Seattle Council Member Who Encouraged CHOP Claims Shooting Could Be ‘Right Wing’ Attack, Says President Trump ‘Bears Direct Responsibility’

A Seattle city council member who encouraged protesters to form up the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP), formerly the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ), and gave demonstrators her key to city hall so that they could “occupy” that building as well now claims a CHOP shooting that left one protester dead and one in critical condition could be a “right-wing attack.”

In a statement released late Saturday, Kshama Sawant expresses her condolences to the CHOP community and doubles down on demands to “defund the police,” even though violence inside the “cop-free” CHOP has increased markedly over the past week according to long-term residents, who now say they no longer feel safe with the ongoing protest.