ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A night after police arrested seven protestors for violating curfew — the crowd initially grew larger Wednesday in Elizabeth City.
The Elizabeth City police department arrested seven people for disorderly conduct Tuesday, between the ages of 25 and 62. That was the first night of a mayor-issued curfew.
Rev. Curtis Greenwood told 13News Now he was released around 2 a.m. He said enforcing a curfew adds insult to injury for a hurting community — that’s been overwhelmingly peaceful for the past eight nights.
It’s been one week since Pasquotank County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed Andrew Brown, Jr., a Black man, while serving an arrest warrant.
Every night since, protestors have called for the public release of the body camera videos that captured his shooting.
Wednesday, a judge denied those videos' immediate release to the community — although the family will soon be able to view them.
A smaller group of people stayed out to protest well past the 8 p.m. curfew in the city, gathering near the Camden Causeway Bridge.
Law enforcement officers with shields came out just before 11 p.m. and started calling for the small crowd to disperse.
It appeared that one protester threw a water bottle at the line of officers, but for the most part, the group of 10-or-so people backed away from the officers.
Several people were arrested as part of this Wednesday night demonstration.
Veteran Shaun McMillan leads Fayetteville PACT, a group pushing for community review boards for police departments across the state.
“You see this grieving family in the middle of tragedy; you’re denying them justice, due process and ability for them to see for themselves what happened and you’re doing that for the entire public," McMillan said. "There’s something wrong about that that needs to change in North Carolina."
At times more emotions were on display, but members of this small North Carolina community said they will remain peaceful and relentless.