Listen to "We Keep Us Safe" on NPR's Embedded podcast

0:00Hey, ThruLine listeners. Rand here to let you know about a new investigative series from Embedded, NPR's award-winning documentary podcast. Here's the trailer. Back in 2020, a remarkable experiment took place. After an intense standoff with anti-police brutality protesters, police abandoned their own precinct.

0:23Sydney Brownstone:Protesters stayed and started occupying about eight city blocks in the middle of Seattle. There's several hundred people being completely peaceful. It's like a block party. They set up tents. There was free food, a mutual aid station, a stage for speeches and music. I want my world to change. I want my world to change. It evolved into this community. They called it CHOP. The Capitol Hill organized protest. A place with no police. It was their attempt to build a better world. For a moment there. It was utopia. But protesters feared an attack from right-wing activists. Taking my group down around City Hall to monitor the group of the Proud Boys.

1:10Some protesters appointed themselves chop security, began walking around in tactical gear, carrying guns.

1:16Sydney Brownstone:I'm not very familiar with firearms. AR-50. That's an AR-50. AR-50. And then one night, a jeep drove into the camp. Shots are fired. Shots are fired, Joe. Shots are fired. Protesters thought they were under attack and shot at the Jeep. Move out the way! Oh, Jesus, Lord Jesus. Out the way! Out the way! After the shooting ended, one of the Jeep's passengers was dead. 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. That night, protesters saw him as a threat. But his dad, who taught him what it means to be Black in America, says his son was there for the cause. To be honest, if it meant that I had my son back, I wouldn't teach my son Black history.

1:55Sydney Brownstone:Because I want to have him back right now. That's the man of hell with Black history. Six years later, the case remains unsolved. And no one has been able to explain how this place built to protect Black life ended up killing a Black teenager.

2:15Sydney Brownstone:I'm Will James. And I'm Sydney Brownstone. For more than a year, we've been investigating what happened that night, sifting through rumors. He put in work for the streets, I guess. That's what they were saying. That's why he got killed. Digging up new witnesses. Is someone chasing you? Oh, yeah. In a car chasing you? Yes, like multiple cars. And uncovering never-before-seen evidence. See this right here? That's a long gun out of the front seat. Holy s***. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series from NPR's Embedded Podcast, The Seattle Times and KUOW. Find Embedded wherever you get your podcasts or at npr.org slash embedded.