The person killed during a shooting in the Seattle Capitol organized protest area Monday morning was a 16-year-old boy, police said.
Witnesses said they had seen a white Jeep Cherokee SUV near one of the makeshift barriers around the protest area just before the shooting erupted around 3 a.m., according to Seattle police.
Callers to 911 reported that several people shot at the vehicle.
Neither the 16-year-old boy nor the 14-year-old boy injured in the shooting were immediately identified by name.
The 16-year-old was pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center. The youngest teenager was hospitalized for gunshot wounds and was reported in critical condition.
The crime scene was allegedly tampered with after the shooting, police said.
“Our homicide detectives searched the Jeep for evidence, but there wasn’t much we could find,” said Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best.
“It is very clear to our detectives that people had gotten in and out of the car after the shooting.”
Detectives trust witnesses to find out what happened, but Best said that, as with the other shootings in the area, “people are not cooperating with our requests for help.”
The violence occurred just over a week after another shooting in the area, called CHOP, which left a 19-year-old man dead and a 33-year-old man injured.
“Enough is enough,” Best told reporters. “We need to be able to get back to the area.”
Protesters have occupied several blocks around the abandoned Seattle Police Department Precinct East and a park for approximately two weeks.
The compound was abandoned after clashes and clashes with protesters calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
But violence is clouding the message that protesters seek to promote, the police chief said.
“Two African American men are dead, in a place where they claim to be working for the Black Lives Matter,” Best said. “But they are gone, now they are dead.”
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