How an anti-police violence protest ended in a teen’s death

The 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle, initially an anti-police experiment, became the site of the unsolved killing of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. While protesters maintained that the shooting was an act of self-defense against an attacking vehicle, Antonio Mays Sr. disputes this narrative, asserting his son was murdered in cold blood. The investigation into the death remains stalled, hindered by a pervasive "circle of silence" among witnesses and a lack of transparency from the Seattle Police Department. Reporters are now re-examining public live-streamed footage from the night of the shooting to identify the perpetrator and challenge the prevailing, largely unverified account of events. This investigation highlights the stark tension between the protest's anti-violence mission and the lethal reality that ultimately emerged within the occupied zone.