After watching video and talking to medics and other folks on the scene, I have a more clear picture of the shooting last night. Early reports of white nationalists were untrue, it turns out to be a fight that escalated.

What happens next is unnerving and endlessly frustrating.

After shots are fired, the victim is moved to the medic tent. They call 911 to request an ambulance. The kid who was shot had a pulse for about 2 minutes, then medics started CPR.

The first SFD vehicles don't hit the scene until more than 13 minutes later, parking a block away.

(This is the most complete video I can find of the incident. The livestreamer is annoying and racist af, but the video is helpful to see the timetable.) https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/hczkrd/first_person_of_chop_shooting_2am_saturday_june/

(Here is a great minute-by-minute recounting of what happened from the perspective of the lead medic on scene. These folks have given so much to this movement, and it is not at all fair that their efforts were met with such ambivalence from SFD.) https://www.facebook.com/WWConverge/videos/2635995596680501/

From what I've been told, the decision was made by medics to keep the patient on site until SFD arrives. Because they had an established relationship with SFD, and had recently worked with them to move barriers to give them access, they had no reason to think SFD wouldn't come.

When the SFD ambulance shows up, they don't go to the previously established rendezvous point (Harvard & Pine), instead they park on 10th & Pine, but refuse to enter the barricade or even acknowledge the person literally begging them to help.

(part 2)

SFD claims it is against protocol to enter the scene of a shooting before that scene has been cleared by Seattle Police (who still have not arrived on scene). After a few minutes of begging, a protester runs back to the medic station to tell them SFD isn't coming.

By this point, medics have moved the victim to the back of a pickup truck, and are still administering CPR. They immediately make the decision to drive to the hospital themselves. They take off towards Harborview, medics still in the back of the truck, doing chest compressions

Several minutes later, Seattle Police shows up on the scene, in riot gear, with shields and weapons out. From the moment they arrive on scene, everyone on site is telling them the victim has already been transported, and begging them to put guns away.

Eventually they get the message, but they maintain their aggressive posture. At that point the mood of the crowd changes. People throw up their hands and start chanting "hands up, don't shoot" as they walk towards police, pushing them out of the protest area.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the medics just weren't enough to save the victim, and he died at Harborview. There is no doubt that he would have been much more likely to survive had SFD had either entered the area without police, or at least let medics know they weren't coming.

And now another young black man is dead. Likely unable to be saved because of protocol. Because of a *system* that requires the community to accept abuse from the police as a prerequisite for life-saving medical care.

It's a reminder of why people are out in the first place.

For their part, Seattle Police took about 20 minutes to arrive, likely because they felt they needed riot gear and a strike force to walk into what had been a positive celebration all day and night up until then.

SPD has struck this violent posture at every turn. For what?

Given what they have done the past two weeks to mislead the public and slander protesters, it's hard not to assume they dragged their feet here. It's also hard to imagine that their propaganda campaign didn't have something to do with SFD holding back. https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1270900664822951936?s=20

What happened last night is a tragedy. It was a moment of violence that could have happened anywhere, but the response by the Seattle Police, and subsequently the Seattle Fire Department, prevented medics from making timely decisions, and likely contributed to the victim's death.

I am so sorry this is how it ended. I can't imagine what his family must be going through, what his friends must be going through, and what the medics who tried to save him must be going through.

We've seen what this system does to people, and it's time we build a better one.

(Also, I meant to write that the ambulance parked at 10th and PIKE not PINE. 15 years living here and still can't keep em straight.)

Another clarification: the video of the person begging the ambulance driver was on Broadway, I thought it was when they rolled up at 10th & Pike in the reddit video

The reddit video is cut short, here's the full 45 min https://www.facebook.com/jake.scheels/videos/10158069910340590/