ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Protests continued Thursday night in Elizabeth City after sheriff's deputies shot and killed a Black man Wednesday morning.

Deputies shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr., who was 40 years old according to family members, Wednesday morning while they were serving a search and arrest warrant at a home on Perry Street, Pasquetonk County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said. Wooten said the warrant was for felony drug charges.

"I was at work and I hear a whole lot of sirens going off, and I said something is going on in Elizabeth City. So when I found out what had happened, it was my nephew... they had shot him," said Annie Ferebee, Brown's aunt.

The shooting came less than a day after the former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all charges in the murder of George Floyd.

After hearing the news of her own nephew's death, Ferebee said, "You hear things happening far off to other people and you never think its going to happen to you...but it can happen to anybody."

Brown's grandmother described him as a happy child, loving father and someone who brought a smile to everyone around him.

"You say any little thing he'd get so tickled, and he had these deep dimples on the side of his face. And we just loved to talk to him because he was ready to talk and ready to smile at you," Lydia Brown said.

The Brown family says his death is part of a trend they are tired of seeing repeated.

"It shows they haven't learned their lesson yet, not to me. Its getting worse instead of getting better," Ferebee said.

Demetri Williams is a neighbor of Brown. She says she lives down the street and was home when deputies pulled the trigger on Brown.

Williams says, "I heard the first shot. I jumped up and ran down here. By the time I got down here I could see the officer standing behind his car and they were shooting, in the back of his car--he was trying to get away and you can see the track marks in the dirt, and even the mud is still on this side.”

A day later the mud is still caked on the outside paneling of Brown’s home from tires spinning in the grass. She says as Brown tried to drive away from the gunfire, his car hopped the curb and crashed into a tree. When deputies ran to check on him, Williams says Brown was slumping out of his driver’s seat onto the ground.

"It's still unbelievable. When I woke up this (Thursday) morning I was like, ' maybe it's just a dream’.  But it's not. It wasn’t,” Williams says.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations was called in shortly after the shooting to take over the investigation, which is the standard protocol in a police shooting. 

"We will conduct a thorough and complete investigation," SBI Special Agent In Charge Masha Rogers said during a news conference Wednesday.

"Our agents are fact-finders," she said. It will be up to District Attorney Andrew Womble to decide whether to bring charges in the shooting.

"We are going to wait for the full and complete investigation," Womble said during the joint news conference. "This will not be a rush to judgment."

"What we are looking for at this time will be accurate answers and not fast answers," he said. 

But protesters Wednesday night called on officials to release the body camera footage.

The sheriff said the deputies on the scene were wearing body cameras, and they were recording at the time.

Wooten promised transparency in the investigation, but it's not clear when body camera footage could be released. Thursday afternoon, District Attorney Andrew Womble and the Paquetonk County Attorney R. Michael Cox issued a joint statement saying the footage "cannot be released to the press or public without a court order."

"We must follow the law and the law prohibits us from publicly releasing the body worn camera footage," the statement said. "The law does allow a private viewing by the family of Mr. Brown we are working with their attorney to arrange that.”

“I am very concerned about what happened in Elizabeth City,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said in a statement on social media Thursday. “The SBI is presently conducting an independent investigation. We need to allow time for that investigation to be conducted thoroughly so that the appropriate legal conclusions can be reached. I will continue to monitor this situation closely,” he said.

Pasquotank County officials were also feeling the heat of public skepticism by Thursday morning. The City Manager of Elizabeth City, Montre Freeman, confirmed to Spectrum News 1 County Manager Sparty Hammet & County Commissioners hired a crisis intervention consultant to handle the aftermath of the shooting. Coincidentally, Freeman says he was juggling his own inner turmoil as the man who runs the city and as a black father.

Freeman says, “For me it’s about not allowing myself to get into an emotional space so I can make evidenced based decisions.”​

Activists in Elizabeth City, in the northeast corner of North Carolina, protested again Thursday night, calling for transparency and accountability from the sheriff's office and county officials.

The protests have remained peaceful, but the sheriff said he is working with other sheriff's offices and police departments in the area to bring in more officers.

At an emergency city council meeting Wednesday night, Police Chief Eddie Buffaloe said, "We've had a peaceful assembly and people are expressing their views and they have a right to express their views."

The Elizabeth City Police Department was not involved in Wednesday's shooting.

Protesters began gathering in downtown Elizabeth City around 5 p.m. Thursday.

Public offices in Elizabeth City closed as of 3 p.m. Thursday ahead of protests, according to the police department.

"Please be cautious when driving through Elizabeth City. Be aware, citizens are exercising their constitutional rights as they conduct peaceful protests within the city. Be vigilant and obey law enforcement officers and signs as roads are closed periodically for the safe passage of citizens voicing their concerns," the department said.  

The county has also contracted with a crisis intervention specialist to help with the response to the killing.  

Spectrum News 1 reporters Lauren Howard and Patrick Thomas also contributed to this article.