Internal Affairs Investigation launched due to the alleged failure to investigate the shooting death by Seattle Police Department
SEATTLE, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Evan Oshan, of Oshan & Associates (Oshan Law), filed summons and complaint against the City of Seattle, County King, and the State of Washington on behalf of the Estate of Antonio Mays Jr., and his father, Antonio Mays Sr. Government officials were on NOTICE of the dangerous situation connected to the CHOP/CHAZ zone well in advance of the death of Antonio Mays Jr., which occurred on June 29, 2020 - nine days following the shooting death of Lorenzo Anderson. The Complaint alleges compelling exhibits such as a forensic report of expert Brandon Leatha, which establishes how some 27,000 text messages were destroyed by city officials, a Federal Judge's order fining and sanctioning City of Seattle some $600,000 for spoliation of evidence, and much more.
The lawsuit and Judge's Order can be viewed directly below:
https://www.docdroid.net/zGflatF/complaint-antonio-mays-jr-pdf
An internal affairs complaint was filed which alleges the incident did not comply with regular police procedures and protocols that resulted in the shooting death of Antonio Mays Jr. - a black teen who came to Seattle to participate in the civil rights movement following the George Floyd murder. The lawsuit further asserts that while attempting to escape the CHOP ZONE, Antonio Mays Jr. was shot by a makeshift police force - Chop Cops which were under the direction of Seattle City officials.
Approximately 3 years have gone by since Antonio Mays Jr. was killed and no suspect has been taken into custody, even though there are multiple video and audio footages showing the incident of Antonio Mays Jr., even though the family has made numerous update inquiries. A complaint has been filed with the Seattle Department of Internal Affairs.
The Internal Affairs complaint and incident can be viewed directly below:
https://www.docdroid.net/dCyuX3b/internal-affairs-complaintdocx-pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K0tXOBPMHA
The Seattle Office of the Inspector discovered and outlines the multiple failures associated with the CHOP ZONE in the Sentinel Event Review of Police Response to 2020 Protests in Seattle, which can be found below:
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/OIG/Sentinel%20Event%20Review/Wave3ReportFinal.pdf
Father of the late Antonio Mays Jr. and attorney Oshan are available for in-person interviews in Seattle at the Washington Athletic Club on June 8th, 9:30 AM until 11:30 AM. Interviews will also be made available by Zoom.
Contact:
Evan M. Oshan/ Evan@oshanandassociates.com
206.335.3880 Voice/Text
The father of a teen fatally shot in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone in 2020 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for encouraging “lawlessness to reign,” new court papers show.
Antonio Mays Jr., 16, and a 14-year-old boy were shot by makeshift security in the lawless autonomous zone on June 29, 2020, as they tried to flee in a white Jeep.
The CHOP zone was “abandoned without a working plan to provide essential services,” leading to a botched effort by paramedics to reach Mays — and a late police response that allowed for crime-scene tampering, the suit from Antonio Mays Sr. charges.
The suit names the city, county, state and others.
While the alleged assailant was caught on video, there’s still been no arrest in the case, said the dad’s lawyer, Evan Oshan.
“Despite knowledge of the violence, chaos, danger, and potential danger, Seattle leaders failed Antonio and encouraged lawlessness to reign,” the suit charges.
After the teens were shot early that morning, CHOP zone good Samaritans arranged to take Mays Jr. out of the area and to paramedics who could rush him to the hospital, according to a suit filed Thursday in a Washington court.
But when they arrived at the pre-arranged meeting spot, “the paramedics did a U-turn and sped away in the other direction,” the filing claims.
One of the good Samaritans claimed “it took us probably 15 minutes just chasing one paramedic around” on a “high-speed chase” before they finally made contact, the suit says. They finally reached paramedics in a parking lot, but Mays had already died, the filing says, citing the good Samaritan.
The younger boy, survived the shooting attack.
The was no “resuscitation done by the paramedics, nothing, they just bagged him up,” the filing said, quoting the good Samaritan.
Mays “had suffered a painful and gruesome death. He died in agony from his wounds,” the suit claims.
The ambulance crew allegedly thought the good Samaritans were “a threat,” a spokesperson with the Fire Department said the day after the teen’s death.
‘Instead of fulfilling their duty to Antonio, the paramedics refused to provide medical assistance, despite knowing it was urgently needed,” the lawsuit charges.
The Seattle Police Department didn’t arrive at the shooting scene until about five hours later, after it had already been tampered with, “making the collection of evidence difficult,” the suit claims.
Mays had come to Seattle from his home in California for what he thought would be peaceful protests over the police-involved death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, the suit says.
Mays “was lured” into the area by then-Mayor Jenny Durkan’s “positive statements about the area,” the suit claims. “Sadly, Antonio soon realized that there was nothing peaceful about CHOP.”
The city should have known how dangerous the area had become; 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson was shot nine days prior and died of his wound because an ambulance allegedly took so long to arrive.
Both teens’ deaths led to the shutdown of the autonomous zone on July 1, 2020.
“On this third anniversary of the Chop Zone we declare that we will obtain justice for Antonio Mays, Junior who unnecessarily lost his life due to politicized wrongdoing by Seattle City officials that allowed anarchy to run amok,” Oshan said in a statement.
Mays Sr. said he was forced to take legal action because he got no answers from officials about his son’s death.
“All of the city officials that contributed to my son’s death need to be held accountable,” Mays Sr. said. “This lawsuit and complaint is not about money, it’s about getting justice for my son.”
Seattle police and the city attorney declined to comment on the pending litigation. The other defendants didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
FOR THE FULL VIDEO CLICK BELOW LINK:
SEATTLE — A new lawsuit has been filed against the city of Seattle, King County and Washington state over the protests that turned part of Capitol Hill into the occupied protest zone, or CHOP zone.
The father of Antonio Mays Jr. said those named in the lawsuit are responsible for his 16-year-old son's death in June 2020.
Mays was shot and killed nine days after the death of Lorenzo Anderson, who was also in the CHOP zone.
"My son should have been protected, but he was assaulted," Antonio Mays Sr. said. "He was murdered by those same people who were supposed to be standing against the very act that they committed."
The complaint states officials "allowed lawlessness" at CHOP and later intentionally hid evidence that could've incriminated them.
No arrest has been made in connection to Mays' death.
The King County Prosecutor has reached a conviction in one of the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone murders but the victim’s mother says this wasn’t the justice she was seeking.
“They want to drown what happened in the CHOP out,” Donnitta Marie Sinclair tells CHS.
Thursday, prosecutors reached a deal with attorneys for Marcel Long, the teen who gunned down 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr. on the edge of CHOP in June 2020, to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder.
“There is never a guarantee of what a jury will do, even in a case such as this one,” a statement from Prosecutor Leesa Manion’s office reads. “Today’s guilty plea and the upcoming sentencing ensures that Mr. Long will have clear accountability for this murder conviction.”
Long’s trial was set to begin later this month.
Prosecutors say Long, then 18, shot and killed Anderson at 10th and Pine in a June 2020 fracas after what witnesses said was a night of gambling and fireworks as crowds gathered and the CHOP zone took shape amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations, community meetings and film screenings, and art.
The murder and the militarized response by police who had abandoned patrols in the area and swept in as Anderson was being treated by camp medics on the Rancho Bravo patio sent a shock through the city. Tensions rose quickly around CHOP as increased security and firearms began to appear.
Heavy criticism of SPD also grew as video and reporting spread describing officers staging near the shooting scene and marching in as a large group with shields and riot gear after valuable minutes had elapsed. SPD had cleared out the nearby East Precinct headquarters and declined to respond to most non-life threatening 911 dispatches in the area around the CHOP camp and Cal Anderson.
A week later, 16-year-old Antonio Mays, Jr. was shot and killed and a 14-year-old boy riding with him suffered critical injuries on a night of driveby fears and uncertainty including the stolen jeep speeding across Cal Anderson and through the protest camp before a confrontation on 12th Ave that ended in bloodshed. Days after that, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered Seattle Police to sweep the camp.
According to court documents, Long was identified in the days following the June 20th murder but was believed to have left the state and the whereabouts of the Renton resident remained unknown. He was was wanted on a $2 million warrant. Long was arrested a year later in Des Moines, Washington by a U.S. Marshals led task force.
In 2021, a federal judge dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Sinclair against the city and a subsequent appeal was also denied. Meanwhile, in 2022, the city settled a separate suit brought by Anderson’s father. In that suit, lawyers for Horace Anderson at Oshan and Associates named Durkan and District 3 City Councilmember Kshama Sawant as defendants along with the city for allowing the protest zone to form.
Sinclair says this week’s plea deal for Long is an “injustice” as she believes prosecutors and city officials wanted to avoid a public trial involving the weeks around the abandonment of the East Precinct and the formation of CHOP.
“Our system let us down,” Sinclair said.
Long is now scheduled to be sentenced on June 30th and faces around 14 to 15 years in prison, Sinclair said she has been told.
“But this young man can now start his rehabilitation,” she said.
The Antonio Mays, Jr. murder investigation, meanwhile, remains open. Seattle Police have publicly released no suspect information and there have been no arrests.
Family Suing Seattle Over Son’sDeath in Autonomous Zone - THE EPOCH TIMES
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