A new lawsuit from the family of a teen shot and killed on the edges of the CHOP occupied protest is moving forward after a federal judge dismissed a civil rights case blaming the city over the young man’s death.
The new lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court is being brought on behalf of the estate of Lorenzo Anderson by the teen’s father, the Seattle Times reports:
The 40-page complaint filed by Horace Anderson and the estate of his dead son, Horace Lorenzo Anderson, was filed in King County Superior Court on Wednesday, just two days after a federal judge dismissed similar claims filed in U.S. District Court by the young man’s mother. The new lawsuit, filed by Seattle trial attorney Evan Oshan, differs from the failed federal lawsuit in that it relies on state law and adds claims for negligence and violations of protections and duties that cities and officials owe citizens that are outlined in the state constitution and statutes, which are generally more expansive than federal law.
CHS reported here on the dismissal of the claims in the federal lawsuit that accused the city of “failures to act” during the CHOP occupied protest as Seattle Police emptied the East Precinct and refused to respond to most 911 calls in the area, a situation that also contributed to Seattle Fire’s slow response to aid Lorenzo Anderson after he was gunned down at 10th and Pine.
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.
Unlike the federal civil rights suit, the new lawsuit has been filed in county court and is a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging officials including Mayor Jenny Durkan and Councilmember Kshama Sawant acted with “deliberate indifference” to the protest zone.
Meanwhile, another federal case brought against the city over CHOP continues. That 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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