Thanks to a CHS reader for the image of the shooting scene
At least two people were reported shot in a chaotic scene of frightened campers, security volunteers, and heavily armed private security early Monday morning on the edge of the Capitol Hill protest zone.
Seattle Police confirmed the shooting and said there were reports of two people injured.
UPDATE 7:30 AM: Harborview reports one of the victims has died.
UPDATE 9:30 AM: SPD has posted a report on the deadly shooting and says one is dead and a 14-year-old boy injured:
At about 3:00 AM, SPD’s 911 Center received multiple calls of shots fired in the area near 12th Avenue and East Pike Street. Callers also reported observing a white Jeep Cherokee SUV at or near one of the barriers surrounding the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone just prior to the shooting. Callers reported several unidentified people had fired shots into the Jeep. Two injured individuals, presumably the occupants of the Jeep, were transported to Harborview Medical Center in a private vehicle. One of the victims, an unidentified adult male, was later pronounced deceased at the hospital. A second victim, a 14-year-old male, remains hospitalized with gunshot injuries. Detectives searched the Jeep for evidence, but it was clear the crime scene had been disturbed. Detectives responded to the hospital and the crime scene, believed to be on 12th Avenue between East Pike and East Pine Street. This remains an active and on-going investigation.
UPDATE 9:50 AM: In a morning press conference in front of a large group of media and protesters, Chief Carmen Best said it was time to bring CHOP to a close. She said that she does not believe that the streets blockaded by the protest camp may have saved lives in the overnight driveby shootings reported by the protesters.
“I don’t agree. I absolutely don’t agree with that,” Best said. “I’m not going to let the detractors, and the naysayers, and the agitators be the ones who are the voice here. There are people who live here. There are multiple people who are being injured and hurt.”
Chief Best said she was not aware of the reported private security team working around the Car Tender lot at 12th and E Olive but acknowledged that the number of people with guns around the camp was a problem for police.
Best said that nobody is in custody in the latest shooting incident.
The chief said this latest violence should mark the end of the protest camp and it was time to move on. Best said she was not yet ready to discuss a plan for police returning to the East Precinct and she declined to offer more specifics about any SPD efforts to clear the camp after the mayor and Best have been pursuing a strategy of community outreach and social services to help reduce the number of people following last week’s shootings.
“We want people to move out of the area. Continue your peaceful demonstration in a place where you are not affecting public safety.
“I can’t telegraph what’s going to happen. But I can tell you that I think enough is enough, I absolutely do,” Best said.
Best told media that the person killed and the teen who was shot Monday morning are Black.
UPDATE 12:15 PM: SPD announced that the victim who died was 16 years old. People at the scene said the vehicle that was shot up near the camp had been seen earlier in the morning opening fire on tents in Cal Anderson. SPD the 14-year-old is considered a “Victim” at this time. Police say it is presumed both people shot were in the truck.
Overnight, a loud sequence of gunfire was reported just after 3 AM after an incident involving shots from a vehicle at Cal Anderson Park about 90 minutes earlier. There were conflicting reports of anybody injured in the earlier incident in which a vehicle reportedly fired into tents in the area.
911 callers reported a person shooting into a vehicle and at least one person being taken to Harborview by private vehicle. A second person shot was taken to a safe collection area where Seattle Fire then transported the victim to Harborview. Another person reportedly attacked with a pickaxe arrived at Harborview by private vehicle.
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GUN VIOLENCE AT CHOP
- June 7th: Protester is shot after car speeds into crowd at 11th and Pine. Nikolas Fernandez charged.
- June 20th: 19-year-old killed and another man wounded after shooting at 10th and Pine. Lorenzo Anderson remembered.
- June 21st: 17-year-old shot west of Cal Anderson Park
- June 23rd: Man to hospital at 11th and Denny shooting
- June 29th: One teen killed, 14-year-old wounded in shooting following reported camp driveby
Police were not reported entering the area of the protest. A group of heavily armed private security was seen taking position in the area of the Car Tender lot at 12th and E Olive St where the group has been deployed in recent days.
The white Jeep Cherokee involved in the shooting was reported empty of occupants by police near 12th and Pine, pointed north where it crashed through a barrier near where the core group of occupying protesters has set up camp outside the emptied East Precinct. It was not clear if both people reported shot were in the vehicle or if there were any victims from the camp.
The gun violence continues a string of shootings at the camp in a series that had fortunately been quiet since a shooting early last Tuesday morning that sent one person to the hospital. That shooting was part of a string that left one dead and at least three wounded. Early that Saturday, one man was killed and another person was critically wounded in a shooting at 10th and Pine. 19-year-old Renton High student Lorenzo Anderson died in an incident that became a flashpoint of controversy with police restricting their presence in the area following the emptying of the East Precinct headquarters and Seattle Fire’s limited abilities to respond without police presence. Last Sunday night brought another shooting on the edge of Cal Anderson that sent a 17-year-old to the hospital.
At its formation in the exit of police from the East Precinct building and the barriers at 12th and Pine on June 8th, the camp was celebrated as a center of protest and also for its art and community even as there were reports open-carry enthusiasts joining the crowds and a regular presence of armed sentries posted around the area as part of camp security. The city worked out a new layout plan with protesters to better open the area to traffic and emergency vehicles. Meanwhile, there was growing unease about Seattle Police’s limited presence in the zone around 11th and Pine and Cal Anderson Park and growing criticism that the camp’s purpose of occupying the area and the “Seattle People’s Precinct” was overtaking greater Black Lives Matter goals.
This weekend had been free of gun violence with the size of the camp and protest shrinking.
Monday morning’s shooting comes as Mayor Jenny Durkan and the city have been in talks with some at the camp to reduce the size of the occupied protest and start the process of moving police back into the emptied East Precinct. Monday morning was believed to be the planned start of the city clearing most of the streets in the area of barriers and blockades set up in recent weeks. Those at the camp say they plan to remain until the city agrees to cut the police department budget in half and meet other local Black Lives Matter goals.
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Enough is enough. Shut it down.
Yes! Come on, Mayor, stop dithering and clear out ALL of the camp NOW, and open up the East Precinct. It’s time to stop coddling the occupiers.
Zealots, anarchists, trouble makers, and drifters are all that remains. Shut it down and clear them out. They are so out of touch with reality their list of demands during their closed door meeting with the mayor contained many that Seattle/WA state already are doing.
Thank you, Bob. You are always so rational. We need to punish anyone who is being shot at. A person who is targeted by drive-by gunfire is clearly in the wrong and must be removed.
Don’t blame the Mayor, it’s the worthless city council who removed the Police department’s ability to control the crowds and take back control of the city. Where’s Sawant? If anyone needs to be removed from office, it’s the city council that needs to be removed.
Only SWAT can remove these well armed people who have now killed a 16 year old. The public doesn’t want SWAT – it looks bad. So this will not end soon.
Nora, you beat me to it: I think the only way you get the 12th and Olive Militia out of there, followed by the remaining campers is a SWAT team. I don’t think regular SPD can figure out how to dislodge them short of inflicting casualties and incurring further political damage as a result. If a SWAT team dislodges them, the SPD may have some political plausible deniability since SWAT is perceived to be an army in an of itself.
@ThankyouBob: I’ll just point out the obvious….the shootings are a result of the ongoing occupation and camping. If the mess can be brought to an end, there will be no more shootings, at least in that area. It’s not a matter of “punishing” the occupiers, it’s a matter of protecting them from further violence.
Right Bob, obviously all drive by shootings are the result of people being outside, school shootings are the result of kids going to school. Anytime an innocent bystander is killed by gun violence at the hands of the police or anyone else it’s because they shouldn’t have been where they were when they were shot. It’s the victim’s fault.
Negotiating with terrorists.
To BLM,
All the mayor needs to do to destroy the movement is to wait it out and keep doing NOTHING! Support for BLM at CHOP is being destroyed from within because of lack of leadership and focus. The more violence there is the less support there will be.
Get ahead of her and take a stand. Figure out what needs to be done and do it NOW!
Capitol Hill and Seattle is getting exactly what it voted for right now. You vote in idiot leaders you get idiotic leadership……stop commenting on here and just vote for competent leadership.
IF the Mayor and the City Council don’t come down HARD on all this Marxist Theatre, They will EXPORT this to every City that the think is Fair Game.
IF the Mayor and Council sneak bribes to BLM through the back door, it will be OPEN SEASON to shake down every Left leaning City that will concede to their demands.
Just WHO is responsible for the Homicide’s ?
Awful Quiet so far on that….
Can we keep it going until July 4th – we need somewhere to let off fireworks where the cops can’t go. Anyway, they’ll just think it’s more gun fire…
So, did the shooting happen and then the driver crash though the barricades trying to get away from the shooter, or did the car crash through the barricade first and then get shoot up?
There is video of the jeep on the playfield firing shots. The barricade seems to have been about a half hour later.
Just where is that ‘ Video” at ?
How many more young black men will be shot in the CHOP before Mayor Durkan acts?
If Black Lives really Mattered to anyone (the mayor, the CHOP protesters, Sawant, etc) they would end the failed CHOP experiment NOW!
Why do you say the victims were black? Do we know this?
Yes- it’s bee reported that an African American adult male died and an African American 14 y/o is in critical condition.
19-year-old Renton High student Lorenzo Anderson died. (1st death) He was a young black man. Anothr victim interviewed on the news at Harborview, as also a black man.
Best told media that the person killed and the teen who was shot Monday morning are Black.
6 days without a shooting is not a victory anyone should be celebrating. So the tone of this article feels off.
Also I’m not really clear how the security at Car Tender is involved in this (or not). This yet one more reason police reform is so imperative. Otherwise we will defacto privatize the police. CHOP proved that in two weeks.
A lot of racists have not been giving credit to CHOP gun emplacements for successfully laying down heavy fire on the vehicle. Had it not been for CHOP static gun crews, the vehicle’s attack might have been more successful.
At this point Mayor Jenny is being dishonest. If negotiations are going to take longer she needs to provide CHOP access to at least one of SPD’s Lenco Bearcat APCs so they can better protect themselves from return fire. CHOP Security should also be allowed to borrow high-powered rifles from SPD or KCSO so they can augment their ground-level firing nests with rooftop sharpshooters. So sick of this racism that says we can fund the corrupt police but the city REFUSES to provide a better arsenal to peaceful protesters.
Just ridiculous. Resign Jenny.
Truly an outrage that CHOP militia has not been provided with better weaponry from the City.
but it wasn’t the right car…
Racists aren’t giving credit to the CHOP for shooting two black kids, who may have been unarmed? Okay.
Sounds like you are the racist! And you are for sure Delusional! You suggest that police Give more untrained, unreliable and unaccountable LARPing children who answer to no one But themselves with no rule of law whatsoever besides what they decide to make up & then break themselves. To Just give them assault rifles? You are in a fantasy land and sound like a misguided teenager. What happens when one of these “peaceful Protestors” puts said rifle to your face and then proceeds to rape you violently & then murder you when he’s done. Or worse yet, multiple persons, who decide that Chop is theirs. Because they have the guns and nobody to answer to and nobody to save you or put them in jail after putting your lights out, leaving you nude, beat & dead in the streets. I wonder if you will feel the same way when your little fantasy turns into a nightmare of your own making.
Here’s an idea …
Stop negotiating, pay $5,000 to each resident of The Packard to get a hotel for 30 days, and let the Choppers kill each other off.
Problem solved.
I have just heard two things from a trusted source. (I can’t elaborate on that source so take it or dismiss it as the unverified comments of an internet rando.) Highly unconfirmed…
The White SUV occupants at 3 a.m. were unarmed and recklessly joyriding and/or street racing. CHOP Security troops were on edge from the Gold Lexus shooting at them at 1:15 a.m. and overreacted. The photos of the SUV we’ve seen (post crash) shows that all its windows were rolled up which would seem to verify they weren’t shooting.
The SUV driver was alive when they crashed, but CHOP troops executed him with a single headshot after taking him into custody. Video seems to confirm —
1:51 – CHOP SOLDIER: “Oh, you’re not dead, huh?”
2:08 – *Gunshot*
https://twitter.com/MarcusKulik/status/1277571834704084994
Jesus…. You do hear “Oh, you’re not dead, huh?” and then the gunshot. Gross.
And to hear talk of militias for protestors? Dr. King does not approve. Get the gun nuts out of there – police, leftists, and anyone else.
Cameras not guns. Stop the violence. BLM
1:51 – suspect 1: “Oh, you’re not dead, huh?”
1:54 – suspect 1: “You got stuck.”
1:59 – suspect 1: “Yo. You wanna get pistol whipped?”
2:05 – suspect 1: “OH!”
2:08 – *Gunshot*
is the party affiliation blood or crip? I assume its one of the two.
“There’s a video of the Jeep’s occupants firing shots at innocent bystanders first.”
So that justifies executing a shooter in the street without due process of the law? Sounds like some Trump level bullshit there.
“…blame on innocent bystanders for defending themselves.”
Defending yourself is shooting back as someone is actively shooting at you. Shooting someone in a vehicle that’s come to a stop, as a result of having already shot that person and their passenger, is not self defense. It might even be murder.
“…we can all take a wild guess what their party affiliation is.”
The party affiliation of the two black teens in the Jeep? Are you saying they were alt-right, white supremacists?
Stan’s logic: Security should’ve simply walked up and apprehend the active shooters or maybe cowered behind a dumpster and let them kill as many people as possible because active shooters deserve due process of the law more than someone deserves to live. I don’t think you’ll find much sympathy with that argument.
The only video I can find of the Jeep is it driving around in circles on the field. Windows are closed, the occupants don’t seem to be firing shots? When it goes out of view you can hear gunshots. Could it be CHOP security firing warning shots at the vehicle, because they don’t know what it’s doing?
I’m trying to understand why a 14yo and 16yo black kids would be trying to kill people in tents around the field. Something doesn’t add up.
Yo “Lying Trolls”, take a long hard look at yourself.
1) There’s no evidence this SUV is the same one that was reportedly shooting up the tent area in Cal Anderson Park.
2) That alleged shooting incident occurred about 90 min before this one.
3) There were no guns found in or by the SUV the teenagers were riding in at the time they were fired upon.
The teenage boys were not “active shooters”, they were unarmed black teenage boys who were straight up murdered.
It’s disgusting watching people like you try justify this.
——————
Black lives matter. Our approach to policing needs to be reformed. All cops are not bastards. CHOP is a destructive mess that’s derailing a much more important message.
Amen to Stan. And to “Lyingtrolls” – you have become exactly what you profess to protest. You’re advocating executing someone who has already been shot and is in a disabled car. The video from the playfield is the sound of gunshots and a girl crying while filming a tent. Is there evidence any tent was shot? Since when do drive by shooters do so with the windows up? They’re presenting a threat near the portapotties with windows up? Stalled and shot? So you walk up to the passenger side, reach in and execute the driver? And yet there are no guns in the car? That’s murder, plain and simple and if the police did this you’d crap yourself.
What a shit show the CHOP has become.
Really really tragic to read that another person lost their life and a 14 year old was shot. Folks can stop pretending now that this level of violence is normal for Cal Anderson.
I don’t pretend to know what’s happening, but it’s clearly totally disconnected from Black Lives Matter and issues of police brutality at this point.
We need to end these horrifying acts of violence and senseless loss of life.
I’m trying not to be angry that increasingly limited queer-friendly space is being used as a backdrop for this, but I’m increasingly failing at that. Pushing violence onto marginalized communities is not the answer we need.
Thank you… Well put.
WTO helped end Paul Schell’s mayor term based upon his lame response of initial welcome. History will repeat with Durkan and Best.
The question then becomes who is the alternative? Nikita Oliver? That would be the atom bomb of all shit shows for local politics. Neither political extreme is capable of governing. Seattle needs some centrists with brains in city government. The parade of low turnout elections where highly organized zealots get their candidates elected needs to end.
Had Oliver not been in the mayoral race, we might have elected Bob Hasegawa, who is more progressive than Durkan. If Oliver runs again, she’ll make the Chamber of Commerce very happy.
No, it won’t. Seattle residents have no self-respect and will rush lemming-like to put Durkan (and Sawant) back in office, because Drumpf or Proud Boys or something.
I also blame most of the city council for egging CHOP on. The sad thing is that they will all probably re-elected again, and again. Jenny Durkan just needs to put her foot down, and remove them. She has nothing to lose. I doubt she will win re-election when the time comes no matter what she does now.
I’m puzzled as to who Durkan is pandering to so heavily. The council is a lost cause but why is Durkan bending so far for a handful of extremists in CHOP when there are 750,000 people in the whole city? Is she playing to some profile of imagined KUOW listeners? We have heard from many quite liberal minded people on Capitol Hill who have been pleading for this disaster to be ended and cleared out.
City council. Silent or complicit. If you look at council member’s twitter feeds you see silence about these killings, and for some, encouragement of CHOP . Teresa Mosqueda retweeting BS from Spek (The cops can have their precinct back any time!). Kshama Sawant, Lisa Herbold, Deborah Juarez, Andrew Lewis, Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda, Alex Pederson, Lorena Gonzales (Dan Strauss, no twitter feed). Correct me if I’m wrong, cursory check last 15 mins. Same for Girmay Zahilay, king council rep. Who at least has encouraged COVID safety and has deep community involvement.
Agree, the council is just as much to blame for this as Durkan. They had their little photo ops at the police blockades and then high-tailed it home to call for Durkan to step down; with no further action from them since.
Sawant and Gonzalez did, however, both issue statements; as reported in the Seattle Times:
Councilmember Kshama Sawant said during a council briefing the shooting “highlights the urgency to address the endemic violence in our society under capitalism.”
She said “violence was happening on Capitol Hill and in other parts of the city long before the CHOP occupation was created by the movement and we should completely reject the false claims — claims that have no basis in statistical analysis — that the CHOP occupation and the movement was the reason for any of the violence.”
Council President M. Lorena González agreed the shootings should not be attributed to the CHOP and, instead, blamed a nationwide gun violence crisis.
“There is a lot of reporting and information on social media that I think misses the point around what we are seeing manifest itself again (on Capitol Hill) and throughout the city,” she said. “Gun violence is a public health epidemic across the country. Seattle is not an exception to the plague of gun violence within our communities and this is not being caused by a specific zone within our city.”
One thing I never see talked about anywhere is the safety of the houseless population at CHOP. The protesters enlisted the help of houseless people to stake ground in return for (a temporary) offer of food (and I think counseling services?)
CHOP has become a magnet for gun violence (for whatever reason, gang violence or right wing agitators). Every night the houseless folks sleeping in tents are put at risk of stray bullets. This seems like a really unethical thing to do, since they aren’t really there of their own volition. Yet the CHOP leaders are pretty much silent on this.
“for whatever reason, gang violence or right wing agitators”
Black kids killing black kids. Pretty sure none are ‘right wing agitators’.
“This seems like a really unethical thing to do, since they aren’t really there of their own volition.”
So I guess if they got the homeless junkies out of the cross fire, that would make the shootings more ethical?
Your ignorance is absurd – No where has it been released that the killings were made by anyone from the CHOP or outside the CHOP, and NO WHERE does it state that they were black.. For all anyone knows it could have been anyone; i.e people outside of the area looking to threaten them. If you actually stepped foot near the area, you can see the sense of community these people have created; killing each other is not one of their MOs.
>CHOP has become a magnet for gun violence (for whatever reason, gang violence or right wing agitators).
Please stop pretending that these imaginary “right wing agitators” are responsible for anything going on in CHOP. The more you cling to this boogeyman and avert your eyes from what’s actually happening, the worse it’s going to get.
From KOMO:
“Tusitala “Tiny” Toese of Vancouver was arrested in Oregon and booked into the Multnomah County Jail. Toese is known as a right-wing activist and has been associated with the Proud Boys.
According to court records, Toese showed up at a protest outside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone and then engaged in a physical fight.”
So we know there were at least a few rightwing agitators.
“The probation officer said several emails included a link to a video that shows Toese push another man while some of his associates punch the man and throw his cell phone to the ground, breaking it. Another video showed Toese and his group walking through the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest area in Seattle.”
Oh, and this paragraph is why I said “a few.”
My point, which both of you seem to have missed, is that CHOP representatives are always talking about how they’re doing so much more for the homeless population than the city ever did.
They don’t actually care about homeless people. What they’re really doing is temporarily providing them food in exchange for being shot at every night.
Yep. And a weak mayor who should have housed the homeless in hotels at the start of this pandemic. As many other municipalities did. She can still do that – just put people up. Cheaper, easier, healthier for everyone.
I fucking hope you all remember your white tears for the police to come back and prevent shootings around Capitol Hill after this shit dies down and we still have shootings that are not prevented because police NEVER prevent shootings they simply respond or in a lot of cases never even do that. Shame on SPD. DEFUND!!!!!!
How exactly do you expect the police to stop shootings? Handout prepaid credit cards? Listen to the grievances of the activist community endlessly? push for higher taxes for more self-serving community leaders who line their pockets and are probably more of a negative influence than a positive one?
One would have to believe that Ghost is a spoof account. Or, just another confused Leftist kiddo.
He wants to defund the police when the police effectively enforce the law – and then he flips around 180 degrees to complain that police should be defunded because they aren’t enforcing the law enough.
The failure of CHAZ/CHOP was inevitable: entitled, self-destructive people with no sense of accountability will always fail.
Last summer they stopped a potential active shooter situation in the park (someone was pistol whipped, guy was waving around a gun, cops got there and arrested him). They also later arrested the suspect in another shooting in the park last summer. So stop saying the police NEVER do anything about shootings.
Yes, shifting funds to community outreach programs could help reduce violence, but that is not an immediate solution. You will still need police to keep order. CHOP proves that every day, and really is the biggest gift to those against police reform.
Also note that the only reason CHOP security were able to stop and kill these potential shooters (if it was indeed the same guys… you had better hope it was, and not some innocent kids) was because this is a small area with armed guards all over the place. So it’s not at all an analogous situation to a full city. Unless the plan is to defund SPD and instead put unaccountable armed private security at every street corner in the city.
Your argument is so ridiculous and so far beyond the bounds of common sense. It doesn’t seem like you’ve thought this through at all, or you’re so heavily invested in your viewpoint that you can’t see the forest for the trees.
The cops arrested a drive by shooter the 1st night of the riots. They’ve arrested the same person several times before for gun crimes. Miraculously, someone came up with $310,000 in cash to bail him out.
If he shoots even more people, that’s not on the cops. Ask yourself who is bailing gang bangers out with $310,000 in cash.
They actually have gone to many gun calls over the years and prevented shootings. But I know that does not serve “the narrative.”
And they recently arrested a suspect in Georgia suspected to have murdered a twenty one year old black man last summer on the basketball courts at Bobby Morris. So, the police are actively trying to apprehend the people who commit this violence. Good luck with that given the hostility from potential witnesses at CHOP.
And one last thing. The first shooting listed here, the one involving the car and alleged relative of an East Precinct officer, occurred before CHOP was even established. It really should not be listed with those occurring after CHOP came into being.
“for whatever reason, gang violence or right wing agitators”
Black kids killing black kids. Pretty sure none are ‘right wing agitators’.
“This seems like a really unethical thing to do, since they aren’t really there of their own volition.”
So I guess if they got the homeless junkies out of the cross fire, that would make the shootings more ethical?
Q13 reported that the two people who were shot in the SUV were black males. So that means that either the shooting at 1 AM wasn’t a “Proud Boy” attack the CHOP defenders are claiming it was OR the CHOP police killed two random people out on a joy ride that had nothing to do with the shooting.
Unarmed black children, age 16 and 14. Where’s the national outrage?
Or, the shooting at 1 AM wasn’t a “Proud Boy” attack, AND the chop police tried to murder two black kids who had nothing to do with the earlier shooting.
What Would Kshama Do?
Eat a garbage vegan meal while calling colleagues on her land line.
> right wing agitators
While it’s certainly possible the 14 year old, Black child pumped full of lead by Choppers was a white supremacist, we know – statistically speaking – that this isn’t the typical demographic profile to which white supremacists appeal.
Again, it’s possible he might have been just not definite.
CHOP security just became what they set out to protest – murders of an unarmed black man. This protest zone needs to be removed TODAY. Shame on the City for taking this long to action and shame on the CHOP protestors to let this devolve into what it is – absolutely disgusting all around.
Please don’t give in to the extortion. these people have moved into a neighborhood they don’t live in to show no regard for people who have lived there for decades. and have demanded enormous amount of money being distributed to activist organizations who are already getting an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Start thinking about the 97 per-cent of Seattle that’s being ignored for a change.
Yesterday protesters were outside of the Mayor’s house and in response she released a statement that concluded as follows “The Mayor was not even home – she was working at City Hall. Seattle can and should peacefully demonstrate but should not put families and children at risk.”
She has the nerve to speak out about putting families and children “at risk” after allowing our neighborhood to be terrorized for a month! First by excessive force by the police followed by three weeks of noise, chaos, vandalism, violence and murder in or near CHOP.
Enough!
Stop endorsing those in the occupied area and restore peace and sanity to our neighborhood.
Exactly right. Thank you Mimi.
Why has Sawant gone silent on CHOP? She was such a big fan. Now nothing. Certainly no words of criticism or leadership from that blowhard opportunist no that things have gone sideways.
Best is doing all she can. It’s pretty clear the Mayor is holding the Police back from taking over the area in 30min time.
There is no movement anymore other than to terrorize the residents of pike pine.
If you don’t like this neighborhood or what happens in it, maybe you should move. Nobody invited you here.
I can’t think of any neighborhood in this country that would like what has happened here over the past month. We are one of the most progressive neighborhoods in the U.S. and we have had enough.You don’t fight the terror the police instills in one community by creating terror in another. It defies logic and common sense.
Far-Left / anarcho-communist ranks are mostly made up of miserable, lazy people who would rather drag others down to their level than raise themselves up.
It doesn’t defy logic or common sense for them: losing at life is what they have always been all about.
If you voted for Sawant then its really hard to have any sympathy for you. She was a full throated supporter of CHAZ/CHOP from back when her and her minions “took over” city hall then marched back up to what was known as CHAZ at the time.
Voters in the highly dense Pike/Pike corridor, and more broadly all the young people that moved into all the fancy new high density buildings up and down Broadway and 12th put Sawant in office. My guess is most of you had no idea how radical she really is. The kids on the hill thought it would be so cool to troll all the rest of Seattle (you know, that places were people have single family homes, are raising children, and being long term active members of their local communities). On election night you all thought you could cast a vote for Sawant, throw on your che guvera t-shirt and head out to poquitos, lost lake and oddfellows to cosplay as a socialist revolutionary without any repercussions.
I’m sure is was so funny for a while to watch all the rest of Seattle lose their minds with Sawant Derangement Syndrome as you laughed about how you had saddled the rest of the city with your district’s version of the village idiot, but now the chickens have come home to roost. In the future I hope you all think before to cast votes just to troll the rest of us in the city who aren’t fully embracing your urbanist lifestyle
But Morgan, what they’re doing is actually illegal. It’s no different from a random group of people deciding they have the right to set up tents in your front yard, or driveway, or building entry way, deface your home, leave trash everywhere, and block your street. They don’t have to the right to do that, and neither do the folks at CHOP.
Hi ‘Anonymous Content’ I’m a single family home owner raising children in D3 and long term active member of my local community that voted for Sawant and proud of it. You certainly don’t speak for me and I’m certainly glad that I and the majority of voters in D3 don’t think like you. Your notion that everyone voted for Sawant to ‘troll’ you is ridiculous and self centered and I almost feel bad Sawant has gotten so deeply under your skin.
I voted for Sawant and regret it with complete deep conviction.
I switched votes at the last minute – as a FU for amazon and it’s $1 million last minute attempt to buy the election. Backfired. I am living proof. And I am so sorry I did that. This was a very sad event today at CHOP and I feel we need thoughtful council members who will look at these lives lost with compassion and leadership, not through the eyes of their ‘movement.’
Cool, so you’re totally getting what you want from her? You wanted Pike/Pine to turn into Falluja; where CHOP Security shoot indiscriminately into cars driving down 12th, where local business have hired heavily armed security details, where there are varying types of armed criminals shooting any old random night? Because make no mistake about it, without Sawant CHOP would have never existed, she sets the socialist agenda in the city. The city would have swept it out night one just like Portland and every other city in America.
And where is she now because she sure was right out there front and center when this was all just “summer of love” wasn’t she? Now that teenage black kids are dying in there street where is she? Oh that’s right, she moved her mob up to the safety of D4 to march on the mayors personal residence, a mayor who was a federal prosecutor by the way. Does that seem smart? If something bad happens to our mayor as a result of your representative leading an angry mob to her home you still going to be cool with her?
Yeah, screw D3, If only it was Capitol Hill that was accessible only by bridge instead of W Seattle. The rest of the sane people in this city could just wait for the bridges to fall down once Sawant pissed away all the money to her socialist/lobbyist friends (and boyfriend). Anyone know how to de-annex a neighborhood? I’d rather have white center as part of the city than the hill at this point.
Like I said, SO deeply under your skin. You and your minions try WAY to hard to make a connection between Sawant and the violence caused by outside agitators at CHOP and the false narratives you spin daily on this Blog make you seem incredibly desperate. Try going outside and taking a walk or screaming into your pillow. I genuinely think it could help
Thanks for the advice, but your lack of imagination is pitiful. Scream into a pillow? That what you all do down there in your 400 sq ft apartments these days? The nice thing about not being in D3; we can use our parks!
Today was beautiful, this afternoon I went for a nice 3 mile run while my kids rode their bikes around the park. Anyone doing that at Cal Anderson these days?
Sorry for not wanting to standby while sawant trashes the rest of the city the way she did Cal Anderson.
@ Ridiculous content: I am really aghast that an otherwise-responsible resident of D3 is “proud” to have voted for Sawant. As evidenced by other comments in this thread, many people who voted for Sawant are now regretting it. The only reason she won is because of the unfortunate, last-minute cash from Amazon, which resulted in many people voting for her because they objected to big money in politics, and not because they actually supported her.
Do you not see that Sawant is a really strident, divisive councilmember, and that all she cares about is her “movement.”?
@bob
I dont regret voting for Sawant at all. I voted her in based on her platform and convictions and continue to support her folowing through on those promises. The commenters on CHS blog do not represent the community of D3 as a whole. I doubt the vast majority even live here. Using comments from a blog as your sample data to make a wild proclamation regarding public sentiment toward Sawant is not convincing or the least bit accurate as an information source. Try not to be so shocked other people don’t think like you and want to see real changes to our tax structure in Seattle and remember the ‘others’ are the majority of D3 voters.
Outside agitators? You are delusional Ridiculous content! There is video proof that atleast some of these shootings happened by CHOP occupiers. Yea, I bet you’ll be loving the place when some of the “private security” “Chop police” guys who answer to no one, come to your house and have their way with you at Gun point and then leave you and your children dead. With no one to hold them accountable. Or a stray bullet comes thru your window and hits your kid, while their playing “cops” & robbers in the streets.
what a heartbreaking way for CHOP to fizzle out . yes, this is a shit show that needs to end yesterday .
I cannot figure out why drive-by shooters would be fighting for turf and customers in a place like the CHOP?
Remember 2019 when gun violence and school shootings were decried by these same protestors? Now, the Left wants to remove security and police from schools, embraces gun-toting anarcho-socialists & armed gangs, and wants to empty the jails of violent offenders.
What could possibly go wrong?
Failure is about the only thing the far-Left is good at and, for the most part, it’s by design.
I think this is truly a tragic moment for all evolved that the media has turned this into a ‘case study’ for why we should dismiss the black lives matter movement and direct democracy.
All people in positions of power really need to do is let play out what already takes place in Seattle’s marginalized communities (except with abnormally amplified attention) and they can dismiss an entire movement backed by millions of people.
This violence is probably the result of a violent culture focused on destroying the ‘opposing forces’ instead of rehabilitating the abused and discarded.
I had a bad feeling that Durkan’s proclamation of the CHOP/CHAZ being “over” immediately following the first batch of shootings was just more lip service.
Andre Taylor was out there today giving statements about disavowing the CHOP with a group of people shouting over him and saying “Andre doesn’t speak for us.” So her strategy of leveraging black community leaders to disperse people in the CHOP obviously isn’t working, either.
You’d have to believe she also hoped some lifting of COVID restrictions and the beginning of summer would wash out that area as local residents get back to frequenting the bars and restaurants. Most people are terrified of that area and many have just moved out entirely, so that hasn’t worked either.
It’s clear the city under her direction has no intention of making the first move out of fear of being painted as the “aggressor,” so what’s the end game? How does this realistically conclude?
That they won’t listen to the black community is an indicator this was never really about the black community to begin with. Its about a narrative specific to anarchists and whats left over from Occupy. That they had the gall to shout BLM over an African American chief of police giving a news conference after yet two more African Americans are shot in their little kingdom is really something. CHOP has blown it and then some. Hopefully a Federal judge will order the city to just take it down.
I sure wouldn’t want to be CHOP security right now. Chances of retaliation after killing/injuring two teens are pretty high.
I hadn’t thought of that but you’re right. Meanwhile Choppers are protecting the murderers and refusing to cooperate with the police investigation. Another shooting in retaliation is imminent no doubt. I wouldn’t want to have a 1st-6th floor bedroom window near the CHOP in the coming nights.
“Chief Best […] acknowledged that the number of people with guns around the camp was a problem for police.”
…call me naive but anybody with a gun is a problem – for everyone. What may have been a necessity 230 years ago shouldn’t have a place in a 21st century civic society…
So change the constitution.
Anyone want to play CHOP bingo?
Your numbers are how many:
1. How many shots will be fired tonight?
2. How many bodies are medevaced in the trunk of a ‘98 Civic low rider to Harbor View.
3. What time shooting will start?
4. How many witness will come forward (ok, just write zero).
5. How many excuses Sawant and Gonzalez come up with that shift the blame from CHOP?
The winner gets an all expense paid vacation to the beautiful nation of CHOP will a roll of toilet paper and three days free ramen.
CHOP is now the “zone of death”. I am a 30 year resident of Capitol Hill and I feel that I am living in a dangerous war zone. “Black lives” no longer matter to the people occupying our neighborhood as all victims of the shootings are black. The occupiers are directly responsible for these death along with their vigilante militia. I hope that whoever killed the 16 year this morning is prosecuted for murder. We cannot let innocent black lives go unpunished.
And the worse proponent of this occupation is Sawant. All that she cares about is her personal fame and could care less about black lives. If you read her comments today, she blames the death of the 16 year old on the “system”. She is the worse possible opportunist. She never empathizes with the dead or seriously injured victims of the occupation, all who are black. She could care less about black lives as the only thing that she cares about her “power” and political standing. She is despicable and I call her the “Trump of the left”, totally divisive and cares nothing about humanity.
Lorena Gonzales has announced that the problem is not CHOP, it’s inadequate gun regulations.
I bet none of those so-called “security” CHOP gun toters wearing their guns under “discrete” cover have concealed weapons permits. They are obviously in violation of state law.
They all know who the gunman is that shot those 2 individuals in the vehicle as well since he was one of those so-called “security” morons. It’s just a matter of short time before he is apprehended and charged with murder. We saw him run from the scene and right past our apartment, and several people have him on video.