A North Carolina prosecutor said Andrew Brown Jr. hit sheriff deputies with his car before they fatally shot him

• A North Carolina prosecutor says Andrew Brown Jr. hit police with his car before they shot and killed him, AP reported.
• Prosecutor Andrew Womble made the claim during a hearing about whether to release video of the fatal shooting.
• Womble argued to delay the video's release, according to WAVY journalist Jason Marks.

A prosecutor in North Carolina said Wednesday that Andrew Brown Jr., the Black man shot and killed by North Carolina sheriff's deputies, had hit officers with his vehicle before they fired at him, the Associated Press first reported.

District Attorney Andrew Womble made the claim at a court hearing Wednesday about whether a judge should authorize the release of body camera footage from the April 21 incident. Lawyers for Brown's family said earlier this week they were only shown a 20-second clip of the footage.

Womble claimed the video showed Brown hitting officers with his car, WAVY journalist Jason Marks reported. Marks asked the judge to wait 30 days before releasing the footage because he said it would jeopardize the credibility of witnesses, Marks said.

At the hearing, Womble said there were four body cameras recording when Brown was killed, 13 News reporter Evan Watson reported via Twitter.

Pasquotank County sheriff's deputies were trying to arrest Brown on felony drug charges when one shot and killed Brown. They said he was trying to flee at the time. The FBI on Tuesday said it was launching a civil rights investigation into Brown's killing.

Lawyers for Brown's family said that an independent autopsy determined Brown was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Four bullets also grazed his right arm, they said.