Owner: Video shows deputy urinating outside funeral home
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) – An Elizabeth City council member says surveillance footage at a funeral home he owns captured a deputy in uniform urinating on the property, which he believes is an act of retaliation for joining protests after Andrew Brown Jr.´s shooting.
Deputies shot the 42-year-old Black man to death outside his home on April 21 while attempting to serve drug-related search and arrest warrants.
Council member Gabriel Adkins, who is Black, posted a video of the Saturday night urination incident on Facebook.escort service in delhi the one-minute clip, a man in uniform exits a vehicle and appears to urinate on a shed.
Adkins said the funeral home surveillance system also captured a deputy urinating on the property the previous night.
“I´m completely furious that any member of the sheriff department would think these acts are acceptable,” Adkins said in an email to The Washington Post.”This is a funeral home. A place where we house family´s loved ones. I have lost all trust and respect for our sheriff department.”
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said in a statement that a deputy working the night shift used the outdoor area of the funeral home as a restroom after conducting a routine safety check.
“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.”I´ve reinforced to all deputies the need to respect the community and avoid even the appearance of anything that could be seen as disrespectful.”
On April 28, a judge refused to release body camera video showing deputies shooting and killing Brown, ruling that making the video public at this stage could jeopardize the investigation. A prosecutor played portions of the video during a news conference Tuesday.
Adkins has attended and organized protests through the streets of Elizabeth City after Brown´s death.Marchers have demanded that the sheriff´s office release the full video of the shooting and an independent investigation be conducted.
The second-term council member told The News & Observer that Pasquotank deputies regularly provided escorts at his funerals before Brown´s death, but none were provided when they were requested twice afterward.
“Since this case with Andrew Brown, I´ve been out protesting,” Adkins said.”I really feel like they are retaliating back against me. Maybe they didn´t know I had surveillance, but it´s a funeral home.”
