Seattle police officers arrested more than a dozen people in the city’s “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” zone, or CHOP, as they started to clear out the area.
Local law enforcement officials began clearing out the area early Wednesday after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order mandating people vacate due to the violence and public safety issues, according to KRON 4.
The Seattle Police Department acknowledged in a social media thread documenting the events Wednesday morning that “two teenagers have been killed, and three people have been seriously wounded in late-night shootings” in the three weeks since people overtook the six-block radius of the city. The department added that it has documented robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes.
The police said that the officers clearing out the area were in “additional protective gear” because “suspects in recent shootings may still be in the area and because numerous people in the area are in possession of firearms.”
Police abandoned the six-block zone, which included the department’s East Precinct, on June 8 after people protesting the death of George Floyd took control of the area and declared it an autonomous zone. It was initially dubbed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone and later the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.
