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Judge dismisses federal CHOP lawsuit over teen gunned down at 10th and Pine

The federal lawsuit brought on behalf of Lorenzo Anderson’s mother blaming the City of Seattle for “failures to act” during the CHOP occupied protest has been dismissed.

Lawyers for Donnitta Sinclair brought the suit last year over the August 2020 shooting death of the 19-year-old who was killed on the edges of the protest zone at 10th and Pine just days after Seattle Police abandoned the East Precinct and refused to respond to many 911 calls in the area of the protest encampment.

Marcel Long was charged in the murder as prosecutors say Long gunned down Anderson on the Capitol Hill street in a beef between the teens. In the time since the lawsuit was filed, a U.S. Marshals-led task force tracked down Long and took him into custody.

The federal lawsuit argued the City of Seattle did not adequately act to protect Anderson. “The City had no effective plan for providing police protection, fire protection, or other emergency services into the surrendered area,” the federal civil rights suit alleged, accusing the city and Seattle Police of “failures to act, including abandoning the SPD East Precinct and CHOP.”

But District Judge John Coughenour found no evidence of “deliberate indifference” toward Anderson and dismissed the case this week.

KING 5 reports that Sinclair’s legal team plans to appeal and still has an active state claim.

Another federal case brought against the city over CHOP, meanwhile, continues. The lawsuit brought by a group of developers, real estate owners, and small business owners in the area of the protest camp alleges that city leaders violated property rights by allowing the protest and encampment to continue for weeks. The case’s latest filings indicate that legal process will stretch on into 2022.

 

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CD Born n Raised
CD Born n Raised
2 years ago

Good decision. I am a black resident of Seattle and I hate seeing a black teen gunned down over something so stupid. But I am also a person of nuance thinking and I see the good in CHOP and I am glad I got to experience it. I am an old soul and many great people existed in harmony during CHOP. I feel bad for this mother who lost their son but go after the person who shot him and not the city.

Park neighbor
Park neighbor
2 years ago

While difficult to prove in court, there is no doubt that the city’s extreme negligence in creating the CHAZ/CHOP power vacuum which quickly filled with anarchists, suburban white kids having a covid lockdown tantrum, and gangs contributed to Lorenzo’s death, the death of others, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the neighborhood.

Lilah
Lilah
2 years ago

“no evidence of “deliberate indifference” toward Anderson”??? Did we not all witness the East Precinct pack up their toys and leave the hill? How is that not indifference?