SEATTLE — A jury on Thursday ordered the city of Seattle to pay more than $30 million in the fatal shooting of a teenager in… Occupied Capitol Hill Protests “The area that arose in 2020 then The killing of George Floyd.
A King County jury returned the verdict after 12 days of deliberations, finding that the city was negligent in its emergency response to the shooting of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, and that that negligence caused his death. The Seattle Times reported.
Because first responders did not come to the protest area, witnesses attempted to bring Mays in a private vehicle to obtain medical attention from paramedics. They tried to flag down an ambulance that drove away from them, and it only took 24 minutes before they met paramedics in the parking lot.
The family’s attorneys said Mays could have survived if his airway had been properly cleared sooner. The city said Mays, who was shot in the head, was unlikely to survive and that emergency response was not responsible for his death.
Seattle was ordered to pay $4 million to Mays’ estate and $26 million to his father, Antonio Mays Sr., who became emotional and hugged his attorney as the ruling was announced.
Racial justice protesters angry over Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police took control of eight blocks in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in June 2020, creating a protest zone called “CHOP.” It lasted three weeks after the city’s police department abandoned its nearby district, drawing ridicule from President Donald Trump, who claimed that anarchists had taken over much of the city.
After two shootings at or near the protest, including Mays’ death on June 29, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and the police department were arrested. Dismantle the area.
Mays was shot in a stolen white Jeep near the protest area and a 14-year-old was also in the vehicle. A live stream from the scene captured the footage and aftermath, but did not show the shooter. Witnesses said on the live broadcast that armed demonstrators guarding the barriers of the protest area opened fire on the jeep. No arrests were made and no charges were filed.
Mays traveled to Seattle from Southern California where he left A note to his father Saying he was joining the civil rights movement. He didn’t tell his father where he was going, he just wanted to make him “proud.” Mays Sr. filed a missing persons report with the Los Angeles Police Department on the same day he found the note.
Less than 10 days later, Mays died. The 14-year-old, who was also shot, survived after eyewitnesses took him to the hospital.
King County Superior Court Judge Sean O’Donnell barred the city from mounting a defense that it was not liable because Mays was committing a felony — stealing the Jeep — at the time he was killed. Even if the city proves that Mays stole the Jeep, O’Donnell said, there is no evidence that he was killed because of it.
In a statement on Thursday, the city prosecutor’s office described the death as a tragedy and said it was considering its legal options.