Man critically injured in CHOP shooting says he was the victim of a racial attack

SEATTLE — A man critically wounded during a shooting in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone says a feud over the East Precinct nearly cost him his life.    

A teenager was killed; three others were wounded.

It was reported there was just one shooting Saturday morning. But DeJuan Young was shot in a separate incident by different people.

Young says his shooting was motivated by racism and happened a block from where the teenager was killed.

He is talking from his hospital bed at Harborview Medical Center, worried, he says, that his case isn't being properly investigated.

>> ‘This is about life or death’: City says SPD will return to East Precinct

Young, 33, was alert, though in excruciating pain, he said, just two days after he was shot outside the CHOP zone.

He heard the first shooting and decided to leave. He reached 11th and Pike when a group of men intercepted him and shot him.

“So basically I was shot by, I’m not sure if they’re ‘Proud Boys’ or KKK,” said Young. “But the verbiage that they said was hold this ‘N-----’ and shot me.”

He says the force was so great it pushed him onto the hood of a car.

"And they stood over top of me and continued to fire," he said. "I tried to protect myself and got shot in the arm.  And they got away."

His was the second shooting over a violent weekend in the CHOP zone. Nineteen-year-old Lorenzo Anderson died the early Saturday morning Young was shot. The next morning, another teenager was wounded.  Then early this morning, shots were fired again. 

Alex Bennett, a former nurse and several CHOP volunteer medics took him to Harborview in a personal vehicle.

“Someone said, ‘OK, then we’re going to get a van since no ambulance is coming,’” said Bennett. “‘We have to get this guy to a hospital.’”

That’s because Seattle fire medics were waiting for a police escort that was never provided.

“I understand everybody’s going to say, ‘Oh, it was the CHAZ zone and ya’ll asked for the police not to be there, so don’t act like ya’ll need them now,” said Young.

He said he had to rely on the kindness of strangers because of the Seattle Police Department’s feud with CHOP over the East Precinct.

“But technically I was outside that area,” said Young. “I was in Seattle streets. So what’s the excuse now?”

He says he feels they didn't try to protect him.

"They didn't," he insists.

KIRO 7 is checking with Seattle police to get their reaction to his allegations.

As for the CHOP area, both Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and police Chief Carmen Best say they plan to shut it down and move officers back into the East Precinct.

But they haven’t said when.

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