Nearly six months after a federal agent fired shots at his vehicle during a traffic stop, attorneys for Phillip Brown say he continues to feel trauma from the encounter.
It surfaced again this week, they said, when D.C. police released body-camera footage showing the moments after the October gunfire, which federal officials have alleged came after Brown made a “deliberate attempt” to run officers down, an account his attorneys dispute. Brown, who was unarmed, was not struck.
The videos do not capture the shooting itself. Instead the footage shows the perspectives of two D.C. police officers who were on the scene.
“He is screaming for his life at that moment,” E. Paige White, one of Brown’s attorneys, said at a news conference Tuesday. “I cannot imagine the fear that Mr. Brown had.”
The release comes after the D.C. Council passed legislation last month compelling the local police department to release body-camera footage when federal officers use force and a D.C. officer is present, amid ongoing scrutiny of federal law enforcement’s increased presence in the city. The local department cannot require federal agencies to release their officers’ body-camera footage.
Brown’s case drew even more scrutiny because the agent’s gunfire was not disclosed in an initial police report.
Brown’s attorneys said the video contradicts law enforcement statements that the Homeland Security Investigations agent was in danger when he shot at Brown.
The short clips show that “we were telling the truth all along,” Bernadette Armand, one of Brown’s attorneys, said during a news conference outside D.C. police headquarters. “Our client was telling the truth all along, and the government was lying.”
“Mr. Brown was never advancing on any officer,” she said. “He was in his car, going about his business, when he was the one who was attacked when officers advanced on him.”
Brown is considering a lawsuit in the case, his attorneys said.
D.C. police said the incident unfolded in the 3900 block of Benning Road NE around 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, when D.C. police were patrolling with federal agents and attempted a traffic stop on the driver of a white Dodge Durango for having what police said was an illegal tint and no front license plate. The driver struck the rear of a vehicle in front of the Durango during the stop, police said. A Homeland Security Investigations agent then “discharged their service weapon multiple times, striking the Durango.”
The video released Monday shows little of the events that preceded the shooting. In a clip, one D.C. officer is seen exiting a police car immediately before gunshots ring out, then briefly returning to their vehicle.
Multiple officers yell and curse at Brown to get out of his car and turn the vehicle off, the video shows. The footage then shows Brown lying on the ground next to the Durango, complying with officers’ orders.
An officer is seen dragging Brown along the ground, and then others converge on him to handcuff him.
“What’s wrong? What the f— did I do?” Brown can be heard saying in the footage.
“Relax,” one officer replies as they put cuffs on him.
“[You] just shot at me,” Brown says.
Following the shooting, Brown’s attorneys provided The Washington Post with photos of bullet holes in the driver’s side window and passenger seat of the vehicle, along with a bullet hole in the collar of Brown’s jacket.
Brown’s lawyers also accused city police of misconduct, pointing out that a D.C. police officer told a judge in the fall that he was advised by a “unit team lead” not to document the shooting in a court record. Pamela A. Smith, who was police chief at the time, denied that D.C. police had tried to cover up any details of the shooting.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin previously said that the special agent who fired at Brown was “in fear for his life” after Brown made a “deliberate attempt” to run officers down. A D.C. police officer, however, testified that no law enforcement officers were standing at Brown’s car, and Brown’s attorney told a judge that the bullets entered the car from the side, not the front.
The body-camera footage released Monday does not show any officers in front of the Durango.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video released Tuesday.
Brown was initially charged with fleeing from a law enforcement officer, but a judge dismissed the charge, citing lack of evidence. Federal prosecutors opted not to press charges against the HSI agent because the bullets did not strike Brown.
The October incident was one of two cases last year in which HSI agents shot into cars in the District.
Less than a month after Brown’s arrest, an HSI agent patrolling with D.C. police fired his weapon during a car chase, records show. On Nov. 13, local police and federal officers attempted to stop a silver Nissan Altima after they saw the driver run a red light at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Minnesota avenues SE.
A chase ensued, initiated by the federal agents, a police report said. D.C. police are prohibited from chasing cars unless a driver is suspected of committing a violent crime or putting other lives in danger; a bill moving through Congress would roll back those restrictions.
The Nissan Altima was stopped by heavy traffic in the 3400 block of Benning Road SE, according to the report, and law enforcement exited their cars to approach. The driver put the car in reverse and struck a D.C. police vehicle, a court filing stated, and the federal agent shot at the car “at some point in this interaction.”
Then the Nissan Altima drove off again, and the chase continued until the driver collided with a car not involved in the pursuit.
No one was injured, according to police, and no D.C. police officers were involved in the shooting. The Altima’s driver, Justin Nelson, was charged with felony assault on a police officer, fleeing law enforcement and leaving after colliding, among other charges. He is being held without bond, after rejecting a plea offer, and faces a jury trial this month.
Federal prosecutors also declined to press charges against the HSI agent in that shooting.
D.C. police did not release footage from the November incident, according to a letter written by Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah, saying the subject of the shooting objected to the video becoming public.
Both of the shootings sparked concern among D.C. residents and activists about the way D.C. officers were patrolling with federal agents as part of a task force convened by President Donald Trump.
White and Armand, who are also representing Nelson in a civil case, called for a requirement that federal law enforcement wear body cameras, an end to the local and federal police task force, and a stop to federal agents deploying their service weapons.
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