Days after the prosecutor for Pasquotank County announced he would not charge deputies who killed Andrew Brown Jr., civil rights leaders called for a federal investigation into the sheriff's office and the district attorney.
They spoke in front of the county public safety center in Elizabeth City, not far from where deputies killed Brown, 42, a month earlier. Deputies with a SWAT-like unit were trying to serve warrants on Brown, a Black man, when they shot him as he tried to drive away.
"We stand behind a full FBI investigation," longtime North Carolina civil rights leader Rev. William Barber said. "We need an expedited, like right now, because of the lying and the untruth that’s going on."
The FBI has already opened up a civil rights investigation into the killing. Barber, along with North Carolina NAACP President Rev. Anthony Spearman, prepared a letter for the Department of Justice asking it to move faster on the ongoing investigation and open new pattern-or-practice investigations into the prosecutor and the sheriff.
The Department of Justice's pattern-or-practice investigations are typically used to reform police departments where investigators find "serious patterns and practices of excessive force, biased policing and other unconstitutional practices by law enforcement," according to the DOJ.
"There’s too much corruption in Elizabeth City. We need the FBI to continue its investigation," Spearman said. "It’s time to kill the corruption."
RELATED: Watch: Prosecutor shows body camera video of deputies killing Andrew Brown
District Attorney Andrew Womble this week presented his take on the State Bureau of Investigation's findings on the killing. He said none of the deputies would be charged for killing Brown.
The sheriff said the deputies involved would be disciplined and retrained.
Womble said Brown used his car as a deadly weapon when he tried to get away. Speaking to the press, he said several times that the officers "couldn't let him get away." He showed a body camera video of Brown swerving his car between deputies before they opened fire, ultimately killing him with a gunshot to the back of the head.
Brown did not have a gun, Womble said. He said he considered Brown to be using his car as a deadly weapon.
RELATED: AG says Andrew Brown killing 'justified,' won’t file charges against deputies
"Why did he keep repeating ‘we couldn’t let him go?’" Barber asked. "This is not 'dead or alive.' A warrant is not a license to kill."
He was quick to point out that police arrested Dylann Roof, a white man who killed nine Black people in a Charleston, South Carolina church. "They arrested Al Capone, they didn’t even kill him," Barber said.
When asked earlier this week if there was any recourse to his decision not to charge the deputies, the prosecutor said, "the ballot box." Womble is not running for re-election to district attorney, but he is planning to run for Superior Court judge.
But Barber and Spearman rejected having to wait until the next election. "We don’t have to wait until the ballot box. We can get a federal investigation now," Barber said.
Barber had a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding the investigation. He invited community members to sign onto the letter.
Protesters continue to march in Elizabeth City, calling for transparency and for the county to release the full body camera video from April 21 when deputies killed Brown. A judge has rejected releasing the video to the public but is considering a new motion to release the video.
North Carolina law requires a judge to sign off on releasing body camera video.
Spectrum News 1 has reached out to the district attorney’s office for comment.
