From the AP:
Seattle police are investigating another shooting that happened near the city’s “occupied” protest zone.
The shooting of the man in his 30s happened around 5 a.m. Tuesday in the Capitol Hill neighborhood east of downtown. A spokesperson at Harborview Medical Center said the man’s wounds were not life-threatening.
It was the third recent shooting near the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.” One man was killed in a weekend shooting.
Of the Tuesday morning incident Seattle police said “the victim refused to provide any information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting or a suspect description.”
Police said there were additional reports of shots fired in the area around the same time but there were no reports of additional victims.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said Monday the city will move to wind down the protest zone following the shootings.
The mayor said the violence was distracting from changes sought by thousands of peaceful protesters opposing racial inequity and police brutality.
Durkan also said police will soon return to a police station that the department largely abandoned in the area after clashes with protesters following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
The city is trying to work out a way to re-take the “autonomous zone” and get police officers back inside the East Precinct which they abandoned during the rioting. The building is now inside the CHOP zone.
As for what’s been going on in the cop-free area, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told seattlepi.com that things aren’t pretty in there since the cops abandoned their local base of operations.
The chief said several criminal acts have been reported in the days since her officers left the precinct building. She said the incidents included shootings, rape, assaults, burglary and property destruction.
“I’m not making this up,” Best said. “These things happened. Our officers need to get back into the East Precinct.”
Do tell.