Seattle Just Lost a CHOP Wrongful Death Lawsuit. Here's How Much the City Has to Pay.

On June 29, 2020, 16-year-old Antonio Mays, Jr. was in a vehicle that crashed into the barriers of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone in Seattle. Mays was shot and killed. He'd left his home ten days earlier to "join the civil rights movement," according to a note he'd left his father before departing their home in southern California.

According to The Spokesman-Review, protest medics tried to treat Mays' wounds, and witnesses called 911. First responders would not come to the CHOP, however, and Mays was taken by private vehicle to meet paramedics outside the zone.

The next day, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan finally issued an executive order declaring CHOP an unlawful assembly. The following morning, police cleared the encampment and arrested dozens of people. CHOP had taken over eight square blocks of Capitol Hill and remained untouched for three weeks prior to the shooting.

In 2023, Mays' father, Antonio Mays, Sr., filed a wrongful death suit against the city of Seattle. The suit initially targeted Durkan, former Police Chief Carmen Best, and other city officials. King County Superior Court Judge Sean O'Donnell later threw out those arguments and narrowed the case to whether the city failed in its emergency response.

Yesterday, a jury ruled that the city had, in fact, failed in its emergency response, and they awarded $30.5 million to Mays' family.

JUST IN — A jury has found the City of Seattle negligent and liable for the 2020 CHAZ/CHOP killing of Antonio Mays Jr.

The family has been awarded roughly $30 MILLION.

Watch as Antonio Mays Sr. breaks down in tears after hearing the verdict. pic.twitter.com/m1lZkzjjiF
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) January 29, 2026

After deliberating for 12 days, a King County jury has found that the city of Seattle was negligent in its emergency response to the fatal shooting of a teenager at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, in 2020.
Jurors decided to answer “yes” to two questions the court posed to them: whether the city was negligent in its response to the shooting and, if so, whether this negligence caused Antonio Mays Jr.’s death. The city of Seattle will have to pay Antonio Mays Sr., the teen’s father, more than $30.5 million in damages.
The jury awarded about $4 million to the estate of Antonio Mays Jr. and about $26 million to Antonio Mays Sr.
Mays Sr. became emotional and hugged his lawyer as the verdict was announced.
The monthlong civil trial was the first public airing of facts around the June 29, 2020, shooting at CHOP, the protest zone that took over eight square blocks of Capitol Hill and lasted three weeks after Seattle police abandoned their East Precinct during the nationwide racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.

The jury awarded more than $1.2 million in economic damages to the estate of Antonio Mays, Jr., and $2.8 million in non-economic damages to his estate. They also awarded $567,712 in economic damages to Antonio Mays, Sr., and almost $26 million in non-economic damages

Monetary breakdown

Antonio Mays Jr (deceased):

Economic damages: $1,209,044
Non-economic damages: $2,838,500

Antonio Mays Sr:

Economic damages: $567,712
Non-economic damages: $25,962,652https://t.co/p38vhRJg7J pic.twitter.com/F99UHHGZAH
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) January 29, 2026

Democrats in blue cities have been reluctant to shut down such behavior, and there have been CHOP-esque autonomous "no ICE" zones popping up around Minneapolis for the past several weeks. If Democrats aren't willing to end the zones as a safety and quality-of-life issue, perhaps realizing a jury might put them on the hook for tens of millions of dollars should something go wrong will incentivize them to crack down on such behavior in the future.

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