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Elizabeth City — A Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a Black man Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City while trying to carry out a search warrant.
A neighbor and friend of the decedent, Demetria Williams, said she saw deputies open fire on 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. as he tried to leave in his car, which then crashed into a tree. She said that Brown did not have a gun.
Deputies from the Pasquotank and Dare County sheriff’s offices were serving the warrant around 8:30 a.m. at 421 Perry Street, said Sheriff Tommy Wooten at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Elizabeth City.
Williams said she heard the first shot and ran from her house to see what had happened, she said as she stood on Brown’s front porch Wednesday evening.
“I saw it,” she said. “He did not have a gun. He’s not a violent person.”
Brown, who lived alone, tried to leave in his car — which was backed into the driveway — as officers arrived. As he tried to pull away, police shot into the front of the car. He veered across a vacant grassy lot toward Roanoke Avenue. Police continued shooting at the back of the car as he drove away, Williams said. He hit a tree on the roadside. Williams counted 12 shell casings in Brown’s driveway. Police pulled his body from the car, she said.
His son, Khalil Ferebee, was at his father’s home late Wednesday. Brown never owned a gun, he said.
Wooten said the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting and he will take action based on the agency’s findings. He would not provide any other details of the shooting or what the warrant was for.
“It’s been a tragic day,” Wooten said.
SBI special agent Masha Rogers and District Attorney Andrew Womble also were at the press conference.
“What we’re looking for at this time are accurate answers and not fast answers,” Womble said.
The deputy is on administrative leave, which is routine in shootings involving law enforcement officers. Officials did not identify him by name or race. He was wearing a body camera, Wooten said. The sheriff said he had not viewed the footage at the time of the press conference. Wooten was not aware of any other injuries.
There has been one other officer-involved shooting in Elizabeth City within the past decade, but it was not fatal.
About 25 people were peacefully gathered Wednesday afternoon on Roanoke Avenue, the main road that passes by Perry Street, in a predominately Black neighborhood of modest houses. Police and deputies were working the case and guarding property behind crime tape that blocked about 200 feet of Roanoke Avenue.
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“They need to quit using those guns,” said Alvin Felton, a native of Elizabeth City who knew Brown. “They can get him another day.”
Felton hoped there would be protests, but did not want to see further violence in town.
The Elizabeth City Council met at 6 p.m. Wednesday to hear a report on the shooting from Police Chief Eddie Buffaloe and to discuss possibilities of a curfew and whether to declare a state of emergency, said Mayor Bettie Parker. Buffaloe told council members he had access to 150 officers and the National Guard could be called in, Parkers said.
A peaceful crowd about 100 gathered outside the city council meeting.
“We do not want violence,” she said. “We just wanted to be prepared.”
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Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com
Saleen Martin, 757-446-2027, saleen.martin@pilotonline.com