It’s been one year since deputies shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr., an unarmed Black man, in Elizabeth City. The district attorney for Pasquotank County declined to press charges in the case.
On Thursday at 5 p.m., community members gathered at the sheriff's office where some will give speeches ahead of a candlelight vigil at waterfront park.
Last year on the morning of April 21, 42-year-old Brown was shot and killed by Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office deputies as they attempted to serve a warrant on drug-related charges at his home in Elizabeth City.
Brown was unarmed when deputies shot at him as he tried to leave in his car, and the shooting sparked months of nightly protests in the streets and calls for justice by family, the community and beyond. The incident also garnered national attention as it become part of the bigger conversation about the killing of Black men and women by law enforcement.
Noted civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers, Harry Daniels, Ben Crump, Chantel Cherry-Lassiter and others have been representing the family in a federal lawsuit. Several lawsuits have been filed in the wake of Brown's death, and they are still making their way through the courts.
A civil rights investigation was also launched by the FBI last year.
