Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

A man was killed and another injured in a shooting in Seattle’s protest zone.

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SEATTLE — A pre-dawn shooting in a park in Seattle’s protest zone killed a 19-year-old man and critically injured another person, authoritie­s said Saturday.

The shooting happened at about 2:30 a.m. in the area near the city’s downtown that is known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” police said.

Officers responding to the shooting initially had trouble getting to the scene because they were “were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims,” police said on their blog.

Two males with gunshot wounds arrived in a private vehicle at Harborview Medical Center at about 3 a.m., said hospital spokeswoma­n Susan Gregg. The 19-year-old man died and the other person was in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

The suspect or suspects fled and investigat­ors had no descriptio­n of the shooter or shooters as of Saturday morning, police said.

Investigat­ors were reviewing public source video and body camera video for clues, Seattle Police Sgt. Lauren Truscott told The Seattle Times.

The CHOP zone is an area where protesters cordoned off several blocks near a police station in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborho­od following demonstrat­ions against police violence since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapoli­s several weeks ago.

Seattle police largely retreated from the zone after clashes with protesters ended with people throwing things at police and police tear gassing people and using other crowd control munitions. Protesters and others have said that the police department overreacte­d. City officials have said they are still communicat­ing with protest leaders, who had pledged to keep the peace in the zone.

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