After a mother lost her son in a fatal shooting in Seattle’s CHOP/CHAZ autonomous zone. A federal court judge shut down a lawsuit in regards to the shooting
A federal judge rejected a lawsuit by the Seattle mother of a 19-year-old man gunned down in an autonomous “no-cop” protest zone dubbed CHOP/CHAZ in the summer of 2020, arguing the city is not responsible for his killing in the six blocks that included an abandoned police precinct.
In formally rejecting the lawsuit Monday, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled that Donnitta Sinclair, the mother of Horace Lorenzo Anderson, could not prove that the city’s actions, which included abandoning the East Precinct during violent demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, directly resulted in her son’s death 12 days later. What was first referred to as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, was rebranded to the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, saw violence persist for weeks before Anderson was fatally shot on the outskirts of Cal Anderson Park.
The mother cannot prove that the City’s actions directly led to the death of her sons deaths because she is not being given an opportunity to do so. However, if given the opportunity, the evidence would be almost irrefutable.
The city of Seattle allowed a portion of their city to be taken over by criminals and run as an autonomous zone. The zone was guarded with firearms and other weapons. No regard to the law was given.
Has local leaders interfered with the succession, and broken up the autonomous zone and the criminal activity that occurred there, Horace Lorenzo Anderson would have never been killed.
“Generally speaking, you can’t sue the government for a homicide. But this is such a unique situation that we decided to get involved,” said Betsy Smith, a National Police Association spokeswoman.
“The mayor and city leadership made a deliberate decision to let that precinct go, when they could have done what the government should do in protecting that area. Instead they made a decision to foster a zone of anarchy.”
Had the government of Seattle and Washington not acted negligently in allowing a portion of their city to go lawless.