SEATTLE — A teenager is dead, a second injured and their jeep is riddled with bullets inside the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, aka CHOP zone.
The latest shooting at the CHOP zone claimed the life of a 16-year-old male, and left a 14-year-old critically injured.
Tonight, the father of another teenager shot and killed there last week says the CHOP zone must go.
Tensions rose when the victim's father spoke out because he is saying things the people here do not want to hear.
But now two teenagers, both black, have been killed here. And at least three others have been wounded.
"I ain't been sleeping,. You see my eyes. I've been crying. I'm trying not to cry on TV."
Horace Lorenzo Anderson stood in the embrace of Andre Taylor, a leader in the local anti-police violence movement.
Anderson was there to shine a light on the murder of his 19-year-old son and namesake, who was shot and killed inside the CHOP zone last weekend.
He says the zone should go.
"This doesn't look like a protest to me no more," said Anderson. "That just looks like they just took over and said we can take over whenever we want to."
At about 3 p.m. this Monday morning, shots were fired at a Jeep Cherokee that eyewitnesses say tried to drive through the CHOP zone.
Those here say the occupants were shooting at them, so someone inside CHOP fired back.
"We need to defend ourselves," said Colby, a CHOP protester. "We need to retaliate. We need to exercise our Second Amendment right."
He defended their reaction.
"Multiple gunshots were going off," said Colby. "We were panicking. Everyone was woken up early in the morning. We did take cover. We did take cover. And we defended ourselves."
But Seattle police Chief Carmen Best decried the violence.
"I'm not going to let the detractors and the naysayers and the agitators be the ones that are the voice here," she said, above the din of protesters. "There are people who live here. There are multiple people who are being injured and hurt. And we need to do something about it. It is absolutely irresponsible for this discontent to continue."
Anderson thinks the National Guard should be asked to return.
"They should deployed them here to say 'Man, it's time to go,'" said Anderson. " 'It's time to move on. And break this up.' "
The protesters say their goal is justice.
"But justice is not happening here," said Taylor. "Violence is happening here."
When Taylor told the group that, he was met with angry resistance.
The mayor issued a statement saying city workers have been here offering services and reminding people they have to leave.
The protesters, however, remain defiant, declaring they will not leave willingly until their demands, principally to defund Seattle police, are met.
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