“Today, I’m releasing the names of the seven deputies who I placed on administrative leave after this incident. After reviewing the preliminary conclusions of the independent investigators conducting the internal review, and after carefully examining the body camera footage of the incident with my own staff, it’s obvious that four deputies never fired their weapons and deserve to be reinstated to active duty,” Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said.
The four deputies who have been reinstated include: Lieutenant Steven Judd; Sergeant Michael Swindell; Sergeant Kenneth Bishop; and Sergeant Joel Lunsford. The three officers who fired their weapons at Andrew Brown Jr., and as such will remain on administrative leave while the investigation continues include Corporal Aaron Lewellyn, Deputy Sheriff II Robert Morgan, and Investigator Daniel Meads.
Brown was shot and killed while driving away from officers carrying out a warrant, in what Brown’s legal team has called an execution. Law enforcement officials, however, have argued that Brown’s history as a felon who has previously resisted arrest made the situation high-risk.