snatched out of his hand. At this moment Deputy Lunsford yelled out and Deputy Lunsford was pulled over the hood of browns vehicle where his body and his Safety Equipment were struck by the vehicle. Deputy lunsfords left arm was squarely on the hood. Deputy lunsford took evasive action to get out of the way in browns vehicle. And Law Enforcement commands became more heated with pro fon tis shouted for brown to stop the car. Brown ignored the officers commands and backed his car until he was blocked by the rear of his residence. Continue. Continue. Right there. Brown then put the car in drive and turned the Steering Wheel left directly at Law Enforcement officers who had now surrounded his vehicle. Despite this tense situation and the aggressive driving by mr. Brown, no Law Enforcement officer fired a shot. As browns car starts forward, Deputy Lunsford was now positioned directsly in front of the vehicle and all officers were shouting commands to stop. Brown ignored the commands and drove directly at Deputy Lunsford. Deputy lunsford used his left hand to push off of the hood. It was at this moment that the first shot is fired. Deputy lunsford then spun out of the way to avoid being run over by browns vehicle. One more. According to the North CarolinaJustice Academy forensic analyst reynolds, the first shot was fired by Sergeant Meads and it entered the front windshield of mr. Browns car. Let me say that again. It entered the front wind cshie of mr. Browns car. Browns car continued forward passing Deputy Lunsford, Deputy Morgan and Sergeant Meads and several shots are heard. One shot struck brown in the shoulder. Several more entered the rear passenger side door and window. Browns vehicle then accelerated across the vacant lot next to 421 perry street and five additional shots entered the rear windshield and trunk of browns vehicle. At this moment brown was driving directly at investigator johnson positioned on roanoke avenue in an unmarked white van. Lieutenant judd was positioned on the corner of roanoke and perry in an unmarked white Crown Victoria. Browns car narrowly missed striking the van operated by investigators johnson who accelerated to avoid the collision. Browns vehicle crossed roanoke avenue and struck a tree in the residence on roanoke avenue and came to rest. The county team gave chase, removed brown from the drivers seat and life saving efforts were immediately begun. Emergency medical services were requested at 8 26 a. M. Lieutenant judd was a supervising officer. He was on the scene at the time of the shooting. Other supervising officers of the county Sheriffs Office arrived including chief deputy fog who collected the weapons and cell phones of the officers who fired. All of the following is clearly depicted on the body cameras that were operational and functioning properly on april 21, 2021. They were being worn by the aforementioned county Sheriffs Officers. The total length of officer involvement with mr. Brown from the time they exited the vehicle until mr. Brown was removed from the vehicle is 44 seconds. Im now going to show you the four body cam videos that depict Law Enforcement activity with mr. Brown on that day. All right. Were going to jump out of this. This is the first time any body cam video footage from this shooting of andrew brown is going to be seen publicly. We need to be very careful and respectful before putting that out there in first pass. Because we know how this ends on this footage and we need to be very careful in how we treat it. So were going to let this moment pass. Were going to watch this video. Well obviously now that it is being made public for first time by the da, well be able to put that together and we will be able to bring it to you shortly. But while were waiting as this press conference continues, let me bring in cheryl dorsey, a retired Police Sergeant with the lapd. Reverend greg drumwright. He is a political organizer who has been advising the brown family and joey jackson, a cnn legal analyst. I have to tell you, reverend, id like to get your take as you have been close with the family and advising them. I am p shocked and honestly a little confused why this video is now able to be shown when there was so much made about how it could not be made publicly previously. Can you just give me your reaction to what we heard so far . My reaction is that this is come forth now several weeks after the public outcry but more specifically the family has been demanding truth and transparency simply because the sheriffs, the da know that this has been a coverup. And it is very questionable to us as to why now . Why not sooner than now . What have they been seeking to conceal . What have they been seeking to hide . 44 seconds of video but we know there are more than two hours available from that day. Why would they not release the entire video from all five body cams to the family even though theyre only showing the public again today 44 seconds. First 20 seconds then 18 minutes and now 44 seconds. There is still so much missing. And we want truth and accountability in this case. I want to get your reaction. We dont know we have not reached the conclusion of what the District Attorney is going to tell us in the end. There will be charges . Will there not be charges . We dont know where this is going to go. And we the control room is going to tell me when well jump back into the press conference. But you can see talk to me about im going to call it the leadup that this da is laying out. We heard him. He seems he so far is quite focused on the past criminal record of andrew brown jr. Yes. So, kate, my view of this is that there has been a determination. That he said at the outset that is the da that it was justified and everything he is saying there after seems to justify that conclusion. Heres my concern. Havent seen the evidence, havent seen the body cams, the public hasnt. So from an analysis perspective, its hard to give it. But let give you perspective i do have. I never liked to see the local elected d. A. Dealing with matters that are involved in their jurisdiction. What do i mean . You have a prosecutions office, kate that, historically relies upon police in that jurisdiction to solve and resolve case thats dont involve police. So therefore, why is the local da opining and drawing conclusions with respect to police in that jurisdiction . It should be separate and apart and should be independent. You talk about community trust. Thats how you get it. With an independent investigation. Step number two of concern, this appeared to me to be a savaging of the victim in the case. You have a person who is dead. You have indication thats oh, he barricaded doors before. He is a drug dealer. Hes involved in drug sales. He has a prior conviction. Hes got past convictions. Thats problematic. Third point, quickly, and that is you cant cherry pick evidence. Every case there are disputed issues of fact f you allow for transparency joey, im sorry to interrupt were going to jump back into this everybody. Scene of the incident. We viewed the scene and later that day i met with sheriff wooten, special agent rogers, members of the fbi team that would conduct the investigation. On may 11th, 2021, the sbi lead case agent began releasing the sbi report gathered. I read the sbi reports and other documents as investigated by the sbi. I reviewed the sbi investigation which included interviews of the deputies involved with the county Sheriffs Office, interviews of civilian witnesses, interview of dr. Karen l. Kelly, a forensic pathologist at the Brodie School of medicine from greenville, photographs of the scene, ballistics and trajectory report of cason reynolds, analysis of weapons and shell casings, the Law Enforcement personnel records of the deputies involved, video footage of the body cameras at the scene and the crime scene report. In addition, i have met or had telephone contact with jason godfry practically every day since april 21, 2021. Agent godfry and i reviewed the trajectory rod analysis performed by agent candace pegram and assist bid rob evans and stephen style on april 22nd, 2021. Further, i sought advice and counsel from numerous elected District Attorneys around the state who have had recent experience with oufr ifficer ind shooting cases. There are 14 house nears 421 perry street and each location vased for evidence and witnesses. Four civilians provided statements to Law Enforcement plchlt williams stated she lived in the vicinity of 421 perry street and heard gun shots from inside of her residence. She further stated that after hearing the first shot, she exited her home, went down the street and saw the remainder of the shots being fired. Her home is approximately 100 yards away from 421 perry street. The total time from the fir