HEAD HOME

Seattle Mayor Tells Protesters It’s Time to Leave Autonomous Zone

Mayor Jenny Durkan said officers would return to the East Precinct soon after three were shot and one died in the protest area over the weekend.

Seattle police will retake the East Precinct building within the boundaries of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone “peacefully and in the near future,” Mayor Jenny Durkan announced late Monday. The precinct has been abandoned for about two weeks after police left following hostility between police and protesters. The announcement comes after three men were shot in the protest zone over the weekend. One, 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson, died from his gunshot wounds. Calls among Capitol Hill residents for the city government to take action rose following the weekend violence, some stating that CHOP had strayed from the original purpose for the protests. Durkan said city officials are working with Black-led organizations and “partners in de-escalation” to get the hundreds who have occupied the area to go. “It’s time for people to go home,” she said, saying she would “restore order and eliminate the violence” in the area.