Protesters gather for 10th night in Elizabeth City, which has shortened its curfew hours
Protesters gathered in Elizabeth City again on Friday evening in anticipation of a 10th straight evening of protest in Elizabeth City, where a Black man was shot and killed by sheriffs deputies on April 21.
The parking lot to the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office headquarters was blocked at both ends by dumpsters.
By 7:30 p.m., Pastor Daniel Spence donned a Dallas Cowboys apron and started up a grill to cook burgers for protesters in the closed-off parking lot. A few minutes later, steam and the smell of cooking meat began to waft into the cool spring night.
Some people sat on the edges of the parking lot holding signs calling for racial justice, while others played a set of bongo drums or tossed a ball with their children.
City officials shortened curfew Friday. It now starts at midnight each evening instead of 8 p.m.
Andrew Brown Jr., 42, was killed in his car outside his home by Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies who were serving warrants related to federal drug charges.
The shooting occurred the day after a former Minneapolis police officer was convicted of murder in last summer’s death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.
Brown’s death set off nightly protests and attracted national attention to Elizabeth City, a town with a population of less than 20,000 that is about 48% Black and 40% white. The county is 58% white and 36% Black, according to Census data.
Permit applications required
Elizabeth City’s police department also will now require protesters to complete a permit application.
The public assembly permit application is available on the city’s website. The permit must be filed 15 days before the proposed public assembly, according to the application. But the city’s website indicates there will be a 15-day grace period, allowing protests to continue without the permit.
The ACLU of North Carolina sent a notice to Elizabeth City officials, including Mayor Bettie J. Parker and Police Chief Eddie Buffaloe, expressing their constitutional concern with the permit policy and curfew.
The group said the permitting policy — requiring 15 days’ notice — violates the First Amendment “because it contains no exception for constitutionally protected spontaneous gatherings.” And it said the curfew, from midnight to 6 a.m., is “an overbroad restraint on speech and the right to petition.”
Kristi Graunke, the legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Fund, called for the city to “immediately rescind” both policies in a letter. The letter was also signed by Elizabeth Haddix of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Dawn Blagrove of Emancipate NC.
Protesters have called for the full release of video from the incident. But on Wednesday, a North Carolina judge refused media requests to release the body camera and dashboard camera footage of the event.
Attorneys for his family said that he was shot in the back of the head and called it an “execution.” An attorney for unnamed deputies said in court that “the shooting was justified.”
On Thursday, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten released the names of the seven deputies that were placed on administrative leave after the shooting.
Four have been returned to duty after a preliminary investigation found that they never fired their guns. Three remain on leave until the investigation is complete. They are:
▪ Daniel Meads, investigator.
▪ Robert Morgan, deputy sheriff.
▪ Aaron Lewellyn, corporal.
Funeral services
An invitation-only celebration of life service for Brown, the father of seven, will be held Monday.
There also are two times and places for walk-through viewings on Sunday. The first is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Horton’s Funeral Home and Cremations in Hertford. The second is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.
Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy, and Rev. William J. Barber II of North Carolina will speak at the funeral.
“A warrant is not a license to kill even if a suspect supposedly drives away,” Barber said at a recent news conference.
“A warrant does not mean a person is guilty. A warrant is not permission to shoot someone, possibly with assault rifles, multiple times. It is not the authorization to shoot someone in the back. And let’s be clear: It doesn’t matter if the officers are white or Black or brown or men or women. If they engage in brutality, use excessive force or abuse their power to murder citizens, officers of the law must be held accountable if the law is to mean anything for the rest of us.”
No more housing officers at ECSU
Elizabeth City State University announced Friday afternoon that 13 law enforcement officers currently staying in on-campus dorms would move to other housing, which is becoming available as media and other visitors leave the city, the school said.
“The transition is consistent with our mutual aid arrangement,” the school said in a statement.
No other officers remain in on-campus housing, the school said,
Reporters on the ground in Elizabeth City have seen law enforcement officers from several different North Carolina jurisdictions — including Burlington, Concord, Salisbury, Wilmington and Halifax County — at the protest.
The historically black college said it was responding to “a request from Elizabeth City leaders” in housing some of the visiting officers.
“As a public University, ECSU has an obligation to support other public agencies in times of need, just as we count on their help when the campus makes a request,” the school said in a statement earlier this week.
On Monday, citing the ongoing protests in the city, the university moved to remote learning and telework. It closed residence halls Tuesday, encouraging students to leave as soon as possible.
“None of the rooms being used were previously occupied by students,” the school said in its statement.
Some were not happy about the decision. A Change.org petition was created calling for the removal of the police officers from the dorms. It has attracted more than 900 signatures. On social media, some called the decision “embarrassing,” “disgusting” and “gross.”
The university’s chancellor released a statement on Wednesday, saying she sees the values of truth, justice, service to others and honesty “shining through in this hard moment for the City of Elizabeth City.”
“The days ahead will be difficult. I wish we didn’t have to go through them; I wish that none of this had happened; and I desperately wish for a world where progress doesn’t seem to come only in the wake of tragedy. But I believe justice will prevail in Elizabeth City. I believe our demands for transparency and accountability will ultimately be met. And I believe we’ll be stronger and wiser as we live through this,” Karrie G. Dixon said in the statement.
ACLU, Emancipate NC officials arrested
During Thursday night’s protest, an Elizabeth City Police Department officer arrested Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC, and Kristie Puckett-Williams, the smart justice manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, around 10:20 p.m.
Puckett-Williams was livestreaming on Instagram at the time of the arrest, which came shortly after a group of young men on dirt bikes and all terrain vehicles put on a short exhibition in the middle of Dyer Street.
Neither Blagrove nor Puckett-Williams were presented with charging documents or a citation, and Blagrove said officers did not read them a Miranda warning.
“We were under arrest, that’s what we were told. We were being put under arrest, but none of the constitutional protections were afforded to us,” Blagrove said.
In front of a magistrate, Blagrove argued that she and Puckett-Williams were both working at the time of the arrest, trying to guarantee the constitutional rights of the people protesting.
“They knew that that’s what we were doing, and even the police officer that arrested us knew who we were and knew the capacity we were working in,” Blagrove told The News & Observer. “It was really and truly a perfect example of why we fight so strongly for police to have accountability measures.”
The magistrate declined to certify any charges against the women, and both were back in their hotel rooms by about 3 p.m.
Blagrove said she and Puckett-Williams had been in consistent contact with Chief Buffaloe throughout the evening, including shortly before the arrest. At that point, Blagrove told Buffaloe that protesters would go home as soon as police stood down.
Some officers in riot gear had started piling back onto an inmate transport bus when the officer drove up to Blagrove’s vehicle.
Puckett-Williams said that police and public officials have been escalating tensions, not protesters. Officers have arrived at protests wearing riot gear, Puckett-Williams noted, and public officials imposed curfews even after days of peaceful protests. By imposing a curfew, Puckett-Williams added, city officials are effectively daring protesters to remain out past it.
”We’re here because of excessive force,” Puckett-Williams said, “and excessive force and unlawful arrests are still happening in Elizabeth City.”
After Blagrove arrived back at her hotel room, she texted Buffaloe again, telling him that he had the “dubious distinction” of being the police chief of the first department to ever arrest her.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Protesters gather for 10th night in Elizabeth City, which has shortened its curfew hours."
