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Notes -
Storytime!
So there were two different shooting incidents. One happened on the east side of Cal Anderson (the park in central Capitol Hill which partially encompassed CHAZ) kinda by 11th between Howell and Olive. The other one happened on its southern edge on Pine more or less in front of what was then the Rhino Room/is now Couch. The first one I was present for. I was over between the reflecting and wading pools, to the west of where the shots were coming from. A CHAZ pickup truck peeled off in the opposite direction northbound, west of the reflecting pool. I was informed by a blue haired 5'4 CHAZ security deputy that the trucl was their chief of security. When I asked him(her?them?) why they didn't investigate the gunshots, the deputy told me they were unarmed, and had also been awake for over 24 hours. The shooting was believed to be gang-related, but I don't think was ever solved. The fact that CHAZ security collected all the shell casings surely did not help.
The second incident involved the two teenagers who if I recall correctly stole a car and drove it through a barricade on accident and were stopped by gunfire. Recordings of the incident that were uploaded strongly implied that they were executed after initial gunshots stopped them ("You're still breathing? BA-BAM"). This was the episode that precipitated the reestablishment of SPD control and the end of CHAZ/CHOP. I believe their families later sued the city.
Honorable mention goes to legendary highly-documented homeless tweaker Travis Berge who killed his homeless girlfriend with a board with a nail, broke into the pump house for the wading pool, climbed into a vat of chlorine, and drowned in it.
Incidentally, in the lefty scenes I ran in at the time, the only anger I ever heard expressed was for the two activists killed by accident while dancing on I-5. People were certain it was an intentional right-wing attack, and when it was revealed that the driver was in fact a confused immigrant who had driven onto the freeway around "do not enter" signs, the episode was forgotten.
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