Two protesters were arrested Tuesday night in Graham as a handful of demonstrators held up signs.
According to police officers, the protesters needed a permit to protest.
Theresa Draughn, 37, and Avery Harvey, 30, were taken into custody for a city ordinance violation and failure to disperse. Both were taken to the Alamance County Detention Center and released with a written promise to appear.
Stemming from the incident, a still photo of one of the arresting officers, Corporal C.D. Dunnagan, began circulating on social media. The photo showed Dunnagan making a hand gesture that some claimed was similar to one that is used by those associated with white supremacy.
According to the Graham Police Department, investigators reviewed the body-worn camera footage and interviewed the corporal. It was later determined that Dunnagan was gesturing his hands as a form of non-verbal communication and that the image was taken out of context and not associated with any affiliation to a hate group, police said.
The initial protest, which began after the following incidents, comes as many around the Triad and the world are demanding transparency in the killing of Andrew Brown Jr. and the release of the full police body camera footage.
Witnesses in Elizabeth City said Brown was unarmed and driving away when he was shot and killed by police, according to Brown's family attorney.
In a Facebook post released Thursday, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten and Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said authorities were serving Brown an arrest warrant for felony drug charges.
“Our deputies attempted to serve the arrest warrant. They fired the shots. They’ve been placed on administrative leave until we have all the facts," Wooten said in the video.
Monday, the family and their attorneys viewed 20 seconds of body camera footage that captured the moments when Brown was shot and killed. After the viewing, attorneys called the incident an "execution."
In a news conference Tuesday, the Brown family and their lawyers revealed the autopsy results that showed he was shot five times after police tried to execute the search warrant. One of those bullets was a fatal shot to the back of the head.
FBI agents will work with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were violated, spokesperson Shelley Lynch said in an email.