Mays Jr.
A CHS reader shared this image from the night Mays Jr. was shot and killed on 12th Ave (Image: CHS)
Documents and records unearthed as part of a lawsuit against the City of Seattle over the killing of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. inside a Jeep Cherokee that had been driven at high speeds through the 2020 CHOP protest camp have revealed new details of the unsolved homicide.
The suit is scheduled to go to trial next week as the two sides argue over final decisions on testimony and expert witnesses. In one recent filing, City Attorney Ann Davison has asked the court to reject the defense’s witness responsible for establishing a monetary value for the teen’s life. Similar lawsuits were settled by the city before trials began.
The deadly shooting — one of two killings of Black teens in the camp — came early on a Monday morning amid a night of drive-by shooting fears around the protest zone.
The explosion of gunfire left Mays Jr. dead. His teen companion in the vehicle survived but suffered a brain injury. It was a final straw as Seattle Police stormed the protest encampments and cleared the area two days later.
No suspects have been publicly identified in the case.
More than five years later, a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Antonio Mays Sr. has revealed details and corroborated accounts of the confusion and panic that led to the 16-year-old’s death and how the Seattle Police Department stood by in the hours following the shooting.
Documents and video provided to the Seattle Times and KUOW from the 2023-filed wrongful death lawsuit adds new details of the confusion within the camp on the night and how SPD did not enter the camp zone until hours after the shooting.
Few details on the shooting have emerged since the first reports on the killing. Here is CHS’s report on the slaying when Mays Jr. was first identified on June 30th:
CHS reported on a night of driveby fears and uncertainty as at least one SUV style vehicle sped across Cal Anderson and through the protest camp before the confrontation on 12th Ave that ended in bloodshed. 911 callers reported a person shooting into a vehicle that had crashed along 12th Ave just after 3 AM.
Seattle Police again did not immediately enter the protest zone area but were able to collect some evidence when one of the victims was taken to a nearby rendezvous point to be transported by Seattle Fire to Harborview.
The crashed jeep, a bullet hole in its windshield and badly damaged, was reportedly rifled through by people at the camp where it stood on 12th Ave near E Pine but SPD eventually entered the scene to collect evidence in the hours following the shooting.
This week’s reporting from the Times and KUOW adds new details about the driveby panic that appears to have been set off by a joy ride.
For the lawsuit, the Times and KUOW report the evidence could foil the city’s defense that Mays was committing a felony crime at the time of his slaying. The new details could also help sort out what happened that tragic night and someday help bring justice in the case.
Among the findings is evidence showing the silver Toyota used by camp security volunteers to try to rush Mays to the hospital after the shooting was the same vehicle used in the pursuit of Mays and his companion Robert West as the Jeep sped through the area around the camp.
“It’s unknown who was inside the Pathfinder — also reported stolen — shooting at Mays and 14-year-old West, another occupant of the Jeep, though a video shows someone in a white shirt or hoodie firing what appears to be a handgun at the Jeep from the Pathfinder’s rear passenger window, while another person in a gray hoodie shoots a long gun from the front passenger-side window,” the Times reports.
Initial reports of SPD’s refusal to enter the scene and secure vital evidence are also corroborated:
After the killing, police said detectives were not able to get to the crime scene until 7:45 a.m., nearly five hours after the shooting. However, a video filed in the civil case shows that police had an opportunity to intervene while people were disturbing the crime scene. Shortly after the shooting, at least nine patrol cars gathered a couple of blocks from CHOP. Police body-worn video from the aftermath of the shooting shows a contingent of police officers approach the crime scene and one of the officers uses binoculars to watch people rifle through the Jeep.
“Rather than secure the crime scene as they watch people interfere with potential evidence, the officers are instructed by their incident commander to leave it alone until morning, according to the video,” the Times reports.
SPD says the investigation of the Mays Jr. killing remains an open case.
HIs father’s lawsuit, meanwhile, is slated to begin trial on November 3rd.
You can read the entire Seattle Times/KUOW report here: New Seattle CHOP videos contradict city’s narrative in unsolved killing
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support 🖤
