and an account from the shooting. Its a... read...
https://old.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/hcohi5/fatal_shooting_in_chazchop/Quote
Alright everybody. I was actually fucking there working overnight trash pickup and perimeters. Here is my first hand account.
People were partying out in extra numbers. Juneteenth. Lots of drunk people, I was at the east barricade on 13th and we had been hearing fireworks for hours. Around 2:30am we heard 5 shots confirmed on comms ran towards west barricade by Rancho Bravo where the shots were fired and the most people were. As I arrived our copy pasta AR-15 guy was hyperventilating behind a barricade. From two friends in front of that barricade who were eye witnesses came this account.
Two men were talking and one was puffing his feathers while the other tried to de-escalate. The chill guy got sucker punched (ktfo) and then seconds later 5 shots were deployed from a vehicle hitting a different man in the body and the face. 10mm. Moments after the five shots two more shots were fired hitting someone in the arm. Suspected same shooter not confirmed.
I was working to direct traffic out of the way so the seriously injured man could be loaded on a truck and moved to the hospital. Hundreds of people trying to get a video of the incident swarming the man at the medic tents who was quite literally dying in the hands of our emt’s trying to preform emergency GSW procedures. So many people surrounded screaming and whaling at him impeding him getting help and probably scaring the shit out of him. It was an absolute shit show. I did everything in my power to disperse people but no one would listen.
A medic truck backed up to load the man in on a gurney but their truck bed was filled with shit. After several people emptied it frantically they loaded the seriously injured man into the truck. The truck pulled away from medic tent only to be swarmed by more frantic rubbernecking people trying to get a video.
The person who was driving the medic truck at some point got out with their keys and walked away, because supposedly “An ambulance was on route.” Said ambulance had been called 20 mins ago at this point and spotters confirmed it stopped outside of Chop even though the city just removed several barricades to ensure they could respond. The ambulance stopped completely out of view at the scene while this man was losing a lot of blood and his consciousness. All this direct info I gathered from what I could see from 10th and pine while directing cars away and attempting to clear people from the area and later one medic who was hands on attempting to save the mans life with hundreds of people screaming at him and filming their Instagram stories, as well as two eye witnesses in my group. About 30 minutes after the incident a SWAT team arrived to exfil the victim but there were still so many people in the way it was too late.
Truly heartbreaking and honestly defeating. So many people fucked up, so many people were just there for their Instagram story. Like 2 weeks ago when a man had a serious seizure and fell and hit his head and myself and a friend had to scream at ppl to give him space while they all filmed him. I’m pretty disgusted with humanity right now.
As someone who believed in the CHOP and someone who is 100% for this movement and for radical police reform I am uncertain as to whether or not this occupied protest should continue. We have had some small victories with city council and the labor union. Protests work.
IMO three shootings and one dead 19 man is a tipping point for me feeling like we are still helping this movement along. Maybe an unpopular opinion but from the absolute chaos I witnessed last night I think it’s time for us to regroup, keep marching and fucking VOTE.
Also anybody who is using this as a political jumping point for getting rid of the second amendment is just plain wrong IMO.
Shootings happen every day on America. This one will get special attention because of how it all went down, and will be politicized on both sides of our idiotic two party system.
The city is reacting with inaction as a tactic. Age old class warfare.
I have lost a little more faith in humanity today as when we were pushed to handle a real emergency many people fucked up immensely.
We have to do better.
Signed, Your friendly neighbor Queerdo-Anarchist
and bodycam footage from police trying to rescue the shooting victim:
This post was edited by Goomshill on Jun 20 2020 07:49pm