SEATTLE — 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. 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 nearly two weeks ago. The SPD abandoned its East Precinct, just a block from where the shooting occurred, on June 8 following days of violent confrontations with thousands of protesters that began downtown following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25. 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 just across the street.
Seattle police in a post Saturday on its blotter said police attempted to respond to a report of shots fired at Cal Anderson Park, inside the CHOP protest zone and across the street from the abandoned East Precinct, but officers “were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims.”
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