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High Point Case Gets The Attention Of Noted Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump

Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a gathering of supporters of the family of Breonna Taylor on the one-year anniversary of her death at Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Ky., Saturday, March 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

The North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office has released the autopsy of a Black teen who police say was shot to death by a Davidson County deputy last year. 

The death of Frederick Cox of High Point has drawn the attention of Ben Crump. He's a nationally known civil rights attorney, whose work includes representing the family of George Floyd. 

Cox was killed outside of a funeral service in November, his body found in the back doorway of a church. High Point police say two groups of people, possibly from rival gangs, began shooting at each other, exchanging more than 70 rounds of ammunition. 

The bullets that struck Cox though, may have come from the gun of a Davidson County deputy. Police say the officer, whose firearm was discharged, attended the service in plain clothes as part of a homicide investigation.

The autopsy determined that the 18-year-old Cox died after he was shot three times in his upper body and once in the leg. A toxicology report found no presence of drugs or alcohol in his body.

Cox's death sparked a protest in High Point in January and led to the #fredslifematters hashtag on social media. 

Crump came to High Point to announce the results of the autopsy. 

The State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the deputy's use of a firearm, a standard procedure when an officer is involved in a shooting.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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