This past week: Outrage grew in Elizabeth City — along with national attention — over the killing of Andrew Brown Jr. by Pasquotank County deputies, especially after a judge delayed the public release of body camera footage in the case. A mass shooting in the Boone area left a married couple, two sheriff's deputies and the suspected gunman dead. North Carolina earned a 14th U.S. House seat after the 2020 census. And Apple picks the Raleigh area for its East Coast campus.

Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder for killing George Floyd this week — a verdict that was largely celebrated across the country. But a day later Andrew Brown Jr. was killed by deputies in North Carolina, prompting protesters to ask: Did anything really change? Plus, this week marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education decision that reshaped Charlotte's image.

This week brought news of yet another high-profile mass shooting — this time in Indiana. Closer to home, police in Charlotte reported the shooting deaths of two Black, transgender women in hotels, and authorities said a Union County teacher died in a bizarre shootout. Meanwhile, the region coped with a sudden pause of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Mass shootings have been dominating the news cycle in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, the spotlight was local after six people were shot to death near Rock Hill, South Carolina, and the suspected gunman later took his own life.

National and local stories are often intertwined. That was clear in North Carolina this past week. Among the top stories: An attack on a Korean-owned grocery store in Charlotte, discussions over whether to create a "vaccine passport," and Hall of Fame UNC men's basketball coach Roy Williams retires from the Tar Heels.

Some of our biggest stories of the week: New details about Charlotte's med school emerge, Mecklenburg County may have had more COVID deaths than reported, an artist keeps the conversation about homelessness going, and NASCAR uses a coronavirus-sniffing dog.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in North Carolina may have been announced March 3, 2020, but it was the next week — and March 11, 2020, specifically — that life for many of us truly began to change.

This past week marked one year since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in North Carolina — the local beginning of a whirlwind pandemic that would change nearly everything about the daily lives of most people.

It was a week of severe weather and misery, political posturing and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But a longstanding problem in Charlotte quickly became front and center: homelessness and the lack of affordable housing.

The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump — and its swift conclusion — of course led the news this past week. Here are other big stories you might have missed.