We Keep Us Safe: The Chase

0:00This message comes from NPR sponsor Charles Schwab with its original podcast on investing. Each week you'll get thoughtful in-depth analysis of both the stock and the bond markets. Listen today and subscribe at schwab.com slash on investing. or wherever you get your podcasts. Heads up, this episode contains explicit language and graphic descriptions of violence. Previously on We Keep Us Safe. Do not walk around in the dark. It is unsafe. In Chop's final week, the utopia had faded. The mood around Chop kind of changed. Antonio Mays Jr. arrived. I had like a bad feeling. I was like, yo, I think you should go home, bro.

0:44or Shiloh Levitt would end up crossing paths with Antonio. He talked about different ways that he could channel his own inner peace. He'd be shot dead just a few hours later. Protesters said he was in the white jeep attacking them.

1:07Was Antonio the type of person who could be a threat to chop?

1:18On the night Antonio Mays Jr. was killed, the journalist Omari Salisbury was in his temporary office in a building right next to Chop when he heard gunshots. Yeah, so somebody's lighting up the fucking block right now. Hey, y 'all. Once everything was quiet, he stepped out and started filming. Yeah, it's pretty funky out here, huh? And so Omari was on the scene just moments after bullets stopped flying.

1:51In the video he recorded, he inches toward the white jeep that's crashed at the barricades. And a loose crowd is still milling around in the aftermath.

2:04People are talking about the shooting that just happened. Someone says, I'm sorry I ran out of bullets. When Omari finally gets close to the Jeep, he can see that it's covered in bullet holes. Where's the driver this? Oh my God. The windows are shot out, blood is on the seats, and keys are still in the ignition. What? You're nauseous? I'm in the fog. The street is littered with glass and pools of blood. Antonio and the 14-year-old kid he was with, Robert West, are already gone. Protesters have taken them away to find medical help. This is horrible. I mean, this is just horrible, man. I don't see a lot.

2:52And Omari, who's usually very talkative in his videos, kind of narrating what he's seeing in his stream of consciousness, you hear his voice kind of change. Let me just come over here and breathe for a second. Sorry, guys. is this? Man.

3:19As Omari is live streaming, a young man walks up to him. I was on scene. What'd you see? I got bros blood on me, man. I see you got blood on your arms. I'm out here saving lives, bro. And he says, I'm saving lives. Okay. I'm only 19. What happened? And he introduces himself as Zay Huncho. He spells it out. Zay Huncho, Z-A-Y-H-U-N-C-H-O-O. Rest in peace, my brother that came through. Rest in peace. Zay Huncho starts describing what happened that night. He got clapped and we bombed to the hospital. In one breath, bragging about how people at the scene tried to save the boys in the Jeep. But whatever happened, happened, bro, but we out here to save lives and do shit for the people.

4:00But also... Active shooters came through in a slowing vehicle. They're spinning around the field a few times, and then they try to come through our barriers, through our main entrance, bro, and our people are having it. Talking about how our people shot the boys in the Jeep, Zay Huncho describes the boys as active shooters. We already had the right tire up, and they fucking put on a drill down and took him off the car, and we gave him service. Lucky that they got that, bro. They can, at least want to save his life, man. You know? There's something else about Zay Huncho that's really noticeable in this scene.

4:37His sweatshirt, the one that's spattered with blood, is bright white. It's so bright, it's almost glow-in-the-dark. We ended up following this white sweatshirt through the events of the night Antonio died. People who were there, people like Zay Huncho, say that the boys in the white sheep were attacking Chop, shooting at protesters. They say people on the ground were forced to shoot back. But then we found new evidence that helped us trace the path of this white sweatshirt all the way to the beginning of that night. And what we saw left us wondering why protesters were so convinced Antonio was a threat to their lives, a threat that had to be eliminated.

5:22From NPR's Embedded, with KUOW and The Seattle Times, this is We Keep Us Safe. I'm Will James. I'm Sydney Brownstone. This is Episode 5.

5:58markets. Listen today and subscribe at schwav.com slash on investing or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Grainger. This is the story of the one. As a procurement manager for a hospital system, she keeps every facility in her network stocked and ready. That's why she counts on Grainger to be her single source for thousands of products, from disinfectants to lighting, air filters, and more. And with fast, dependable delivery, Grainger helps her keep every facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

6:38This message comes from BetterHelp. People talk about mental health more openly now, but asking for help can still feel hard. BetterHelp's 2026 State of Stigma report surveyed 2 ,000 Americans and found that 85 % believe getting support is wise, yet 74 % say society discourages people from doing so. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash NPR. Rashilah Levitt was one of the breakout organizers in the Seattle protests. She was known for her commanding voice and for her long flowing locks. Once CHOP got started, she volunteered for a role on a team that tried to de-escalate conflict.

7:26And that's how she met Antonio. I sat and talked with Antonio for just a couple minutes. He had gotten into a disagreement with somebody else over something trivial. And I wish I could remember what it was. Rashilah was the first person we knew of who actually talked to Antonio the night he was killed. So in trying to find out what happened that night, Roshilah was one of the first people we called. Hi, Roshilah. Hi. Thanks so much for being here, Roshilah. We are on Zoom in Seattle. Roshilah's in Texas, where she lives now. Yeah, I'm at my apartment. I'm actually cleaning, so it's perfect. I did the good pop-up.

8:16While Roshilah tells the story of that night, she sweeps, she vapes, she paces around the room, tries to corral her dog. And as she's doing all this, she tells us about realizing that the teenager she talked to was the same one who wound up dead a few hours later. Like, I just, it didn't, it didn't make sense.

8:47just to check if i show you a picture can you tell me if that was the same kid you spoke to on the field yeah we show her a photo that is one of antonio senior's favorites it shows his son at one of the farmers markets where the two work together selling barbecue and in the photo antonio sitting in a camping chair with a strawberry shake in one hand and a big piece of barbecue oxtail in the other. He's got a big grin on his face. Is this him? It looks like a younger photo of him. Yeah, this would have been taken about seven months prior. Oh. Rishilah pauses and then her face crumples as she asks us to pull up the photo again.

9:38Oh my gosh.

9:42I didn't see that. That picture just rattled me. I knew it was young. That first photo. It's so young. Like. It's so baby. I've got. All younger brothers. And I have. I have seven nephews. And I cannot. I can't imagine them being in that situation.

10:17I wonder, do you want to just go through how you experienced that night? Leading up to the shooting, there was a car, or two cars, one car, two cars, that were driving through CHOP and driving on the field. And like trying to hit protesters. Roshilah says she stepped outside her tent in the park and saw all of this happening in front of her. Since she was part of CHOP's de-escalation team, she had her radio and she got into a vehicle with some other protesters to chase down whoever was driving around. But I remember being in the car with three other people. And I was in the car simply because I had a radio as part of the de-escalation team and was in contact with the rest of them.

11:15That means she was in touch with CHOP security. But Rishilah says she and the others in the vehicle quickly lose track of the car they were following. The car drove off, and we hear gunshots, or what sounds like gunshots, and we're like, is that gunshot or is that fireworks? We hear it again, and we're like, that's definitely gunshot. And then the comms started kind of going crazy. And I remember looking at everybody else in the car like, what the fuck was that? Rashilah had no idea that she'd just heard the shots that killed Antonio and critically wounded Robert West. And then all this chatter erupted over her radio.

11:53Everybody in the car is like freaking out because of what we heard. And then it just went like scary silence. Like this eerie, haunting silence.

12:10it felt like it lasted forever and i know that it was just seconds like i know that it wasn't that long but it felt like it lasted an eternity

12:25and then everybody was was going crazy on the comps asking a million questions trying to figure out where the shots came from, who shot that weapon, just like calling out for medics, calling out for transportation vehicles. Rishilah says the vehicle she was in pulled up to the shooting scene. She saw the crashed white Jeep. She saw volunteer medics rushing to bandage the boys' wounds. Antonio and Robert had been shot multiple times, and they had lost a lot of blood. Video from the scene shows volunteer medics trying to help them. Move out the way! Move out the way! I mean, it was so hectic and so crazy.

13:12And so we got there, and they were in the process of pulling the boys out of the car and putting them on the ground to start trying to save them. and there was glass and blood and so much movement surrounding them. And they were just like, it was so still.

13:48Rashilah is one of many protesters who call 911. We hear Rashilah begging for help, for paramedics to come and try to save these kids.

14:06Ambulances won't come in until police have secured the scene. But police aren't showing up. Antonio seems to be in much worse shape than Robert. I want these in the car on their way to the hospital right now. They are? Protesters decide they can't wait anymore. They're going to have to try to save these kids themselves. Robert is loaded into a private vehicle and rushed to the hospital. Rashilah helps load Antonio into the car she's been riding in. It's a silver pathfinder, Nissan pathfinder. Pathfinder, no place. There's someone on the roof. I was in the car that we were using. to try to transport him from the protest area to either an ambulance or the hospital.

14:55So I was there for the whole thing. They're rushing to find help to meet an ambulance. And they find one idling just a block or so away. Rashilah says they pull up alongside it with the window down. But instead of helping, the ambulance driver pulls away without a word. What could be the reason that they're not stopping? We couldn't fathom why they wouldn't stop, why they wouldn't help us. It didn't make any sense. Rashilah and her crew immediately chase after it while Antonio is in the backseat. Help for him is right there if they can just get this ambulance to stop. I just remember, like, we just, just begging.

15:49Like, we just wanted them to stop. We just wanted help. All the people in the Pathfinder can think to do is record what they're seeing. So Rashilah picks up her phone. Why do they not want to help us? Take him to Sweden. In this video shot from inside the Pathfinder, you see the ambulance just ahead in the Pathfinder's headlights lights weaving through the darkened streets of Seattle. And the ambulance's lights cast everything in this red glow. Please, guys, help us! Just go! They're not helping! People in the Pathfinder are screaming at the fleeing ambulance, begging for help. We're only going to play select pieces of the audio because a lot of this is really disturbing.

16:37You can hear Antonio throughout, and he's clearly on the verge of dying. His breathing is labored. Some people who were in the car that night have described it to us as a death rattle. After several agonizing minutes, Rashilah and the others finally see a bunch of emergency vehicles congregated in a church parking lot. Help! Help! Help! They pull in, and emergency responders take over. Pull them out right here, put them on the ground. He has gunshot wounds. Someone at the scene starts listing Antonio's injuries. Gunshot wound to the side of the head. Exit wound to the top of the head. A gunshot to the side of the mouth.

17:22At least four to his arm and one to his side. As emergency responders work on Antonio, Rashila and the others hop back in the Pathfinder to see if anyone else needs help. We gotta go back. Let's hop in. We gotta go back. Do they have his information? No, nobody knows his information, but fuck it, we need to go. I don't know. We need to go. Fuck it. Fuck it. We need to go. A voice shouts, we love you, from the car's window like a final message to Antonio. We love you. And they head back to CHOP. We love you. This is Shida Dispatch. Any more victims?

18:03Are there any more victims at camp?

18:08Repeat last. Antonio was declared dead at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center at 3.37 a.m., about 40 minutes after he was shot. To Rashilah, the city is responsible for Antonio's death. The city didn't do their job. People that are sworn to aid those in need, you know, the fact that we had to chase down this ambulance is wild to me. Had they stopped when they first saw us, he could, he might still be alive. You know, and it just is.

18:52It's, it makes me, it makes me, it bothers me a lot.

18:59So why did the ambulance drive away? We made a public records request, and we got back tape of dispatchers and emergency responders talking to each other. Suddenly, we had access to a different perspective. The vehicle is following the medic unit on 15 Avenue, going southbound very aggressively. Do we engage this unit or not? Negative. Oh. Okay, because we're saying that the Silver Nissan was the suspect, but you guys... A dispatcher is saying the pathfinder that Rashilah's in is the suspect? The fire department responds. Okay, so no, no, the Silver Nissan pathfinder has one of the gunshot victims in it.

19:43We told them to go to that intersection to get them out of the... What would make a dispatcher think the pathfinder was the suspect? We were about to find out. See this right here? Holy shit. Shit. That's after a break.

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21:34There's a narrative about Antonio's death that started to harden soon after he was killed. It's basically a story about self-defense and how protesters had to shoot the white jeep that Antonio was in. That was the only way to keep everyone else safe. But Antonio May Sr. never believed that story. He thinks the Seattle police and city leaders abandoned CHOP and left it to be guarded by self-appointed vigilantes who killed his son. For two years, he waited for answers from the police. But he says they went silent. When we reached out to Seattle police to ask them when they'd last spoken with Antonio Sr., they declined to answer.

22:17In 2023, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Seattle. Last year, in an attempt to keep this case from going to trial, the city's attorney filed a ton of new evidence. We had been following the case for a while, and suddenly there's this flurry of new stuff available to the public for the first time. Okay, this is Will. I'm at the King County Courthouse. I'm leaving the clerk's office. I had to go to a special back room in the courthouse to get it. I was handed a manila envelope with a thumb drive inside. Just downloaded some files from the courthouse that we haven't had yet. Among these files is CCTV footage of the night Antonio was killed.

23:06I mean, the most important is a set of videos made by a forensic analyst who looked at a whole bunch of footage from the night of the shooting and put it all together and sort of analyzed what happened and who was shooting. It's a lot. So we call in David Gutman of the Seattle Times, our friend, our reporting partner, and someone who has consistently been better at the computer than us. David took a look at this footage, and then he gathered us around a laptop to show us what he had found. So this is obviously the video analysis submitted by the city of Seattle. The file that was sent to us is a screen with eight different video screens on it.