Andrew Brown Jr. family speaks after seeing bodycam footage of fatal Elizabeth City, NC shooting

you got one [Applause] [Music] all we got to say to the sheriff is don't say no mo just show the video don't say no mo don't say no mo don't say no mo don't say no mo don't say no mo thank y'all so much on behalf of the family [Music] well they can run but they can't hide [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] daniels [Music] that's right we are here to see this video for the family to see this video i spoke with the county attorney mike cox on the 24th and the only issue we had who was gonna see the video we clear that up khalil is here to see this video of what happened to his father and they still keeping this video from us they say they want to make redactions to it redaction should not be made to show it to the son of mr brown open the door it is time for transparency and accountability to take place today today it is time brothers and sisters [Applause] use you in a minute brother okay i'm attorney ben crump and along with attorney harry daniels and attorney bakari sellers we have the honor of representing the family of andrew brown it's so important y'all that we not let them sweep this under the rug because apparently before you all showed up they just wanted to sweep it under the rug as they have done other brothers and sisters who have been unjustifiably killed by the people supposed to protect and serve us it's so very important that we have transparency because if we don't have transparency we can never get to accountability and if we never get to accountability we can never get to healing and trust and so if we want to heal this community if we want to heal this family then sheriff wooten then you need to be transparent what is it on this video that is so damning that you will risk your career and risk losing your job so the people can't see the video and what is it that's the question we have to ask ourselves and when we think about what we just saw happen in minneapolis with derek shelvin being held criminally liable guilty guilty guilty for killing george floyd is that the reason they are trying to hide the video because they don't want accountability and it's still shocking to attorney sellers and attorney daniels and i and i'm sure y'all while they keep killing so many unarmed black people who are running away from them not posing a threat not posing any violence don't we have a right to due process why do the police get to be the judge the jury and the executioner so what we're here for in elizabeth city north carolina where all americans watching today and all the world will be watching tomorrow is to say sheriff wooten you don't need to say no mo just show the video [Music] attorney because sellers how you doing i uh i wish we were somewhere else i wish ben crump wasn't so famous wish we had a week where black folk weren't just dying at the hands of law enforcement amen you know i say often that only in this country can you have the trial of derek chauvin be interrupted by the death of dante wright being erupted by the death of adam toledo be interrupted by the death of micaiah bryant and now we find ourselves here in elizabeth city and so i'm tired but not very often in my legal career do i get the eyes of all of you all and you know what else i'm tired of doing i'm tired of grieving and crying i'm tired of seeing the videos then we protest then we have a funeral then we have another shooting we grieve we cry we protest and so what i want you all to do today is a little bit different i want us to destroy the system that keeps putting us in situations like this that means i want us to make sure that in the state of north carolina they can no longer hide videos from individuals who need to see it that means i want each and every one of you all to take out your phones right now and i want you to google the number of kirsten cinema and joe manchin i want you to call them and ask them why they not signed on to the george floyd justice and policing act amen i want you to make sure that every united states senator democrat and republican passes legislation so we don't have to be in positions like this yeah you know it's good to protest but i'm tired of that yeah i'm tired of it being cyclical because i stand next to a young man who joins another club of black people who will not be able to grow up with their fathers my lord and so i'm asking you to do something a little bit different today they want us to go out in the streets and they want us to get mad and they want us to chant and march because they know in 7-10 days we got to go back home and it's going to happen all over again it does not make sense that the north carolina state legislature can hide videos like this when all we know is that sunshine is the best disinfectant amen and so i just want to see the video this morning y'all got me off my schedule the share told me at 11 30 i could see the video and it's past that and i like to stay on a regiment so i ask you all to just be patient a little bit more because the truth is going to come forth but while we are out here i need you to get on the phones and i want you to go ahead and call joe and kirsten i want you to call every republican senator or democratic senator and make sure that they're passing policy so that these families don't have to be here like this i'm standing with gwen carr behind me i never thought i'd be doing that the mother of eric garner is here only in black communities do we have mothers of people who lost their children due to gun violence no other community has a club like that but we do and so today i ask you all to think a little bit differently about how we gonna break this cycle we're gonna destroy this system and we're gonna reimagine what it should be so we don't have no more deaths like this and the first step mr sheriff is simply do one thing show us the video we don't need you to say anything and we won't have the family address you all until after they see the video and it is troubling it's very troubling that we have to go through this just to achieve simple justice i can't imagine how many of these roland martin and us have been through the fact that the taxpayers have paid all this money for the police to be retrofitted with body camera video and then the time when it's most critically needed they won't show it to the public why did the taxpayers play the money and so bacari is saying federally we also should be acting here in north carolina to say it shouldn't be a judge that has designed for us to see a video that we've already paid our tax dollars to see the video that's asinine so what we have to do is continue to be strategic we have to literally vote the people in office who are going to say we want our children to be able to live out the fulfillment of their destiny that god has for them and not to be shot in the back i mean the most cowardly thing in the world you can do is shoot somebody in the back they don't shoot white men in the back but it's almost like a cliche where people in the black community whether jacob blake and kenosha whether it's uh laquan mcdonald in chicago whether it's walter scott in south carolina whether it's terence crutcher and oklahoma i mean they shoot us in the back as if the most dangerous thing in the world to a police officer is a black man running away they don't shoot these mass murderers these young white men who are confirmed mass murderers i mean when you think about the parkland school shooting i mean they took him alive after he shot up the whole school you think about the young man who went and shot up the people in the asian spot in atlanta they took him alive arthur and then my lord not too far from here in bakari's home state you know this young white boy named dylan roof went and shot up uh the whole church and literally they chased him across state lines into north carolina and they not only took him alive but they took him to burger king to get a burgeoning fry but andrew brown they shoot him in the back and we gonna see the video to know what they're trying to hide from all of y'all because the truth can't hide forever and a lie cannot live forever i gave y'all an assignment so i wanted to follow through i need everybody to take their phones out i know y'all filming but take it out we're going to do something good i i got joe manchin's number right here it's 202-224-3954 202-224 call his office and tell him we tired of black folk dying and then kirsten cinemas numbers 202 say the number one more time for joe manchin 202 and kirsten cinemas 202-224-4521 and just call our office and tell them how you feel let me turn it over to harry harry has an update for you all right so let me be clear we had this thing set up when i say we the family the attorneys with the county attorney mike cox 11 30 was the time that was on the 24th the only issue we had like i said before who was going to see the video we cleared that issue cleared it purged the statute we cleared it 10 29 this morning an hour before the viewing i get an email harry i'm getting ready to do a press release you all see replacement have y'all seen a press release from me harry ready to do a press release that the video is having some redactions performed it will not be ready at 11 30. we are working on as hard as we can but it takes time this intent to have it done by the day they had 24 hours 24 48 hours and they still ain't done they didn't see this video since wednesday april 21st to make that decision do the redactions show us the tape the family should see the so the family should not have been subjected to any redactions they should see the video wrong wrong i was told by the district attorney i was told by this attorney that the family will get to see the raw footage not the redacted version these candidate administrators are walking back the promises they have made show the tape if you ain't got nothing to hide show the tape you all know us very profound i bet you if that video showed andrew doing something wrong they would have no problem showing that video they've been on facebook twitter instagram but it only seems to be when the video has the police doing something wrong then they got to redact it then they don't want to show it we we have to always when we get a chance speak truth to power so we can't do it alone we need all of y'all speaking truth of power for our children because the other thing that is profound this is khalil khalil is the son of andrew brown jr now you all may have noticed that they released uh a warrant saying all kind of things about andrew brown but they want to redact the face of the police officers that killed andrew brown now andrew brown didn't kill nobody the police killed andrew brown but we're going to protect them and not show their face and not say their names so we can see what their rap sheet is because all they want to do is assassinate the character of his father and we want to say no no we want to know what was the character of the killers say his name brown says his name andrew [Music] brown [Music] video [Music] [Music] videos [Music] greetings i am keith rivers president of the paschal tank county branch of the national association for the advancement of colored people as well as the third vice president of the north carolina state conference of the naacp and we will continue to demand justice we will continue to march we will continue to have peaceful protests we will continue to stand for the brown family and this community it is it is almost disgraceful that it has taken the presence of the media to re to get a a notice on from the sheriff's department to release the video and now we're understanding that you don't want to release the video in its entirety you don't want to be transparent but you want to say that to ask the community to trust you well we can't trust you if you're not transparent we have to heal we have to grow sheriff wooten do the right thing womble the d.a do the right thing we will continue and let it be known that this community has now the city has declared a state of emergency and it has been through peaceful protest peaceful protest that is a reflection of this community the people that are elected to office we elected the sheriff we elected the district attorney we elected you do not fail this community do not fail this community to all of the protesters to all of the community out here let the entire united states of america hear you what do we want what do we want when do we want it who do we want it for who do we want it for andrew thank you mr president uh we have the daughter one of the children of andrew brown here and if you ever want to remember what we're fighting for you just look at that little angel um right now we're going to have somebody address you who is part of that fraternity that nobody wants to be part of as bakari and harry talked about she was with the family of george floyd she was with the family of michael brown she was with the family of brianna taylor she has been a shoulder for them to lean on she has been a common force for them and for all of us she's one of the original mothers of the movement and she did not think it robbery elizabeth city to come down and be with the family of andrew brown she is the mother of eric garner the first i can't breathe case in staten island new york before george floyd said i can't breathe y'all let's welcome the mother of the movement the mother of eric garner miss gwen carr um thank you all i just want to give honor to god who is first in my life and i thank you all for standing up for justice this is what we must do everybody has to stand for justice we have to gather like this i'm tired i'm tired of coming to these commun commemorations for black men being shot [Music] that's wavy chin yes okay but again i come to stand in solidarity with this family but too much is too much we can't even get over the trial of george floyd before there were several other murders and then we come down here to elizabeth city where they shoot a man in the back they won't show the video what are they trying to hide [Music] if he had shot one of those police officers or if he had even had a fight with those police officers the video would be all over the nation by now yeah but now they're trying to hide the police face why they are the criminals they say that we are armed and dangerous no they are the ones who are armed and dangerous who are taking our lives they're coming to our communities abusing and brutalizing our children and then they tried to sweep it up under the rug we must say no more sweeping it under the rug no more we want justice we want accountability we can't have this keep on happening and we can't treat it like it's the norm because there's nothing normal about this our children are dying and we have the media it's another news story to the media but this is our lives we have to live this each and every day as they say all police officers isn't bad or black and browns isn't criminals [Music] well we have to treat the situation as it is and i am so so i give my family this my sympathy my love and i stand with you as all of you do and we have to keep on standing together we can't go home and just sit on our couch we have to stay woke people thank you so much you know yeah doing george floyd people wrote and called us from all over the world saying until we get justice for george floyd none of us can breathe i think while we got miss carr here we should remind the powers that be that we can't breathe until we get transparency we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe we can't breathe thank you we want miss gwen carter to know that we still remember her son eric garner never got his day in court that's right and we're still fighting for justice for eric gardner as well yeah thank you thank you thank you all right we got a uh another update from the county they say they getting real close y'all keep the pressure on keep the pressure on keep the pressure [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right guys we're uh we're gonna take the family we're gonna take the family we will be back we get real close and we'll reconvene after we see this video say his name say his name [Music] [Music] y'all [Music] all right gonna try to get some justices all right so folks uh we are here in lisbon city and so as you just heard uh in the news conference just a few moments ago the police department they were supposed to allow the family and the attorneys to see the video of the body cam footage they were supposed to see that at 11 30. i talked to ben crump last night bakari sellers last night they always always were told it was going to be at this particular time hold on one sec it was it was always going to be uh it's always going to be at this particular time go you could go ahead and grab the camera it was coming at this particular time uh but now with the police not what the police are saying uh what the sheriff's department is saying is that they have to actually uh block out or basically shade uh or create those fuzzy images of the police officers they don't want their images uh to actually be released that's what the delay is now again they've had this body camera footage anthony brown jr was shot and killed the day after derrick chauvin was found guilty that was wednesday here we are on monday and they still have not actually done that and so the family and the lawyers have been saying uh that these uh the sheriff's department has has not been responsive uh i've had conversations with the head of the naacp i had a chance to talk with some of the folks a little bit earlier today and they talked about uh the lack of transparency they've been highly critical also the county commissioners initially when this shooting took place a lot of people assumed that it was the elizabeth city police department it wasn't it was the actual uh sheriff's office uh and so uh the county commissioners initially according to the head of the naacp initially backed uh the sheriff on this and so folks here have actually been calling for the sheriff to resign saying he is part of the problem not only that in talking with them uh they said that the previous share fought any any opportunity for body cam footage and then when the new sheriff was elected he then did not mandate body camera footage for all of the folks with the sheriff's department they actually uh were for just for new officers and so what you have had is a serious issue here you have a lack of trust another conversation that i've had with folks here is that they say that elizabeth city is often essentially overlooked in terms of in terms of media uh you know we've been here it's been very interesting that we've been here uh and one of the things uh that has happened has been uh that they've been unwilling to actually uh first of all one thing that they said here is that they don't get much coverage in this city uh it's really on the we're very close to virginia uh i saw more virginia political commercials uh here last night than saw anything else and so uh so what we're getting uh from folks here is that uh they've not gotten much media coverage uh they certainly appreciate the national attention of putting pressure on officials here they say that is what is going to lead to the release but again so far uh it is right now um it is 12 10 and it's 12 it's 12 10 p.m uh right now uh and uh the family they were supposed to see this video at 11 30. they have not done so uh and so when this news conference was over ben crump and i uh were talking he said they're simply going to go back to the cars and they're going to uh basically go and wait uh and wait for the call to come back to the sheriff's office here uh we'll be here we'll be waiting we'll be broadcasting roland martin unfiltered live at 6 p.m eastern apparently there's also planned to be a group of counter protesters uh in support of police uh and these folks who are out here say they're not going anywhere they're gonna be here as well and so uh we'll be showing you the news conference of the family after they're able to see this video if it happens today the sheriff's department said it is going to happen today but the bottom line is it has not happened yet and so we'll certainly be here broadcasting live from elizabeth city north carolina so simply stay tuned roland martin unfiltered please let folks know on all your social media to watch us we'll be live we'll be here uh not only with that news conference but also today at 6 p.m eastern broadcasting our two-hour show we'll be talking with a number of officials here as well and so that is it for now i'm roland martin broadcasting live outside of the shares the public safety building here in elizabeth city of north carolina we'll see you a little bit later

Channel: Roland S. Martin

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Id: rSk3HE8VnCA

Length: 32min 50sec (1970 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021