The mother of a 19-year-old Seattle man fatally shot last month in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone filed a wrongful-death claim against the city of Seattle on Monday, alleging city officials created a dangerous environment by allowing protesters to occupy six city blocks and that police and fire officials failed to protect or medically assist her son.
The city has 60 days to respond to the claim before a federal lawsuit can be filed, according to attorneys representing Donnitta Sinclair Martin, the mother of Lorenzo Anderson. Anderson was shot multiple times early on June 20 at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, near a boundary of the CHOP zone before it was cleared by police on July 1.
Anderson and a 33-year-old man, who was critically injured, were shot that Saturday and were transported in private vehicles to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center by volunteer medics. At the time, demonstrators had largely blocked off law enforcement access to the CHOP area amid demands for racial justice and calls to defund the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
Anderson, who had just graduated the day before from Seattle’s Interagency Academy, was pronounced dead at Harborview. A suspect has not been arrested.
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