US Black Man Fatally Shot by Police a Day after Chauvin Guilty Verdict

By Staff, Agencies

Another incident of fatal US police shooting of unarmed Black people has grabbed headlines a day after an ex-police officer was convicted of murdering an African American man last year.

The fatal police shooting occurred on Wednesday in Elizabeth City, in Pasquotank County near North Carolina's coastal border with Virginia.

The slain man was identified as Andrew Brown Jr., a resident of Elizabeth City, with authorities saying only that he was shot in his car when sheriff's deputies tried to serve him with a search warrant.

North Carolina state officials have opened an investigation into the fatal shooting of the 40-year-old father.

The deputy who fired the gun was placed on administrative leave, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten told a news conference.

Law enforcement officials did not say whether the slain Black man was armed at the time or whether he was considered a threat to the officers. The nature of the warrant was not disclosed.

Relatives of Brown told media that he was near his home and in an automobile at the time of the fatal police shooting.

The US police killing came the day after a jury found Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, guilty of murdering George Floyd last year by kneeling on his neck four nine minutes while he was handcuffed and under arrest.

Floyd’s killing by white police officers brought US racism back into focus and became an emblem of the Black Lives Matter movement. It has, however, not stopped trigger-happy cops from unleashing terror on hapless minorities, including African Americans and Asian Americans.

Fatal attacks on people of color in the US have witnessed a disconcerting surge in recent years, which activists have attributed to former president Donald Trump's racist rhetoric.