by Debra Heine
Seattle Police Tuesday morning reported the third shooting in Seattle’s Capitol Hill “autonomous zone” since Saturday. In all, four people have been shot in CHAZ, including one victim who died.
The shooting was reported just before 5:00 a.m. just outside of Cal Anderson Park on the edge of the zone, also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP).
Officers investigating a shooting at 11 Avenue/East Denny Way. Reports of one person injured. More information when available.
— Seattle Police Department (@SeattlePD) June 23, 2020
According to the SPD Blotter, people began calling 911 at 4:37 am Tuesday to report a man in his 30s had been shot.
Officers and Seattle Fire Department medics staged nearby and met the victim outside the area known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP).
The victim refused to provide any information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting or a suspect description to officers. Medics transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center for treatment of a gunshot wound to the calf.
There were additional reports of shots fired in the CHOP around the same time, but no additional victims were confirmed.
Over the weekend there were two other shootings within CHAZ—one early Saturday that left a 19-year-old man dead and another person critically injured, and one Sunday night that left a 17-year-old wounded.
After a weekend of violence, Mayor Jenny Durkan vowed on Monday to dismantle the police-free occupation and send officers in to restore order.
According to the New York Post, Seattle Police were stopped from responding to the deadly shooting Saturday by “a human chain of protesters.”
A high-ranking police source told The Post that cops were not only blocked from reaching the victims at the scene, but were confronted by armed protesters at Harborview Medical Center and kept from entering.
Q13Fox reported that the 17-year-old victim was shot in the arm Sunday night, and refused to speak with police detectives.
Since June 8, when Seattle police abandoned the East Precinct, crimes like sexual assault and arson have reportedly surged inside and just outside the zone.
Police Chief Carmen Best has stated that police response times to 911 calls in the surrounding area have “more than tripled” because the force is down a station.“Emergency calls, which often means somebody’s being assaulted, sometimes it’s a rape, sometimes it’s a robbery, but something bad is happening if it’s a top priority call, and we’re not able to get there,” she has said.
The “security” team for the CHAZ includes members of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, a far-left militia-type organization, according to independent journalist Andy Ngo, who spent “five terrifying days” in the autonomous zone. Additionally, an armed rapper known as Raz Simone took it upon himself to patrol the area with an armed entourage.
Simone has an arrest record for child cruelty and other charges, Ngo reported.
As American Greatness previously reported, the so-called “warlord” was seen handing another man a rifle from the trunk of a car in a livestream Facebook video.
Mayor Durkan, who initially celebrated the lawless occupation—calling it a “summer of love”—reversed course on Monday in the wake of the two shootings over the weekend.
Durkan said the city would move to dismantle the police-free zone because the violence was distracting from the message of the “peaceful protesters.”
“The cumulative impacts of the gatherings and protests and the nighttime atmosphere and violence has led to increasingly difficult circumstances for our businesses and residents,” Durkan said at a news conference. “The impacts have increased and the safety has decreased.”
“There should be no place in Seattle that the Seattle Fire Department and the Seattle Police Department can’t go,” she added.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
Photo “CHAZ Seattle” by Derek Simeone. CC BY 2.0.
