Introducing "We Keep Us Safe" from NPR, KUOW and The Seattle Times

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News Commentary, Documentary, News, Society & Culture

4.7 • 12.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2026

⏱️ 3 minutes

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Summary

In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation. He arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. Less than a week later, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved.

In this eight-part series, hosts Sydney Brownstone of The Seattle Times and Will James of KUOW team up with NPR’s Embedded to investigate Antonio’s death. Alongside reporter David Gutman, they track down key figures and eyewitnesses from the night of the shooting and surface crucial evidence that has never been made public.

Who bears responsibility for the shooting? And how did an idealistic protest for protecting Black lives turn into a circle of silence surrounding the killing of a Black teenager?

The series premieres on Thursday, June 11.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Back in 2020, a remarkable experiment took place.
0:05.2	After an intense standoff with anti-police brutality protesters, police abandoned their own precinct.
0:11.6	Protesters stayed and started occupying about eight city blocks in the middle of Seattle.
0:18.2	There's several hundred people being completely peaceful.
0:21.6	It's like a block party.
0:22.6	They set up tents.
0:23.6	There was free food, a mutual aid station,
0:26.6	a stage for speeches and music.
0:28.6	I want my world to change.
0:30.6	I want my world to change.
0:32.6	It evolved into this community.
0:35.6	They called it chop.
0:40.4	The Capitol Hill organized protest.
0:42.6	A place with no police.
0:45.4	It was their attempt to build a better world.
0:48.8	For a moment there, it was utopia.
0:54.0	But protesters feared an attack from right-wing activists. I'm taking my group down around City Hall to monitor the group of the proud boys.
0:59.0	Some protesters appointed themselves CHOP security, began walking around in tactical gear, carrying guns.
1:05.0	I'm not very familiar with fire.
1:06.0	AR-15.
1:07.0	AR-50.
1:08.0	And then one night, a Jeep drove into the camp. Shots are fired.
	...

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