The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday it has opened a civil-rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown, a Black man, by sheriff’s deputies serving drug-related and arrest warrants in North Carolina last week.
In a statement, the bureau said it was working closely with federal prosecutors to determine whether federal laws were broken.
The announcement of a federal probe came hours after Mr. Brown’s family members said that a private autopsy showed Mr. Brown died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Mr. Brown, 42 years old, was shot a total of five times in an April 21 encounter with Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office deputies, said lawyer Wayne Kendall in a press conference summarizing the autopsy findings.
Requests to the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office for comment weren’t immediately returned.