Police won’t face charges in Andrew Brown shooting

Prosecutor Andrew Womble said deputies in Elizabeth City, N.C., had a reason to use deadly force against a suspect in a drug case. Andrew Brown struck a deputy with his car as officers approached him to serve search and arrest warrants on April 21, Womble said. Three of the seven officers present opened fire, killing Brown. His family reviewed body camera video footage and said he was driving away from the deputies and posed no threat. “Federal courts have held that the Constitution simply does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm,” Womble said Tuesday.

What happens now? Womble will not charge the deputies involved in the shooting with a state crime, but the FBI is still conducting a civil rights investigation of the incident. Brown’s family called Womble’s decision a miscarriage of justice. The prosecutor played portions of the bodycam footage from the shooting at a news conference on Tuesday. He said he does not plan to release the videos in their entirety.

Dig deeper: Read Charissa Koh’s report in Compassion about the trouble police departments are having recruiting new officers.