New Shooting Inside the 'Peaceful' CHOP Zone Late Sunday Night, Unverified Reports of a Second

AP featured image — New cement and wood barricades bear the name CHOP, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, inside what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in Seattle. The city put the barriers in place Tuesday in hopes of defining an area where emergency, delivery, and other vehicles can travel through the area while still preserving space for protesters, who have been there since police pulled back from near the department’s East Precinct after recent clashes with people protesting the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Early Monday morning, the Seattle Police Department tweeted that they were investigating a new shooting inside the autonomous zone. They wrote that one victim had been admitted to Harborview Medical Center overnight and was said to be in serious condition. There were reports of a second shooting, however, as of 2:30 Monday morning, they had been unable to verify the details because they were receiving conflicting reports.

This news comes just two days after two men were shot inside of CHOP. The Friday night shootings left one 19-year-old man dead and another, age 33, in critical condition.

According to The Seattle Times, the Seattle Fire Department arrived at the scene at 10:46 pm on Sunday night. Fire department spokesman David Cuerpo told The Times they went to a predesignated staging location near the perimeter of the protest zone, and several minutes later, they were informed that the victim had been taken to the hospital in a private vehicle.

No other details were immediately available about last night’s shooting.

BREAKING: 2nd CHAZ shootout caught on video tonight. Via @ShawnGui_ pic.twitter.com/uebpjVkUe9

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) June 22, 2020

On Sunday, KOMO News reported that it took Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan 40 hours to issue a comment on the Saturday shooting. She confirmed that her office is working with police and fire officials “to make changes on Capitol Hill in partnership with black-led community organizations, demonstrators, small businesses, residents, and trusted messengers who will center de-escalation.”

An area resident told KOMO, “I would invite Mayor Durkan to spend one night in the CHOP area. And she can feel for herself what it’s like.”

Below is footage recorded early Saturday morning which provides a glimpse of what conditions are like inside the CHOP zone. The police responded to a report of shots fired in Cal Anderson Park (which is inside the autonomous zone) and were prevented from reaching the victim by a “violent crowd.” They were later told the victim had been driven by “CHOP medics” to the hospital.

It would appear that Seattle’s ‘peaceful’ protest zone, known as CHOP, is anything but.