How an anti-police violence protest ended in a teen’s death

In the summer of 2020, as protests against police brutality swept the United States following the murder of George Floyd, something unusual happened in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Police abandoned a precinct in the middle of the city. Protesters took over the surrounding eight blocks, setting up an occupy-style camp they called CHOP—the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. It was an experiment in a different kind of world, with its own medical teams and armed security. Three weeks later, that experiment ended in gunfire. A black teenager named Antonio Mays Jr. was shot and killed. The shooting came from the people who were supposed to be defending the camp. Six years later, the case remains unsolved.

The Shooting and the Narrative That Hardened

On the morning of June 29, 2020, reporters Will James and Sidney Brownstone arrived at CHOP to cover what had become a crime scene. A white Jeep had been driving erratically through the protest zone. Witnesses on the ground told reporters they heard shots coming from the Jeep—that CHOP was under attack. Protesters shot back. "When you come in shooting, I don't think it's that much of a surprise when you get shot back," one person said. Two black teens were hit: 14-year-old Robert West survived, but 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. died.