Will James

I remember the shooting happened on a Monday morning, a few blocks from where I used to live in a neighborhood called Capitol Hill.

An editor called and asked if I could go down and report from the scene.

So I get dressed and I run out of my apartment.

Everything looks normal at first.

People are walking their dogs.

They're grabbing their fancy coffee drinks.

I'm walking by rainbow crosswalks and a leather daddy bar.

This is Seattle.

But then I cross over onto 12th Avenue and it's like stepping into a different universe.

I end up walking into CHOP.

CHOP was an Occupy-style protest that included a field of tents.

There were crowds, art installations, and makeshift barricades.

All of it took up about eight square blocks of my neighborhood.

It had been there for three weeks.

But this morning, the morning of June 29, 2020, this isn't just a protest.

It's a crime scene.

Crowds of protesters are screaming in the middle of the street.

One of them seems particularly frazzled and is carrying around a baseball bat.

There are members of the black clergy there praying over a blood-smeared car.

Here's what I learned.