Search NEWS Police Investigating Shooting Inside Seattle's 'No Cop,' CHAZ Zone BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW ON 6/20/20 AT 9:47 AM EDT
SHARE NEWS SHOOTING DEATH VICTIMS At least two people were shot and one was killed inside Seattle's Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) area early Saturday morning, and police say they are investigating despite it being in a "no-cop" zone of the city.
Videos recorded Saturday morning show volunteer medics scrambling to help the purported victims after Seattle Police Department radio dispatchers received multiple reports of three to six gunshots around 2:20 a.m. People involved in the incident were seen fleeing the scene north from 10th Avenue and East Pine street in the city's Capitol Hill autonomous protest zone, also called CHAZ. Seattle Police abandoned the closest East Precinct building on June 8th after days of confrontations with protesters in the wake of George Floyd's death while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Police confirmed the shooting to Newsweek Saturday but offered no additional details.
Police arrived on the scene on foot and prepared with anti-protest gear at the border of the citizen reclaimed protest zone. East Precinct police radio chatter said officers who arrived on the scene were collecting shell casings and evidence, and the second victim had a gunshot wound to the arm and chest.
Seattle Fire had been called to the scene to treat the victim, but they had already been transported by volunteers to Harborview, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported Saturday.
Local videographers from Converge Media first reported that one of the victims was transported by non-ambulance locals to the Harborview protest camp staffed by medical volunteers. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported the man was dead when he arrived at the volunteer medical camp. Video showed several people on the street announcing that one of the victims was dead in front of the Rancho Bravo restaurant at 10th and Pine Street.
If you start shooting each other, the commies running the show ain't gonna let you go to the hospital. Their "medics" are going to work on you themselves.
On Wednesday, the Seattle Police Department said it would try to reopen the East Precinct, and Best was able to visit the location on Thursday. “Our calls for service have more than tripled,” she told reporters. “These are responses to emergency calls — rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts that have been occurring in the area that we’re not able to get to.”
This is the scene of the murder this morning in CHOP. A 30 year old African American man was shot and died on the scene. There was also a second shooting 20 minutes later one block away.
Why did Police, Fire and EMS show up? Where was the warlord Raz to take control of the scene?
Why did the binary gender person even call 911 in the first place. No Cop zone, remember “Pat”? You kids handle this yourselves.
Anyone like to see Mayor Jenny Durkan dragged out of her house and beaten within an inch of her life in the street for her political stunts and extreme liberal clownshittery she’s been playing?
That 911 call out would have went unanswered in my car...🖕🏾😎
Perfect karma would be some militant Antifa member doing it.
the media narrative is going to be a white supremacist dropping out of the sky with an assault rifle in each hand wearing a maga hat and targeting black males age 16-35
sounds like they're close to Lord of the Flies now in CHOP
What we have here, friends, is what is known as a “Target-Rich Environment “. No such schit as unacceptable collateral damage in a free fire zone. ......Get Some!
Think cops, and medical should have stayed out. Let them fend for themselves. Aint got medical people or hospital set up yet? Just plant them in that gawdam victory garden
On Wednesday, the Seattle Police Department said it would try to reopen the East Precinct, and Best was able to visit the location on Thursday. “Our calls for service have more than tripled,” she told reporters. “These are responses to emergency calls — rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts that have been occurring in the area that we’re not able to get to.”
An area youre not able to get to...WTF
Translation: An area the mayor does not want you in.
One dead, one in critical condition in early morning shooting at Capitol Hill protest zone known as CHOP
By Mike Carter Seattle Times staff reporter Seattle police homicide and assault detectives are investigating an early morning shooting in the Capitol Hill protest zone known as CHOP that left one person dead and another in critical condition.
Seattle police said a 19-year-old man was pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center. A second man suffered life-threatening injuries. Police have not identified the victims.
Sgt. Lauren Truscott, the department’s public information officer, said no suspects were in custody and the department urged anyone with information to call its tip line, 206-233-5000. Truscott said the department is reviewing public-source video and body-camera video for clues.
The roughly six-block area has been a gathering point for demonstrators protesting police violence against Black people and has received widespread attention since its early days when it was known as CHAZ, for Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. The area has since been renamed CHOP, an acronym for Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.
The Seattle Police Department abandoned its East Precinct, about two blocks from where the shootings occurred, on June 8 after days of violent confrontations with thousands of protesters that began downtown following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25. The killing of Floyd, a Black man who suffocated with the knee of a white police officer on his neck, has sparked nationwide protests against police racism and violence against people of color.
The empty precinct building, now boarded up and covered with graffiti, has been the hub of the ongoing occupation of the area, which includes Cal Anderson Park, one block west and across the street from the precinct.
Seattle police in a post Saturday on its blotter said officers attempted to respond to a report of shots fired inside the protest zone, but the officers “were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims.”
“Officers were later informed that the victims, both males, had been transported to Harborview Medical Center by CHOP medics,” the post said.
Nearly two hours of video posted on Facebook by Omari Salisbury, a citizen journalist with Converge Media who has been documenting the protests, shows a tumultuous scene as he describes how one of the victims was receiving CPR by CHOP volunteer medics, who apparently drove the critically injured victims to Harborview Medical Center, about a mile away.
Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman at Harborview, said two gunshot victims were treated there. One died, she said, and the other was in critical condition in the intensive care unit. She did not know how they were transported from the scene to the hospital.
Salisbury’s video also shows a police extraction team — handguns drawn and in a phalanx led by officers holding shields — attempt to enter CHOP to retrieve the victims, who according to Salisbury had already been transported to the hospital by private car.
The group of officers was quickly surrounded by angry and yelling protesters, who prevented them from moving forward. The team left, but not before other protesters lined up to apparently protect the officers from angry members of the crowd as they retreated.
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Salisbury also described a scene of “pandemonium” at the medic tent when one of the victims was being treated there, as the medics and others argued over whether they should call Medic One or transport the victims themselves. “There was a lot of confusion,” he says on the video.
Salisbury said the CHOP area “emptied out pretty quickly” after the shooting. “The population got real small real quick,” he said.
The incident occurred about 2:20 a.m. near 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, according to Truscott.
It is the second incident of gun violence in the six-block protest zone. On June 7, a man was arrested after he drove his car into a crowd outside the embattled East Precinct and is accused of shooting a man who reached into his vehicle and tried to stop him. That victim was shot in the shoulder.
Molly Moon Neitzel, whose namesake ice cream shop on Capitol Hill has been an attraction for protesters and sightseers alike, said the workers manning that store have expressed concerns about safety in the past few days.
“All of us are all super supportive of the [Black Lives Matter] movement, and we’ve wanted to say open, but the last few days things have felt different,” she said. She said shifting leadership within the movement has made it difficult for businesses to communicate with the protesters.
“I no longer feel it’s safe, and I’m worried for my team and other small businesses,” Neitzel said.
One of the individuals was shot in front of her story early Saturday, she said. She has closed for the day, and says she isn’t sure when she will open again.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Seattle Police Officers Guild President Michael Solan was sharply critical of Mayor Jenny Durkan and her decision to allow protesters free rein.
“Police are still not allowed into that area and were prevented to providing that police service to the area to locate victims and/or render aid. [It’s] very troubling what’s going on,” Solan said.
“This is a direct result of city leadership, elected officials failing the reasonable community of Seattle to enforce the rule of law,” Solan said. He said the issues now extend beyond the six-block area on Capitol Hill occupied by the protesters. “This is now impacting our entire city.”
Asked about the situation in Seattle during a news conference about the coronavirus Saturday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the future of the protest zone and the East Precinct were up to the city. He said he hadn’t yet had a chance to talk to Durkan.
“Clearly we need to have a way to provide adequate police and fire protection everywhere in the state of Washington, including in that area,” Inslee said. “There may have been an adequate response, we don’t know that.”
“I am governor and my role is supportive, if you will, to the entire city of Seattle and its democratically elected government,” he said.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as information becomes available.
What's the most confusing is the whole "we don't need the police" part.
When your breakfast, lunch and dinner consists of narcotics, you dont want cops around.
Keeping your narcs, acting like a Neanderthal outweighs other "citizens" shooting each other.
Plus you might want to [bleep] in broad daylight....
Excuse me, Sir. I have had my DNA run on 23andme.com I am 3.1 percent Neanderthal. Some of the highest Neanderthal ever tested for. Sir, it is an insult to compare we Neanderthals to the people taking over downtown Seattle. Thank You, for your consideration.
Just got to figure out a way to get some of these leftist groups to turn on each other. They love to divide people but seem somewhat unified themselves this time. Need to get Antifa and at least one other commie group to turn on each other now instead of waiting to do it after they've won some ground.
By David Gutman , Brendan Kiley, Hannah Furfaro and Mike Carter Seattle Times staff reporters A shooting on Capitol Hill early Saturday left one teenager dead, another person critically injured and raised new questions about the city’s capacity to provide emergency and medical services to the protest zone that has taken over the heart of the neighborhood for the last 12 days.
There is no public evidence to suggest the shooting was connected to the protest, but neither Seattle police detectives nor Seattle fire medics reached the scene after the shootings, according to city officials and videos of the aftermath.
For nearly two weeks, protesters, campers, activists and onlookers have turned the heart of Seattle’s Capitol Hill into a living experiment in urban policy.
What does a neighborhood look like with no armed law enforcement?
The answer, if nothing else, was peaceful. Graffiti abounded. So did camping and litter. The area sometimes felt more like a festival than a sit-in. But, after nearly two weeks of daily hostile standoffs between police and protesters, the tear gas was gone, replaced by daily lectures, guerrilla gardens and a block-long Black Lives Matter mural.
That came to an abrupt halt with Saturday’s violence at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, the area known as CHOP or CHAZ, which protesters have occupied since Seattle police abandoned its East Precinct.
Mayor Jenny Durkan did not comment on the shooting or the protest area Saturday. Neither did Police Chief Carmen Best.
Kelsey Nyland, a Durkan spokeswoman, said the mayor was in close contact with the leaders of the police and fire departments.
Gov. Jay Inslee said the future of the protest zone is up to the city and his role is to give support.
“Clearly we need to have a way to provide adequate police and fire protection everywhere in the state of Washington, including in that area,” Inslee said. “There may have been an adequate response, we don’t know that.”
In a Facebook video, capturing the scene, the person filming describes a confrontation on 10th Avenue and says he saw someone with a “12-inch” knife. People begin to flee and moments later at least seven shots can be heard, fired in under three seconds
The first 911 calls came in at 2:19 a.m., according to a timeline put together by the fire department. When fire department medics arrived at the shooting site at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, they waited a block away for police to arrive to ensure the safety of the area, officials said.
“This is a standard procedure for any scene of violence and is also currently in place for any fire and medical emergency inside the area deemed the CHOP due to firefighter safety,” the fire department said.
A video posted to Instagram by Seattle musician Raz Simone, who’s been a frequent presence at CHOP, shows fire department medics waiting a block away, despite the filmer’s desperate pleas for them to respond to the scene of the shooting.
“I want to be sure that we have not been cleared to move into the scene,” an ambulance driver says into the radio. “That’s negative,” comes the response.
Police arrived at 2:26 a.m., according to the timeline, but staged at 12th and Cherry, at least seven blocks away. Video shot by Omari Salisbury, a citizen journalist with Converge Media, shows police arriving at the shooting scene in a phalanx, guns drawn, behind shields. They were met by angry, yelling protesters, who told them the victim had already been taken to the hospital.
Body camera video released by police Saturday shows yelling protesters, many using profanities and several coming right up to the marching officers, as an officer says into a bullhorn, “Please move out of the way so we can get to the victim! All we want to do is get to the victim!”
Protesters can be heard shouting at the officers to “put your guns down!”
At one point, a group of protesters formed a human chain to try to stop other protesters from following the retreating police.
Meanwhile, volunteer medics, who have been a fixture in the area since protests began, were treating the first gunshot victim, a 19-year-old man. A private car took him a mile south to Harborview Medical Center. He arrived at 2:43 a.m. and was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, according to the fire department timeline.
The Seattle Times is not naming the man until officials or family confirm his identity. But close friends and teachers say he graduated from high school Friday. They described him as someone who persevered despite a difficult childhood: He’d landed a job and dreamed of someday having a family. More than anything, he “wanted to be loved,” a former teacher said.
At 2:51, another flurry of 911 calls came in, reporting another victim, two blocks away, at 11th Avenue and East Pike Street.
Alex Bennett, a former nurse, said she was walking her dog with a friend when she came across the second victim on the hood of a car, bleeding from a wound in his arm.
Bennett said she used her sweatshirt as a tourniquet to try to stanch the bleeding and asked someone to call 911. When a volunteer CHOP medic came by with a first aid kit, Bennett said they examined the man and found another wound in his chest.
The man’s skin was turning clammy and his breathing was shallow, she said, and when it became clear an ambulance wasn’t coming — or wouldn’t be there fast enough — she and others loaded him into a van and raced to Harborview, arriving at 3:06 a.m., where a medical team was waiting outside. He remained in the hospital, with life-threatening injuries, Saturday evening, according to police.
Bennett said she was questioned by a police officer, who she said “told me that when they responded to the first victim they were chased out of there, which is why they didn’t come for the second one.”
Salisbury’s video later shows protesters, but no police, looking for bullet casings at the site of the second victim.
Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold said it was premature to suggest a connection between the protests and the shooting but that the current situation — Seattle fire has generally been asking people in medical distress to walk to the edges of the protest area — was untenable.
“Fire department medics have to be able to respond, regardless of where the need is located,” Herbold said in an interview. “The bottom line is first responders have to be able to respond.” She said she was asking protesters to work with police and fire to ensure that happens.
Councilmember Kshama Sawant, in a prepared statement, said there are “indications that this may have been a right-wing attack,” but offered no evidence and did not respond to follow up questions. She called for “immediate solidarity with the protest at the CHOP.”
None of the other seven members of the Seattle City Council responded to requests for comments Saturday.
Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County, in a series of tweets Saturday evening, said it was concerned about white supremacist violence.
“For Black people, please consider gathering elsewhere in Black led events and spaces for the important and critical work of community gathering and protest,” the organization wrote.
Even before the shootings, angst about the protest area has been rising among some local business owners and residents.
Molly Moon Neitzel, whose namesake ice cream shop on Capitol Hill has been an attraction for protesters and sightseers alike, said the workers manning that store have expressed concerns about safety in the past few days.
“All of us are all super supportive of the [Black Lives Matter] movement, and we’ve wanted to say open, but the last few days things have felt different,” she said. She said shifting leadership within the movement has made it difficult for businesses to communicate with the protesters and she wasn’t sure when she would reopen her shop.
“I no longer feel it’s safe, and I’m worried for my team and other small businesses,” Neitzel said.
Linda Chaw, the owner of BobaBucha Cafe on 15th Avenue and East Pine Street, said she was thinking of closing up early on Saturday, after the shootings.
“It just doesn’t feel safe,” Chaw said. “[The protests] are perfectly fine. They’re just trying to voice their feelings. But it’s different than when you have somebody shooting.”
Another small business owner in the area, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, said CHOP is detracting from the rest of the movement battling racism and police brutality
“I think it’s been a total distraction. It’s destroyed the neighborhood, it’s made people feel unsafe,” he said. “There’s a 50,000-person march which I feel got less coverage than CHOP did.”
On Saturday morning, three hours before Seattle police announced that one of the victims had died, Michael Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, appeared on Fox News to rebuke the mayor for allowing protesters to take over the area.
“This is a direct result of city leadership, elected officials, failing the reasonable community of Seattle to enforce the rule of law,” Solan said. “We’re in a very very troubling time in Seattle and it’s deeply concerning.”
At CHOP, Saturday morning, a crowd of demonstrators formed a large circle in the ballfields south of Cal Anderson Park for a somber and at times tense group meeting.
“We lost another Black man last night,” activist Jaiden Grayson, who has emerged as a leader over the past several days, told the crowd through a megaphone. “That is the very reason we are out here.”
She urged demonstrators to stop drinking and using drugs at the protest, citing the double threat of police sweeping out demonstrators and violence from white supremacists.
Shortly after the meeting, additional volunteer security showed up, and guards patrolled the premises wearing body armor and openly carrying handguns and long guns.
Organizers spent the day trying to collect protesters’ cell phone footage to figure out what happened. By early Saturday evening, things seemed back to the new normal: Activists were giving speeches, people were grilling and handing out free food, volunteer teams worked to calm the occasional flared tempers.
No consensus emerged on the future of the area or how the shootings might alter that.
But many agreed on at least one thing: CHOP asked for ambulances that never arrived.
“We have this unprecedented opportunity to experiment with living in a non-policed area,” said activist David Lewis, who had been onsite when the shooting happened. “But we never thought we’d live in a world without access to health care, without access to first responders.”
“We’re all still here,” he said. “Because we want to make a change.”
Staff reporter Elise Takahama contributed to this report.
"But many agreed on at least one thing: CHOP asked for ambulances that never arrived.
“We have this unprecedented opportunity to experiment with living in a non-policed area,” said activist David Lewis, who had been onsite when the shooting happened. “But we never thought we’d live in a world without access to health care, without access to first responders.”
“We’re all still here,” he said. “Because we want to make a change.”"
Non-policed and they assume they get access to health care, yet have zero intention of paying for it... and they are shocked...
"But many agreed on at least one thing: CHOP asked for ambulances that never arrived.
“We have this unprecedented opportunity to experiment with living in a non-policed area,” said activist David Lewis, who had been onsite when the shooting happened. “But we never thought we’d live in a world without access to health care, without access to first responders.”
“We’re all still here,” he said. “Because we want to make a change.”"
Non-policed and they assume they get access to health care, yet have zero intention of paying for it... and they are shocked...
