Yes, two people were shot inside the CHAZ/CHOP last night, around 2:30 AM. The suspect fled and has not been located. One of the victims, a young black man, is dead. The other is still in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center.

Official SPD statement: “Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims.”

That’s misleading.
Officers took some time to respond. They were informed that both victims had already been transported to Harborview by CHOP medics. That said, things were absolutely tense when they arrived. Because two people had just been shot, and the suspect was still on the loose, and officers refused to listen to witnesses.

“This wouldn’t have happened if SPD hadn’t abandoned the precinct.”
“Isn’t this proof that CHAZ/CHOP is a lawless wasteland?”

Y’all. Just. Y’all. Take a minute.

Before SPD left the East Precinct, Nikolas Fernandez attempted to drive his car into protestors and then shot a black man for trying to stop him. SPD did not break their formation at all. The shooting victim was treated and transported to the hospital by street medics. SPD barely shrugged at a man who was still carrying a loaded gun, as he approached them. (P.S. Nikolas’s brother works at the East Precinct! Let’s not forget that)

Known Proud Boys rolled up, openly and clearly armed, into the CHAZ/CHOP and assaulted people. SPD commented about them on the police scanners. They knew that they were driving around with no plates, they recognized that they were Proud Boys, they knew that they intended to incite shit. 24 hours prior to them assaulting folks. They didn’t respond, or prevent anything.

SPD also shot a woman in the chest with a flash bang, and then refused to treat her after they were informed that she went into Cardiac Arrest. She was saved by street medics. Police scanners openly acknowledged that police would not respond to her. Doctors acknowledged that without the help of street medics, she would have died.

SPD’s presence or lack of presence in the area means nothing and would not have changed the outcome. SPD has had opportunities to respond to violent crime against protestors and they didn’t magically save the day then, either. Even if they were still fully staffing the East Precinct, their track record indicates that they wouldn’t have stopped this, and the result would have been the same. Including how they frame the narrative against protestors and against the street medics.

CHAZ/CHOP isn’t perfect. But this was a violent crime that could have happened in or out of the CHAZ/CHOP. Street medics were again the heroes as they attempted to save two individual’s lives and personally transported them to the hospital.

SPD is committed to stoking the rhetoric that everyone in the CHAZ/CHOP and everyone affiliated with BLM in Seattle are violent anarchists, which is blatantly false. Don’t buy into their rhetoric. This is fearmongering to try and convince the public that they, in their current form, are necessary, they should not be accountable for any change or growth, and that community based alternatives will never work. Continue to demand change. Continue to think about viable ways of restructuring community safety.

If any proof HAS come out of this: the response of community street medics is way more reliable than SPD in a violent altercation.