Black Teenager Ended Up Dead at Seattle’s CHOP Protest Zone — Killed, the Evidence Suggests, by Members of the Movement He Came to Join

New video evidence challenges self-defense narrative in killing of teen at Seattle's CHOP protest zone An 18-month investigation by The Seattle Times, KUOW and NPR’s Embedded podcast, built on a review of more than a dozen videos from the night of the shooting, offers the most comprehensive account yet of how a 16-year-old Black teenager ended up dead at Seattle’s CHOP protest zone — killed, the evidence suggests, by members of the movement he came to join. It was shortly before 3 a. m. on June 29, 2020, at the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, a tent encampment that had spread across eight blocks of Seattle after police abandoned a precinct in the city’s heart during the George Floyd uprising. In the absence of police, armed volunteers had formed their own security force.

That night, a stolen white Jeep began circling a turf playfield, coming within 10 feet of a tent and sending a wave of fear through the camp. A livestreamer captured the moment: “There’s shots, shots fired I think … More shots fired, more shots fired. It’s that white car that’s been circling around.

The implication, repeated across social media and around the encampment, was that people in the Jeep had opened fire on protesters and that armed guards fired back in self-defense. Less than 10 minutes later, armed people guarding the zone shot all three occupants of the Jeep. Antonio Mays Jr., 16, was killed.

Robert West, 14, was critically injured. A third teenager, whose presence in the Jeep has never previously been reported, was grazed by a bullet and disappeared into the night. “When you come in shooting, I don’t think it’s that much of a surprise when you get shot back, protester Colby Williams said the morning after the shooting.

But the video review reveals a more complicated story. Mays, a Southern California teenager who liked fantasy novels and hip-hop and worked in his family’s barbecue business, had arrived in Seattle just days earlier. He had no known connections to the city.

Before leaving home, he wrote his father a note: “I am not running from home. I am fighting for a cause. One day I want my sister to live in a world where her skin won’t be the cause of any pain for her, physically or emotionaly [sic].

Three days before he died, Mays appeared at CHOP, addressing a city official and a crowd. “The police, their purpose is to serve and protect, right? he said in a recorded speech discovered late last year.

“I wish that the police would have more supervision when it comes to their training to make sure that they’re actually following their training. Because when they’re on these streets, they disregard all of it. Six years later, Mays’s killing remains unsolved.

There have been no arrests, no charges and no named suspects. Seattle police say the case is active, but have declined to say more. It remains unclear whether Mays was involved in the theft of the Jeep. What is clear, the investigation shows, is that he came to join a movement for racial justice and was killed by people in that movement who believed he was a threat.”””””