9th Circuit judges say Seattle officials 'just stood aside' during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest

A lawsuit stemming from a 2020 fatal shooting in Seattle's CHOP zone is being heard by a federal appeals court.

The case was brought by Donnitta Sinclair-Martin after her son, Horace Lorenzo Anderson, was fatally shot in Seattle's Capitol Hill Occupied Protest on June 20, 2020. Sinclair alleges the city created a foreseeable danger after protesters occupied a nearby park and interfered with first responders.

A panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seems to sympathize with that argument.

They heard oral arguments in the case Monday.

"The city was so aware of the risks that were escalating day by day by day, and they just stood aside," Judge Ryan D. Nelson said at one point during the presentation by the city's attorney.

Judge Richard C. Tallman agreed, adding that the city aided the establishment of the CHOP – and, perhaps, a dangerous situation – by providing portable toilets and lighting. He added that the city was aware of potential consequences.

"And if that isn't willful indifference, I don't know what is," Tallman concluded.

Seattle's attorney, Kerala Cowart, pushed back on that reading of the circumstances around the CHOP.

"The fact that the city allegedly provided lighting and toilets cannot be a basis for a state-created danger," Cowart told the judges.

Rather, she pointed to a miscommunication between fire and police officials, plus confusion about where Anderson was located in the CHOP .

Oral arguments in the case against the city come a week after a review from Seattle’s Office of Inspector General on police conduct at the time of the protest. Many of the panel’s 34 recommendations relate to communication – calling on SPD to better communicate with demonstrators in the future, as when emergency responders needed to reach gunshot victims.

The report includes contributions from Sinclair-Martin, Anderson's mother, who spoke to the panel in May 2022.

“She described her heartbreak watching videos of the SFD medics waiting for clearance to enter the CHOP and her frustration with lack of information provided to her from Harborview staff," the report states. "She was informed of her son’s death when Harborview staff asked if she wanted to donate his organs.”

Amy Radil contributed to this report.