GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The mother of a teenager who was shot and killed by Greensboro police officers in 2022 will announce a federal lawsuit on Thursday.
Wakita Doriety was joined by activist Gregory Drumwright to announce a lawsuit against the police department after her son Nasanto Antonio Crenshaw was shot and killed fleeing a traffic stop was killed in August 2022.
Doriety is represented by civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Chimeaka White. Daniels also represented the family of Andrew Brown Jr., who was shot and killed in Elizabeth City and calls the shooting on Crenshaw “hauntingly familiar” to the April 2021 death of Brown.
“Once again we have another police officer killing another unarmed black male even though he posed absolutely no threat and was actually trying to flee,” said Daniels. “The only real difference here is that Andrew Brown Jr. was a grown man and Nasanto Crenshaw was a child.”
Pasquotank County officials settled the federal lawsuit for $3 million in June.
“As we continue the fight for truth and accountability around the deaths of blacks at the hands of law enforcement, Justice 4 the Next Generation stands with the Doriety and Crenshaw families in demanding a transparent investigation and the release of the tapes,” said Rev. Drumwright.
“I’ll never get to hug my son again,” Doriety said. “I’ll never get to hold his hand or tell him I love him. They stole my son from me and they won’t even release the name of the officer who did it.”
According to a press release, GPD has not identified the officer involved or released the body cam footage.
“The video has been viewed by Doriety’s legal team who say it clearly shows that the unarmed teenager had turned the car he was driving away from police and posed no immediate threat,” the release reads.
During the news conference, White, who had viewed the video described what she said the video showed, which is that Crenshaw attempted to turn around in a dead-end area of the parking lot at a low rate of speed when the officer’s car blocked him in. The car side-swiped the officer’s car. White said that at no point does it seem like the officer was in the path of the car or in danger.
Drumwright also adds that the speed of the incident in the parking lot didn’t get over three to five miles per hour.
“Perhaps Nasanto would be in the juvenile criminal court system today,” Gregory Drumwright said. “But he did not deserve to be shot in the neck.”
Around 9 p.m. on August 21, police say that they tried to stop a car they had determined was stolen on West Market Street in Greensboro. As an officer walked up to the car, they drove away. After trying to stop the car again, several people ran from the scene and the car accelerated, hitting a police car.
That’s when the officer fired, shooting and killing Crenshaw,
A man who lived nearby spoke with FOX8 and said he was shocked at the scene, calling it chaos as people scrambled away after rapid-fire gunshots.
Days later, people gathered in Downtown Greensboro to protest Crenshaw’s death, marching from Elm Street to Washington Street, stopping at the Greensboro municipal building.
“The message we have for the community is that before this happens to another Black man in this community, we need you to come out and support this family until Guilford County policing can be held accountable,” Drumwright said. “We’re going to fight in the absence of this young brother, for justice in this case.”
