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Man in North Carolina fatally shot while deputies served warrant, authorities say

Andrew Brown Jr. (Photo Provided/CNN)

(CNN) — A man was fatally shot while deputies were serving a warrant Wednesday morning in the North Carolina city of Elizabeth City, the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office said.

The man, who was the subject of a search warrant, died in what the sheriff’s office called an officer-involved shooting.

At a brief afternoon news conference, Sheriff Tommy Wooten said there is footage from body-worn cameras but he has not yet viewed it.

The sheriff identified the man as Andrew Brown Jr. Family members told CNN that Brown was 40 years old and lived in Elizabeth City.

The deputy involved in the shooting is on administrative leave, Wooten said.

Officials said they would not answer questions about the investigation into the shooting. The sheriff declined to say what the search warrant was for.

The City Council called an emergency meeting for Wednesday evening to discuss the incident.

Video recorded near the scene of the shooting by CNN affiliate WTKR shows dozens of people gathered. Some in the crowd could be heard chanting, “No justice, no peace.”

One person held a sign with the handwritten words “Black Lives Matter” and another had written “Mothers Against Gun Violence.”

WTKR described the situation as tense.

Lydia Brown said she was in bed when her daughter came to deliver the news that her grandson had been shot and killed.

“He was just here two or three days ago picking up his mail,” the 92-year-old said when she was reached by phone. “We want to know why. We want to know what (happened). And we want to know who,” she said about the investigation into the shooting. “He was my grandson and I love him.”

Brown’s aunt Clarissa Gibson said she heard about the shooting on the news before finding out it was her nephew.

“He had children and he cared and loved for them,” she said.

State agency to investigate shooting

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is taking over the probe into the shooting, officials said.

Pasquotank County says it was closing its office buildings in downtown Elizabeth City at 1 p.m. in response to the shooting.

The area’s district attorney, R. Andrew Womble, told CNN the shooting happened around 8:30 a.m.

In a statement, Womble said heasked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to “assume primary responsibility for investigating the events surrounding the officer involved shooting and to process the scene where the events took place including but not limited to the collection of physical evidence.”

At the news conference, Womble said he is looking for “accurate answers and not fast answers.”

Elizabeth City has about 18,000 residents and is just west of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and about a 45-mile drive south of Norfolk, Virginia.