Seattle ABANDONS Dying Teen — Jury STRIKES

A King County jury just held Seattle accountable for creating the lawless CHOP zone that cost a 16-year-old boy his life, awarding his family over $30 million in a verdict that exposes how leftist politicians abandoned their duty to protect citizens in 2020.

Story Snapshot

Jury awards $30.5 million to family of Antonio Mays Jr., fatally shot in Seattle’s CHOP zone in June 2020
City found negligent for abandoning police precinct and creating unsafe autonomous zone where armed civilian guards operated without oversight
Emergency responders delayed 24 minutes reaching the dying teen while city allowed lawless conditions to persist
Shooter remains unidentified with no arrests made despite multiple witnesses and livestream footage of the incident

Government Negligence Claims a Young Life

Antonio Mays Jr., just 16 years old, was shot on June 29, 2020, inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, a lawless eight-block area created after city officials ordered police to abandon the East Precinct. The King County jury deliberated for 12 days before determining the City of Seattle’s negligence directly caused the teenager’s death. The verdict awarded $4 million to Mays’ estate and $26 million to his father, Antonio Mays Sr., who fought for years to hold the city accountable for policies that prioritized political posturing over public safety.

The lawsuit centered on a fundamental failure of government: Seattle officials allowed an autonomous zone to operate for weeks despite escalating violence, with Mays’ death marking the fourth shooting in the zone that June. Witnesses reported armed CHOP security personnel fired at the stolen Jeep Mays was riding in, yet no arrests have been made and the shooter’s identity remains unknown. This lack of accountability underscores how the city’s decision to cede control to protesters created conditions where crimes occurred without investigation or justice.

Emergency Response Failures Prove Fatal

The family’s legal team successfully argued that emergency medical responders took approximately 24 minutes to reach Mays after the shooting, ultimately meeting witnesses in a parking lot rather than accessing the scene directly. The city’s attorneys contended Mays’ head wound was likely fatal regardless of response time, but the jury rejected this defense. Judge Sean O’Donnell ruled the city could not avoid liability by pointing to the stolen vehicle, establishing that property crimes do not eliminate government obligations to provide emergency services. This ruling affirms a critical principle: governments cannot abandon their duty to protect citizens, even during civil unrest.

The 24-minute delay highlights how Seattle’s leadership created a predictable disaster. By allowing civilians to establish armed checkpoints and barricades without police oversight, city officials made it impossible for emergency services to function. Another companion in the vehicle, just 14 years old, was also shot but survived after witnesses transported him to medical help themselves. This DIY emergency response epitomizes the chaos that ensues when local governments prioritize radical protesters over law and order.

Political Decisions With Deadly Consequences

The CHOP zone emerged in June 2020 following nationwide protests after George Floyd’s death, with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and police leadership authorizing the precinct abandonment that created the power vacuum. President Trump criticized the zone at the time, warning that anarchists had taken over a section of Seattle. The zone operated for approximately three weeks before city officials finally dismantled it after Mays became the second person killed there, following 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson’s death on June 20, 2020. The verdict joins Seattle’s $10 million settlement to protesters over police response tactics, meaning taxpayers fund consequences of both action and inaction.

Antonio Mays Sr. expressed the permanent loss no financial award can remedy, stating he had something special with his son and they were far from done. His attorney characterized the verdict as accountability for systemic failures, acknowledging that multiple government decisions collectively created conditions for preventable deaths. The city is considering an appeal, but the family’s legal team vowed to fight any attempt to overturn the verdict. For conservatives watching cities nationwide struggle with crime and disorder, this case demonstrates how abandoning law enforcement principles leads directly to tragedy.

Precedent Challenges Future Autonomous Zones

The verdict establishes critical precedent that cities cannot escape liability for emergency response failures during protest situations, even when direct perpetrators remain unidentified. This ruling directly challenges the viability of future autonomous zones by affirming municipal governments bear responsibility for harms that occur when they withdraw law enforcement. Seattle now faces significant financial exposure from CHOP-related litigation, with this $30.5 million verdict representing one of the largest settlements from the 2020 protest period. Other victims may pursue similar claims, further burdening Seattle taxpayers for leadership failures.

The case complicates narratives around the 2020 protest movement by highlighting harms within zones activists established. While leftist politicians praised CHOP as a demonstration of community self-governance, the reality included multiple shootings, contaminated crime scenes, and two dead teenagers. For Americans who value constitutional governance and rule of law, the verdict affirms that government exists to protect citizens, not to experiment with radical political theories. Seattle’s leadership failed Antonio Mays Jr., and taxpayers will now bear the financial consequences of that failure while his family bears an irreplaceable loss.