We Keep Us Safe: Who Killed Antonio Mays Jr.?
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What sparked the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) and how did it become a flashpoint in Seattle?
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Hey, it's Azolda Raftery from KUOW. From the team that brought you Adults in the Room and Lost Patients, we've got a new, deeply reported series for you. And I think you're going to want to hear it. This story starts with an unsolved mystery. Someone was killed, and it happened during what's arguably the most polarizing event in Seattle's modern history. I'm talking about CHOP. If you were anywhere near Seattle during the summer of 2020 or just paying attention to the news, you probably remember CHOP. For a few weeks, it made this city a national spectacle. Basically, protests over George Floyd's murder were erupting all across America. But here in Seattle, that movement took a shocking turn. Seattle police abandoned their precinct in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and hundreds of protesters set up a camp in the blocks around it.
A lot of people called this camp the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, CHOP. Early one morning at CHOP, about three weeks in, bullets started flying. When the shooting was over, a black 16-year-old lay dying, and a story emerged, a story that seemed like it could contradict the entire point of the protest, that people trying to protect CHOP had shot him. Years passed with no arrests, no real answers, just hazy accounts that left lots of open questions. My colleague Will James at KOW and Sydney Brownstone of the Seattle Times covered the protests that summer. And for years, this killing haunted them. So they decided they'd try to solve the mystery of who did it and why. And along the way, sort out what happened at CHOP, how something that started out with this burst of idealism, a utopian vision, could end in a hail of gunfire.
This investigation is the deepest anyone's gone into this moment in Seattle history. Beneath the conspiracy theories, the layers of fear and silence, and what it uncovers about that fatal night will stun you. This series is called We Keep Us Safe. NPR's Embedded premiered it this summer, and now we've got it for you here on KUOW Focus. Before we start, this episode includes explicit language and the sound of gun violence. Here's Sydney and Will.
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.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) and how did it become a flashpoint in Seattle?
0:00–6:15
2
How did reporters Sydney Brownstone and Will James first learn about Antonio Mays Jr.’s shooting?
6:15–13:04
3
What do the three key live‑stream videos reveal about the night Antonio was shot?
13:04–17:36
4
Who was the mysterious “big white guy” seen picking up shells, and what role might he have played?
17:36–22:45
5
Why was livestreamer Ashley Durellis arrested, and what does her footage suggest about the shooting?
22:45–28:31
6
What did Antonio Mays Sr. allege in his 2023 lawsuit against the City of Seattle?
28:31–32:40
7
How did police investigations and community silence affect the search for answers?
32:40–37:23
8
What broader lessons does the Antonio Mays case teach about protest zones and accountability?
37:23–38:12