New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

What It Covers

NPR's Embedded podcast launches "We Keep Us Safe," a true crime investigative series examining the 2020 unsolved killing of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. inside Seattle's CHOP protest occupation, where protesters shot at a jeep they believed was an attack.

Key Questions Answered

• •Protest governance failure: When Seattle police abandoned their precinct in 2020, protesters self-organized an eight-block autonomous zone called CHOP. Without formal security structures, self-appointed armed volunteers with limited firearms training filled the vacuum, creating dangerous conditions inside a space designed to protect Black lives.
• •Unsolved case timeline: Six years after Antonio Mays Jr. was killed, no charges have been filed. Reporters Will James and Sydney Brownstone spent over a year investigating, surfacing new eyewitness accounts and physical evidence — including footage of a long gun — that law enforcement never made public.
• •Crowd psychology under threat: Protesters inside CHOP feared coordinated right-wing attacks and had stationed armed monitors around the perimeter. When a jeep entered the camp at night, the crowd interpreted it as the anticipated attack and opened fire, killing a 16-year-old who his father says supported the movement.
• •Investigative methodology: The reporting team broke through a community wall of silence by locating witnesses who had previously avoided authorities, uncovering surveillance footage, and cross-referencing physical evidence — demonstrating how independent journalism can advance cases that official investigations leave dormant.