Timeline of Seattle’s 2020 protests
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May 25
George Floyd, a Black man living in Minneapolis, is killed after a local police officer attempting to arrest Floyd kneels on his neck for nearly nine minutes, despite Floyd’s pleas of “I can’t breathe.” Videos of the arrest circulate online, and the next day protests against police brutality begin in Minneapolis, igniting a worldwide racial justice movement that continues throughout the year.
May 29-31
Protests over Floyd’s killing begin in Seattle and continue throughout the weekend. Concentrated in downtown, the protests result in broken windows, car fires, dozens of arrests, a citywide 5 p.m. curfew and the statewide activation of the National Guard. The Seattle Police Department uses tear gas, flash-bang devices and pepper spray to control the crowds. Hundreds of people — many of them carrying firearms — also arrive in Snohomish in response to rumors that Antifa activists were planning to bring chaos to the community.
June 2
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who extended Seattle’s curfew for a third consecutive day, promises to meet with protesters to create a plan addressing police accountability.
June 4-5
Daily protests continue on Capitol Hill, and Seattle officials announce they're withdrawing a request that could have cleared the way to lift eight years of federal oversight of the Police Department. Seattle students flood the streets outside Franklin High School, demanding police reform and anti-racism in their schools. Durkan and former Seattle police Chief Carmen Best issue a 30-day ban on using tear gas on protesters, though it doesn’t apply to flash-bang devices, pepper spray or other crowd-control tools and tactics.
June 7-8
Nikolas Fernandez, later charged with first-degree assault, allegedly drives a car into a crowd of protesters on Capitol Hill, shoots one man and walks through the crowd brandishing a gun before police arrest him. The following day, in what protesters saw as a victory, police officers board up windows at the department’s East Precinct and remove barricades that had surrounded the building during recent protests. Demonstrators begin discussing setting up a “living community” outside the precinct. The Seattle City Council also discusses proposed legislation to cut funding to the Police Department, and the Snohomish police chief is replaced after being criticized for how he handled May 31 protest rumors.
June 9
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant leads a march from Capitol Hill to City Hall, where she invites protesters inside and advocates for Mayor Durkan’s removal, as well as taxing big businesses such as Amazon. Later that night, the “living community” — which protesters are beginning to call the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” or CHAZ — continues to take shape as demonstrators camp out by the East Precinct. The Seattle Public Schools superintendent also announces an effort to suspend the district’s partnership with the Police Department for a year, explaining that “at this moment in time, the presence of an armed officer prohibits many students and staff from feeling fully safe and welcome.”
June 10
Gov. Jay Inslee orders a new investigation into the police killing of Manuel Ellis, who died in early March in Tacoma after police cinched off his airway during an encounter. King County’s top public health official declares racism a public health crisis, and President Donald Trump addresses CHAZ on Twitter, calling for Inslee and Durkan to "take back" their city from the "anarchists." Local artists also start painting a Black Lives Matter mural onto Pine Street between 10th and 11th avenues.
June 12-14
Thousands participate in Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County’s March of Silence, and dozens of Seattle-area businesses close in response to the group’s call for a statewide strike. Durkan visits the Capitol Hill protest zone, which gets renamed as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). Over the weekend, families participate in the Seattle Children’s March — an idea inspired by the Birmingham Children’s Crusade in 1963. Artists finish their Black Lives Matter street mural on Capitol Hill, though they have to touch it back up a few months later.
June 18
Hundreds gather near Brettler Family Place Apartments, where Charleena Lyles, a 30-year-old Black, pregnant woman, was fatally shot by two white Seattle police officers three years ago to the day.
June 19
Washingtonians celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, by planning a march through Seattle’s Central District, with stops to point out historical spots significant to the city’s Black community.
June 20-24
Two people are shot outside the CHOP — 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson is killed while a 33-year-old man suffers non-life-threatening injuries. The following day, a 17-year-old boy is also shot and suffers an injury to his arm, prompting city officials and some activists to start pushing for changes to the protest zone that would discourage nighttime violence. The following day, Durkan says about the CHOP, “It’s time for people to go home.” This week, the Seattle School Board officially suspends a partnership with the Police Department that stations five armed police officers at Seattle schools.
June 29
CHOP sees another shooting, this time killing 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr and wounding a 14-year-old boy, amplifying calls to bring law enforcement back to the East Precinct and to shut down CHOP. Protesters push back, saying the violence isn’t connected to the movement and that they won’t leave until their demands are met.
June 30
The city’s transportation crews remove some barriers at CHOP, but within an hour, protesters erect a makeshift replacement barricade. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also recommends the state Legislature require law enforcement agencies to collect detailed information about use of deadly force and share it publicly.
July 1
About 3 1/2 weeks after CHOP was established, Durkan issues an executive order declaring that gathering in the area is unlawful assembly. Seattle police and other agencies move in with heavily equipped officers and tactical vehicles to issue dispersal orders, arresting at least 44 people throughout the day and dozens more throughout the rest of the week.
July 4
A wrong-way driver plows into a demonstration on a closed stretch of Interstate 5, killing 24-year-old Summer Taylor and injuring 32-year-old Diaz Love, who suffered two broken legs, a broken arm and internal injuries. The driver, Dawit Kelete, is later charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and reckless driving. Here’s more on what was behind the State Patrol’s strategy to close parts of the highway due to protests.
July 23
Federal agents head to the Seattle area to beef up security at federal government buildings in the city, and Durkan seeks assurances that they won’t crack down on demonstrators. The Police Department also subpoenas five news outlets, including The Seattle Times, and orders them to give the department unpublished video and photos from a May 30 protest, though the order is later dropped.
July 25-29
Demonstrators, including a “Wall of Moms” inspired by Portland protests, gather on Capitol Hill, with some setting fire to a construction trailer at King County's juvenile detention facility. Later, others hurl an explosive device that police say blew an eight-inch hole through the East Precinct, and SPD declares a riot. Police respond at times using pepper spray and other less-lethal weapons. The following week, the Police Department’s lawyers ask a federal judge to reject allegations that officers intentionally or indiscriminately used force against peaceful protesters and violated a court injunction during the weekend protests.
Aug. 1-10
Protesters make their way to Best’s home in Snohomish County, prompting a debate over whether protests against police brutality should include visits to public officials’ homes. Less than two weeks later, Best announces her retirement, a decision she said was driven by City Council members who didn’t consult her as they sought to cut the Police Department’s budget this summer and who showed a lack of respect for the department’s employees. Deputy Police Chief Adrian Diaz is named interim chief. Meanwhile, protests hit their two-month mark in Seattle, though demonstrators say their work isn’t done.
Aug. 24
Hundreds of people gather outside the East Precinct in response to the fatal police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Some in the Capitol Hill group throw fireworks at the precinct and start a fire outside the building.
Sept. 18
The Office of Police Accountability (OPA), which looks into complaints of police misconduct, releases the results of the first five completed investigations into the Police Department’s handling of recent demonstrations. The completed investigations, which report mixed decisions on officers’ use of force, include one involving a child who was doused with police pepper spray, and another involving an officer captured on video placing his knee on a man’s neck.
Sept. 23
A grand jury decides not to charge Kentucky police officers for shooting and killing Breonna Taylor, prompting crowds of angry and heartbroken demonstrators to gather in downtown Seattle and on Capitol Hill. In one incident, a Seattle police officer is captured on video walking his bike over the head of a person lying on the ground — later identified as 26-year-old Camillo Massagli, known for playing the trumpet at protests. The city also begins finalizing plans to transfer three Central District properties to Black-led community organizations, aiming to fulfill one of the protesters’ repeated demands: reallocate funds to the Black community.
Oct. 13
The King County Sheriff’s Office recommends firing a detective who posted a series of Facebook posts mocking protesters. The posts included one that read, “All Lives Splatter,” which was posted the same day a driver hit two protesters, Summer Taylor and Diaz Love, on I-5. The detective, Michael Brown, appealed the office’s recommendation in mid-November, and as of Dec. 16 remained on administrative leave while Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht considers his appeal.
Oct. 27-29
Demonstrators march from Capitol Hill to the Police Department’s West Precinct on Seattle’s 150th day of protests. Days later, similar protests in Vancouver, Washington, erupt after 21-year-old Kevin E. Peterson Jr. is fatally shot by deputies. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said Peterson had fired twice at deputies, prompting them to fire back, but an independent investigation of the shooting later found there was no evidence Peterson had fired first.
Nov. 3
Crowds return to Capitol Hill and march through South Lake Union on Election night, still focused on demands that they’ve called for all summer and reiterating that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden would do enough to protect the lives of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color. Post-election protests continue throughout the week, with demonstrators urging officials to “count every vote.”
Dec. 1
Durkan signs Seattle’s 2021 budget, which reduces police spending somewhat (15% to 20%, depending on hiring and layoff results), mostly by transferring civilian 911 call-center and parking-enforcement employees to another department and by eliminating vacant officer positions. Protesters spent the summer calling for defunding the Police Department by at least 50%.
Dec. 7-11
A federal judge finds the Police Department in contempt of court for the indiscriminate use of pepper-filled blast balls and pepper spray during demonstrations. There were many instances, however, where he said he couldn’t be sure of the propriety of officers’ use of force because of the chaotic nature of the events and unclear video from police body cameras and protesters’ cameras and phones. In response, Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County asks the judge to expand reporting requirements of Seattle police officers who use force against protesters.
Video editing: Lauren Frohne
Design and development: Emily M. Eng