A lawsuit has been filed against the city of Seattle and some of its former and current officials, claiming they failed to protect Robert West, a black teenager who was the only survivor of a shooting inside the city’s “autonomous zone” during the summer of 2020. West’s attorney, Evan Oshan, alleges that the city allowed “countless acts of violence” to occur within the zone. The plaintiff’s lawyer names former mayor Jenny Durkan, former police chief Carmen Best, councilmember Kshama Sawant, and fire chief Harold Scoggins as defendants in the lawsuit filed on behalf of the victim.
On June 29, 2020, nine days after another fatal shooting in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, West and his friend Antonio Mays Jr. were trying to escape the barricaded zone when they were attacked. Mays was killed, while West suffered permanent and debilitating injuries, including the loss of his eye and part of his skull.
According to the complaint filed in King County Superior Court, West was lured into the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) area by Mayor Durkin’s positive statements about the zone on television. West, like many other Seattle residents, had gone to CHOP with the intention to participate in a peaceful protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. However, he soon realized that the area was not peaceful at all.
The CHOP area, which was governed by a local rapper named Raz Simone who referred to himself as the “Warlord,” allowed widespread violence and chaos within its borders. Simone had formed a makeshift civilian police force and equipped them with AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles. The lawsuit notes that Simone served as a de facto police chief, whose authority was even acknowledged by authorities.
Seattle leaders failed Robert West and other CHOP residents by allowing such dangerous conditions to exist, according to the complaint. Oshan pointed out that the “summer of love” descended into the “summer of blood” in the face of widespread violence and chaos.
The lawsuit’s allegations indicate that West was not the only victim of the situation in CHOP. Despite being aware of the violent nature of the area, the city of Seattle and its officials failed to take reasonable measures to ensure the residents’ safety in CHOP. They allowed the CHOP area to exist as an autonomous zone, deliberately tolerating dangerous and potentially life-threatening conditions.