Seattle's handling of the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone during the so-called "Summer of Love" has cost the city over $30 million, following a King County jury's decision ordering it to pay more than $30.5 million to the family of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr.
Mays Jr., as has been chronicled here at RedState, was gunned down by "security" in the CHOP zone, a roughly seven-block area that police and emergency personnel were forced to abandon during the George Floyd race riots.
The jury found the city negligent in its emergency response, which delayed life-saving aid, after first responders refused to enter the zone. Mays and another boy, 14-year-old Robert West, were shot in a stolen vehicle and had to be transported to medics outside the anarchist-controlled area.
Members of the jury seem to have decided these factors contributed to the teen's death. Some experts argued that a more timely intervention might have saved his life.
The verdict, reached earlier Thursday after 12 days of deliberation, awarded roughly $4 million to Mays Jr.'s estate and $26 million to his father, Antonio Mays Sr. Mays' lawyer celebrated while the decision was read, while the father was overcome with emotion.
JUST IN — A jury has found the City of Seattle negligent and liable for the 2020 CHAZ/CHOP killing of Antonio Mays Jr.
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) January 29, 2026
The family has been awarded roughly $30 MILLION.
Watch as Antonio Mays Sr. breaks down in tears after hearing the verdict. pic.twitter.com/m1lZkzjjiF
READ MORE: Joe Rogan Chars CHAZ/CHOP: 'You Guys Had Two Murders Inside of a [Bleeping] Week'
Then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat who justified the "autonomous zone" established by left-wing anarchists in the city at the time, famously declared her city was simply experiencing a "Summer of Love."
You may recall that a 19-year-old, Lorenzo Anderson, was also shot and killed in the CHOP zone. Multiple other shootings took place in that seven-block area after Seattle police abandoned their East Precinct. Calls about “rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts," according to Seattle Police Chief at the time, Carmen Best, had tripled.
Monetary breakdown
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) January 29, 2026
Antonio Mays Jr (deceased):
Economic damages: $1,209,044
Non-economic damages: $2,838,500
Antonio Mays Sr:
Economic damages: $567,712
Non-economic damages: $25,962,652https://t.co/p38vhRJg7J pic.twitter.com/F99UHHGZAH
In addition to the Summer of Love mockery, RedState Editor Becca Lower reported on how the Seattle Times focused on praise for the CHOP Zone's community garden. Now, over five years later, that same newspaper had to report on a jury finding that the city's allowing of the chaos was responsible for a teenager's death.
A steep price to pay for a community garden.
Mays Sr. found the ruling to be some semblance of justice, though he notes it will never bring his son back to him.
“I can’t say that it feels good,” he told reporters. “I can’t say that it feels complete because it doesn’t. I’m thankful for the verdict, I’m thankful for the success, but it doesn’t feel like a resolve.”
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