AMERICA — There have been no arrests made in the case of a 19-year-old man who was murdered on June 21 at 2:30 a.m. He was killed in a “protest zone” in Seattle, Washington, where people are protesting the death of George Floyd as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Video footage released by the Seattle police body cameras show at least eight officers approaching the protest zone at the moment the shooting occurs, where they were confronted by other protestors, who yelled obscenities and told them to put their guns down. They also informed the officers that the victims had been taken away by separate unidentified vehicles. The other victim, 33, who was shot but not killed, was reportedly a white male. Eventually, the police left as protestors continued to yell at them.
The deceased victim is yet to be identified, but according to Kshama Sawant, a member of the Seattle City Council, it was an African American male.
Meanwhile, the search begins for the individual who is responsible for the shooting, especially since it lead to the murder of an innocent protestor during a protest that was largely peaceful.
One grief-stricken man, who attended another protest later on Saturday, was asked about the victim that got killed. “When I woke up this morning and I learned about it—it broke my heart.” He continued, “I love how it’s organized but last night—as I slept somewhere else—somebody got killed.” He also implored the perpetrator to turn himself in for the sake of the movement.
Even though police were present, there were no reports of clashes between protestors and police, which has been a central theme in several American cities for almost a month, since the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The protest zone where the shooting occurred has been a topic of political debate, with President Donald Trump criticizing its use by Governor of Washington Jay Inslee and Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkan.
