- The police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. inflamed tensions between local leaders in
North Carolina . Elizabeth City officials said they've dealt with racist insults, threats, and vandalism recently.- They called on Pasquotank County officials to be more transparent about Brown's death.
In the four weeks since sheriff's deputies shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr., a small North Carolina community of 18,000 residents - more than half of them Black - has come under national scrutiny.
While Elizabeth City was quiet last year as an anti-police brutality movement swept the country, officials there said, Brown's April 21 killing brought protesters into the streets to call for justice.
Those demonstrations, which city officials said have been largely peaceful, inflamed tensions with leaders at the county level who they say did not take responsibility for the fatal shooting of a black man and were not transparent with the public during a critical moment in the region's history.
City councilors told Insider they've been bearing the brunt of the backlash from their community, even though the police force and agencies they oversee were not involved in the shooting. Some officials who spoke out publicly against Pasquotank County leaders following Brown's death say they've been subjected to racism, threats, and vandalism.
"I've gotten threatening hate mail. I've been called a n***** for the first time in my life," Councilman Darius J. Horton told Insider recently. "I had a letter that was on my desk last night from somebody who was not trying to be anonymous or anything, that said the man who died was a piece of sh**. He deserved to die as a criminal, and all this kind of stuff."
Horton is among several city officials who have called for the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office to be more transparent and have meetings to address the community's concerns. The sheriff's office had declined to hold a joint meeting with the city to discuss Brown's death.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion, but it's just really just put us in a bad place. I think our community is a good community that comes together," Horton, who is also a local mortician and worked with Brown's family, said. "Even if Mr. Brown did something wrong, the lack of transparency is not helping the situation."
Sheriff's deputies shot and killed Brown while trying to serve him with an arrest warrant on felony drug charges. While authorities haven't announced a cause of death, an independent autopsy released by Brown's family revealed that he died from a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Body camera footage in the case has not been released to the public. The region's chief prosecutor first showed some portions of the footage to reporters on Tuesday, when he announced the deputies were justified in shooting Brown.
District Attorney Andrew Womble revealed the results of the State Bureau of Investigation's probe into the killing at a press conference and said the deputies involved would not be charged. Womble told reporters that Brown used his car as a "deadly weapon," though it appeared Brown was attempting to flee deputies in the portion of body camera footage shown to reporters.
Councilman Kem Spence told Insider that he disagreed with Womble's decision to decline to charge the deputies, as well as his contention that Brown used his car as a deadly weapon.
"I don't agree with it," Spence, who has also been critical of the county government, said. "It shocked me, but I mean I can't change his mind and I can't tell him what he sees with his eyes."
"There are some 'good ol' boys' there"
While the Elizabeth City Police Department is overseen by the mayor, the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office answers to and is funded by the county commission.
Horton told Insider that the county and city governments haven't always seen eye to eye. The mayor of Elizabeth City and and five of its eight city councilors are Black; five of the eight county commissioners are white.
"I want to be politically correct," Horton said. "But there are some 'good ol' boys' there."
"We never have gotten along really. I would say that," he added. "But they have not done anything during this moment. They haven't addressed the community or anything, so it's been a very bad look on their part."
County Manager Smarty Hammett didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. But he pushed back on the city council's criticism in a comment to local TV station WAVY, saying the commissioners haven't been dodging their responsibility.
"Instead of a public meeting to make speeches, I wanted the city and county to work together on an appropriate unified approach," Hammett said. "The city's request for a joint city-county meeting is disingenuous. Mutual respect is needed in every relationship. City Council has made numerous unfounded attacks against the county during my three years as county manager."
The divide between the two groups has grown deeper since Brown's killing.
Councilman Gabriel Adkins, a local businessman, wrote on Facebook last week that a sheriff's deputy urinated on the property of the funeral home he owns two nights in a row.
Adkins told the Raleigh News & Observer that he believed the deputy was retaliating against him for taking part in protests after Brown's killing.
Sheriff Tommy Wooten denied this was the case to The Washington Post. He said the deputy seen in a surveillance video was miles away from a bathroom at 2:30 a.m. and urinated in an outdoor area of Adkin's funeral home.
"The deputy, who is Black, didn't know who owned the business and meant no disrespect to Mr. Adkins and has reached out to apologize to him," Wooten said.
A spokesman for county officials, including Wooten and Hammett, didn't immediately return Insider's request for comment.
Spence told Insider that he personally hasn't experienced racism or gotten any hate mail since the shooting. But he said Brown's shooting had palpably disrupted an otherwise quiet community.
"The city is actually taking the brunt of all the actions and everything because the incident happened in the city limits," he said. "It's not fair. The sheriff works at the pleasure of, not the city council, but the pleasure of the county commissioners. One of the concerns I had was that the county commissioners haven't been out much dealing with the people."
A small community thrust into a national spotlight
Spence and Horton told Insider they are grateful to Elizabeth City police for being respectful of peaceful protests in recent weeks and for keeping the city safe.
At one point, counter-protesters said they were coming to the city and some officials worried there would be violent clashes in the streets. That never panned out, Spence said.
"I'm hoping it stays that way because it's been a peaceful protest so far and I think if the counter-protesters come out it may spark a flame or fire," he said.
Horton said the aftermath of Brown's killing was the most intense, high-publicity period he's experienced in his eight years in office.
"This is also a moment that I'm very proud to be a counselor, to be in a position to speak truth to power and to be a voice for the community," he said.