It's Time-Horace Lorenzo Anderson, the father of a 19-year-old black teen shot and killed inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) is speaking out and demanding the city bring in the National Guard to help break up the increasingly violent protest, now in its third week.
Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr., was the first person killed in CHOP, more than a week ago, during an outbreak of gun violence inside of the “autonomous zone.”
Anderson’s father, Anderson, Sr., spoke late Monday, after another black teen, this time a 16-year old, was killed in the CHOP over the weekend, and a 14-year-old left wounded.
“I ain’t been sleeping. You see my eyes. I’ve been crying. I’m trying not to cry on TV,” Anderson said in the Monday press conference, according to KIRO Seattle.
“This doesn’t look like a protest to me no more,” said Anderson. “That just looks like they just took over and said we can take over whenever we want to.”
Since last week, at least two people have been killed and several others wounded in CHOP gun violence. And although Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan has pledged to bring an end to the demonstration, which is occupying six square blocks of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, including the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, many believe Durkan is sympathetic to the plight of protesters and reticent to use force.
Anderson, to the contrary, says that if the city cannot break up the protest alone, officials should bring in the National Guard.
“They should deployed them here to say ‘Man, it’s time to go,'” Anderson said. ” ‘It’s time to move on. And break this up.'”
