(29 Jun 2020) One man has been killed and another was wounded in Seattle’s occupied protest zone.
The shooting early Monday was the second fatal shooting in the area. Police said it happened in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood near downtown.
The Seattle Times reports that Harborview Medical Center said one of the wounded males was brought to the hospital in a private vehicle at about 3:15 a.m. The second was brought in by Seattle Fire Department medics about 15 minutes later.
The hospital says one man died and the other was in critical condition. Seattle police did not immediately release details about the shooting.
The violence came just days after crews arrived with heavy equipment at CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) zone in Seattle, ready to dismantle barriers set up after protesters seized the area June 8 following clashes with police.
“This is still a barricade, and this is the public street where cars drive every single day. We had been told by the mayor to push our barricades in closer so we can have less security,” said activist Derreck Allen Jones II.
“So thankfully, we stood up for ourself against terrorist so we can have the protection that we did. But if we would have had a barricade right here on the street, this would have never happened.”
Protesters want the removal of legal protections known as “qualified immunity” for police who violate rights of members of the public – an issue that would need to be addressed in state law, not by the city.
The demonstrators have also called for cutting the Seattle police budget 50% and spending the savings on community health and other programs.
The mayor has proposed a much more modest cut of $20 million to help balance the city’s budget through the end of this year.
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