New Season "We Keep Us Safe" starting September 21, 2026. In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation. He arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. Less than a week later, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, first published on NPR’s Embedded, KUOW’s Will James and The Seattle Times’ Sydney Brownstone track down key figures and eyewitnesses from the night of the shooting and surface crucial evidence that has never been made public. We Keep Us Safe is a joint production of KUOW, The Seattle Times, and NPR’s Embedded. Focus is KUOW’s home for immersive audio documentaries. Each season zooms in on a single story that challenges commonly held narratives about life in the Pacific Northwest and reveals something bigger about American society. Series include Adults in the Room and the Peabody-nominated Lost Patients.
What this show covers
CHOPinvestigationAntonio Mays Jr.protestpublic safetypolicingdocumentarysecurity groupAntonio caseSentinelsprotestsSeattle2020 unrestSeattle protestsshooting
What listeners will find here
Former Sentinels members speak as the search for Antonio’s killer narrows
The hunt for Antonio’s killer turns toward a mysterious security group called the Sentinels. Former members describe how the group operated at CHOP and identify the person they say shot Antonio at close range.
A CHOP shooting narrative is challenged by new evidence
This episode revisits the night Antonio Mays Jr. was killed and examines competing claims about what happened. It centers on new evidence that questions the widely repeated account that protesters were defending CHOP from an attack.
Inside Seattle’s occupied protest zone as hope gives way to fear
This episode follows the occupation of roughly eight blocks in Seattle after police retreat from their precinct. What begins as an attempt to imagine a police-free world becomes increasingly tense as rumors, fear, and paranoia build around Antonio Mays Jr.’s arrival.
How a Seattle police standoff led to CHOP—and foreshadowed a killing weeks later
This episode follows the summer 2020 protests in Seattle, where a confrontation outside a police precinct helps give rise to CHOP. It also introduces Antonio Mays Jr., who learns about the events from afar and is shot and killed in Seattle three weeks later.
A witness interview points the investigation in a new direction
This episode follows an interview with a protester who saw the aftermath of a shooting and shares a tip that shifts the course of the investigation. It sounds like a pivotal chapter, centered on eyewitness perspective and a major turn in the case.
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