One Dead, One Wounded in Shooting in Autonomous Zone: Report

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
June 29, 2020US News
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One man was killed and another was injured in a shooting early Monday inside Seattle’s so-called autonomous zone.

Several 911 calls indicated shots were fired near 12th Avenue and East Pike Street, at the edge of the zone, at about 3 a.m., the Seattle Police Department said.

Callers said a white Jeep Cherokee SUV was at or near one of the barriers surrounding the area, which is known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP).

Callers said several people fired shots into the Jeep. The two victims, presumably the occupants of the Jeep, were rushed to a nearby hospital. One later died. The other, a 14-year-old male, remains hospitalized.

“Detectives searched the Jeep for evidence, but it was clear the crime scene had been disturbed,” police said in a statement, adding that the investigation is active and ongoing.

Video footage captured inside the zone by occupiers included at least 16 sounds similar to gunshots around the same time.

A car sits in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest
A car sits in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone following a shooting in Seattle, Wash., early on June 29, 2020. (Aron Ranen/AP Photo)

People with guns and other weapons began running through the area, searching for the shooter or shooters, and at least one person described the people who shot the occupants of the Jeep as the zone’s private security force.

Shootings and other violent incidents have roiled the autonomous zone, which has been supported by city officials, leading to a class action lawsuit.

Officials said last week they’d dismantle the zone but attempts were stymied by occupiers refusing to leave. City officials have refused so far to use force to take back the city streets.

The zone encompasses a Seattle Police Department precinct but police officers abandoned the building on June 8. Soon after, activists took over the surrounding area, pushing barriers into roads and rejecting some who tried to enter.

As officers now decline to respond to some reports of crime, a private security force has arisen that includes members of the John Brown Gun Club, a group affiliated with the far-left Antifa.

President Donald Trump said in a tweet Monday morning: “Seattle Looters, Agitators, Anarchists and ‘Protestors’, are now refusing to leave the ‘CHOP’ Zone. They have ZERO respect for Government, or the Mayor of Seattle or Governor of Washington State! Not good!”

From The Epoch Times

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