June 21 (UPI) — Seattle police are investigating an early morning shooting in the protest zone known as Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, that killed one man and injured another, who was treated for life-threatening injuries.
Police have not identified the victims, both of whom were described as 19-year-old men, and the suspect is said to have fled the scene.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office released a timeline Saturday saying 9-1-1 dispatchers received a call at 2:19 a.m. reporting gunshots at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, and saying both victims were transported to Harborview Medical Center in private vehicles.
Police have released a video using footage spliced from body cameras and security cameras in the neighborhood.
It includes footage from Cal Anderson Park showing a rapid volley of gunshots, as well as footage of police attempting to enter the scene and announcing they are trying to get to the victim — and civilians telling them to leave and to put their guns down, and also telling them the victim has already been taken to the hospital.
On June 8, the Seattle Police Department vacated its East Precinct, about two blocks from where the shootings occurred, after days of confrontations with protesters demonstrating against police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Demonstrators then cordoned off a roughly six-block area in the Capitol Hill area, initially calling it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone and then renaming it Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. It is referred to as Capitol Hill Organized Protest in SPD’s video.
