We Keep Us Safe: Inside the White Jeep

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Embedded – "We Keep Us Safe: Inside the White Jeep"

Host: NPR
Episode Date: July 16, 2026
Episode: We Keep Us Safe: Inside the White Jeep

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Episode Overview

In this gripping installment of NPR’s Embedded, hosts Sydney Brownstone and Will James return to the chaotic nights of Seattle’s 2020 CHOP protest zone, revisiting the fatal shooting of teenager Antonio Mays Jr. The episode reconstructs events inside the now infamous white Jeep, dispelling longstanding myths and uncovering new firsthand accounts from someone previously believed to be a rumor: the “third person” in the car.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reexamining the Night of the Shooting

• The hosts revisit archived protest footage and testimonies to understand what unraveled the night Antonio Mays Jr. was killed.
• Colby Williams, a protestor of Indigenous Tsimshean heritage, is introduced—his vivid memorabilia and personal scars casting light on the trauma left by police confrontations and internal protest security (01:15–02:17).

2. The Mystery of the "Third Person"

• Colby consistently noticed another figure present in videos from the night of the shooting, suggesting a “third person in the Jeep” (05:14–05:49).
  • Colby Williams: “I personally have always thought that there must have been a third person.” (05:37)
• Initially, hosts dismiss Colby’s theory but later discover through social media searching and video combing that this third person, known as DG, is real.

3. Tracking Down DG

• Sydney contacts DG, who confirms: “I was in the car. From start to finish.” (12:10)
• DG’s candid, emotional firsthand account provides a radically new perspective on that night.

4. Life Inside CHOP: Teenagers Caught in Turmoil

• DG describes CHOP as more summer camp and party than political protest for teens (12:31–13:44).
  • DG: “It was something to do. I was a young kid.” (12:31)
  • Details surface about taking on informal ‘security’ roles after defending friends from violence (15:20).

5. The Night’s Chaos and Rising Danger

• DG recounts how quickly the festive atmosphere turned perilous, with confusion over fireworks or gunfire (16:29–16:41).
• Admits that he and his friends carried knives—“Those knives were needed… It wasn’t safe out there for little kids.” (17:15)

6. Inside the White Jeep

• DG’s version:
  • He got separated after accidentally macing himself, then reunited with Antonio and Robert already driving the Jeep (18:39).
  • As soon as they leave the playfield, they come under gunfire from multiple cars (21:22–21:43).
    • DG: “We're just getting shot at by assault rifle bullets and I don't know why.” (21:30)
  • Describes attackers with walkie talkies, ex-military tactics, and no opportunity to retaliate (22:24–22:43, 22:59).
    • DG: “It’s an execution. There's no better word for it.” (22:43)

7. Return to CHOP: The Fatal Crash

• At the urging of a friend via phone, the boys loop back and crash the Jeep at a barricade inside CHOP (23:39–24:02).
• DG describes a point-blank ambush as they crash, confirms Antonio was hit:
  • DG: “The only words I really remember is like, Pocket being like, ‘Oh, I got hit.’” (24:37)
  • DG flees, barely escaping himself. Later learns he had been grazed by a bullet (26:32–26:40).

8. Shattering the Myths

• DG unequivocally denies rumors that the boys had guns or were part of a gang (28:36–29:38).
  • DG: “We didn't have no guns… if we would have guns… we would have been shooting back.” (28:36)
• Analysts’ synchronized video review supports DG’s story; no shots came from the white Jeep (29:00–29:34).
• Rumors of a gang initiation are declared “absolutely false” (29:38).

9. Calls for Justice and Community Silence

• DG expresses anger at how the incident has been ignored by authorities and the city.
  • DG: “Everybody just tried to superimpose the road—like, the city, everybody… How did it just get swept under the rug?” (30:56)
• He points to racism as a probable factor for the lack of accountability.
  • DG: “Two white kids [gunned] down like that… They're gonna be trying to find out who did it instantly… No, they just sweep it under the rug… just another black kid…” (31:14)

10. Eyewitness Corroboration: The Moment of the Shooting

• Eric Diantino, resident eyewitness, describes seeing a man shoot point-blank into the Jeep after the crash:
  • Eric: “Someone approach[ed] the passenger side of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, like, really close, like, point blank, and just unload his clip.” (33:12)
  • Eric recalls the shooter as a tall, strong man with possible military bearing, wielding a handgun (34:01–34:27).
• Another anonymous 911 caller affirms seeing someone in all black open the Jeep’s passenger door to shoot at close range (35:13–35:48).

11. Theories of a Cover-Up and Search for Answers

• The Sentinels, a paramilitary group acting as volunteer security at CHOP, are identified in anonymous online posts as possible shooters and accused of covering up their role (36:39–37:22).
• The hosts reveal plans to confront members of this group in future reporting.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Colby Williams (on protest trauma): “This was shot at me.” (02:05)
• DG (on being in the Jeep): “From start to finish.” (12:10)
• DG (on rumors): “We didn’t have no guns… No, there was no gun in life.” (28:36)
• Will James (on the new revelations): “I don’t think I really believed that there was a third person in the car.” (10:46)
• DG (on lack of justice): “Whether court system go probably won’t happen… eventually the real story is going to come out.” (31:51)
• Eric Diantino (witness): “Someone approach[ed] the passenger side of the Jeep… and just unload his clip.” (33:12)
• Sydney Brownstone (reflecting): “What defenders of the shooting are left with is the boys were inside a stolen Jeep… Is this the standard for lethal force?” (30:04)

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Timeline of Important Segments

• 00:15 — Content warning: explicit language & gun violence.
• 01:15 — Introducing Colby Williams.
• 05:01–06:55 — Colby identifies the possibility of a third person.
• 07:21–12:10 — Locating and meeting DG, confirmation as third person.
• 12:31–15:20 — DG on teenage life and security roles at CHOP.
• 16:29–18:39 — Events leading up to the Jeep incident.
• 21:10–22:43 — DG details the car chase and gunfire.
• 23:39–26:03 — The Jeep crashes and shooting escalates.
• 28:10–29:49 — DG dismantles rumors of guns/gang initiation.
• 30:56–31:51 — DG discusses being ignored by the city.
• 33:04–35:48 — Eyewitness and 911 call accounts confirm close-range shooting.
• 36:39–37:39 — The Sentinel connection and implications for next episode.

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Episode Tone & Language

The hosts maintain a narrative, investigative tone—balancing empathy for the young witnesses and a critical approach to community and official silence. Direct quotes from DG and Colby are raw and often emotional, preserving the immediacy and trauma of their experiences. Eyewitness testimonies add urgency and specificity.

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Summary Conclusion

This episode of Embedded unpacks and ultimately debunks the persistent rumors surrounding the fatal white Jeep incident during CHOP. Through pivotal firsthand accounts and new evidence, it re-centers the humanity of the teenage victims and challenges narratives used to justify lethal force. The episode ends with questions unresolved—particularly the identity of the shooters—setting the stage for further investigation into CHOP’s security groups and the city’s accountability.

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For visuals and additional context, listeners are directed to NPR’s online map of the events: npr.org/chop
Next episode preview: The investigation turns to the Sentinels, the group whose members are implicated in both organizing CHOP’s defense and possibly orchestrating cover-ups.

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Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Will James]

Heads up. This episode contains explicit language and the sound of gun violence.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Previously on we keep us safe.

[DG]

Do not walk around in the dark.

[Sydney Brownstone]

It is unsafe.

[Eric Diantino]

It is a powder deck.

[Will James]

Fear and paranoia take over.

[DG]

Chuck, can you tell me specifically, I'm

[Will James]

not very familiar with firearms.

[DG]

AR15. That's an AR15.

[Eric Diantino]

AR15.

[DG]

Shots fired.

[Sydney Brownstone]

More shots fired. More shots fired. More shots fired. The night Antonio was killed, protesters thought that Chop was under attack. Cars have been circling around, shooting more shots into tents. People inside. Chop shot back. Our security team was not aiming to kill. As we combed through all of the videos, we had to figure out what happened the night of the shooting. And this one person kept popping up right there on the bike.

[Will James]

Oh, yeah, you see his long hair?

[Sydney Brownstone]

One of the first things you notice about Colby Williams is his hair. It is a flowing mane of someone who looks like he could be in a hair metal band. And his apartment is clearly the home of a metalhead and specifically a Metallica fan.

[DG]

Totally. You guys can have a seat here on the couch.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Yeah, sure. So I'm going to look at your guitars first, though.

[Will James]

Wow. Colby's got guitars. He's got amps, and he can shred.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But along with all this heavy metal stuff are relics from another part of Colby's life.

[Will James]

Oh, there's like a memory box. The months he spent at the center of Seattle's protests in 2020.

[DG]

This was.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I know what that is.

[DG]

What is that? Yeah, this was shot at me.

[Sydney Brownstone]

That's a rubber bullet.

[Will James]

Can I see that?

[DG]

Yeah.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Oh, I remember finding those all over the ground.

[Will James]

Where'd this hit you?

[DG]

In my chest. Yeah.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Colby is from the indigenous Tsimshean people from a place called Metlakahtla in Alaska. And he came to Chop to show native solidarity with black protesters.

[DG]

Sagar lip liplam se gex de waayu gishput wa de abtegu. My Tsimshian name, saga liplip m sigex, translates to peaceful thunder.

[Sydney Brownstone]

We're here to talk with Colby because he was there minutes after Antonio Mays Jr. Was shot. He kept showing up on live streams that night.

[DG]

It was just extremely chaotic.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Colby says police have never talked to him about that night, but we want to know what he saw. So we pull up these videos on Colby's big screen TV to refresh his memory.

[DG]

Damn. What? You're nauseous. I'm homophobic. Who took this?

[Will James]

Omari. This video by the journalist Omari Salisbury shows the aftermath of the shooting. Protesters have already driven off with Antonio and Robert to get them help, and a bunch of people still mill around in the dark. Omari walks up to the crashed white Jeep and he struggles to take in what he sees.

[DG]

Damn.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Then a voice responds from off camera.

[DG]

What? You're nauseous. I'm hemophobic.

[Sydney Brownstone]

What? You're nauseous. I'm the one who killed him.

[Will James]

When we first heard this, it was like, did somebody really say that? Is someone confessing?

[DG]

What? You're nauseous. I'm homophobic.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But maybe that's not what was said. It could have been a volunteer medic saying, I'm the one who pulled them. Meaning pulled the boys out of the car.

[Will James]

Right. We. We can't tell. When we asked Omari about this, he said he didn't remember seeing this person, but we thought Colby might have.

[DG]

That's my bike. Yeah, I'm standing right here. That's me.

[Sydney Brownstone]

This video seems to trigger something in Colby. He gets very quiet and his energy changes and it almost becomes tense.

[DG]

What? You're nauseous. I'm Colby.

[Will James]

He keeps stopping the video to rewind this moment over and over.

[DG]

What? You're nauseous. I'm hemophobic. What? You're nauseous. I'm hemophobic. What?

[Sydney Brownstone]

Colby also isn't able to identify the person speaking on the tape, but it turns out that's not even what he's interested in.

[DG]

What? You're nauseous. I'm hemisphobic. Jesus fucking Christ.

[Will James]

Colby hits pause, and he points at a corner of the screen.

[DG]

I'm fairly certain that these shadows. This is the third person. It's hard to trust my memory just because, like, this is big information for me to process right now. But I personally have always thought that there must have been a third person.

[Will James]

He thinks there was a third person inside the white Jeep. Someone there with Antonio and Robert West.

[DG]

I've always felt like that was the most plausible explanation, was that there was a third person with them that was the one who had the guns or took the guns and got away.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Protesters we've talked to really believe that the boys in the white Jeep were firing guns that night. This is a story that they've maintained since the shooting.

[Will James]

But in all of our reporting, we've never seen anything that backs up this story. None of the videos we've watched show gunshots coming from the white sheep, and we've never heard of any guns being found inside it. Colby's theory that there was a third person in the car who ran away with the guns, it just seemed kind of out there to us. So we pretty much dismissed it and moved on.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But a couple of months later, our team was rewatching old videos from Chop, and in an offhand moment, in one of them, we found a clue. It was the name of someone who may have witnessed the events of that night. Closer than almost anyone else, I managed to reach this person, and. Oh, my God. Colby was actually onto something.

[Will James]

Okay, it's recording. Tell me what you just told me.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I found. I found him on Facebook. He's really afraid of sharing his full name. I got the okay to use his initials. He says police have never spoken to him about what happened at chop. He doesn't want to get involved with law enforcement, and he doesn't want to get dragged into a court case. And so we're not using this person's full name. We're using his real initials, which are dg. And I basically ask him if he knows or knew Antonio and if he was at chop. And he quickly tells me that not only did he know Antonio, and not only was he at chop, he said that he was in the car with Robert and with Antonio. He was there. He is the third person in the car that Colby told us about. I ask him if he's available that afternoon. He says yes, I'm going right now to record it to meet him in person.

[Will James]

Oh, yeah. Can I go?

[Sydney Brownstone]

Um, I don't know. I. He doesn't know about you. I think it would be weird if, like, there was another dude in the car. What do you think?

[Will James]

Can I go?

[Sydney Brownstone]

Fine. Let's go.

[Eric Diantino]

Okay.

[Sydney Brownstone]

From npr's embedded with kuow in the seattle times, this is we keep us safe. I'm sydney brownstone.

[Will James]

And I'm will james. This is episode six.

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[Sydney Brownstone]

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[Will James]

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[Sydney Brownstone]

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[Announcer]

this is

[Will James]

Tonya Moseley, co host of Fresh Air. When I interviewed the screenwriters of the Invite, Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, they called it a sex comedy. That's not about sex.

[Eric Diantino]

It's about wanting to be seen and heard and valued.

[Will James]

Get a peek into how the script came to be on Fresh Air, on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm just kind of stunned. I don't think I really believed that there was a third person in the car.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Yeah, I didn't believe it.

[Will James]

We're on our way to a town outside Seattle and we start talking about what we want to get out of this interview with dg. This might be a one time chance to talk to somebody who was there in the car that night. There is no better witness account imaginable than this one.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Yeah, I mean, I also wonder how forthcoming he's gonna be. Like, he's also the person who could answer. Was someone shooting from the car? Was he shooting from the car?

[Will James]

Does he know who killed Antonio?

[Sydney Brownstone]

Of course. We're hitting traffic.

[Eric Diantino]

Oh, yeah.

[Will James]

I mean, it's.

[DG]

It's.

[Will James]

I.

[Sydney Brownstone]

We finally pull into this labyrinthine housing complex, and I see someone walking down the hill towards us. It's a young man in his late teens or early twenties.

[Will James]

We introduce ourselves to him, and he seems a little like he's just been swept up in a whirlwind.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Okay, so we're sitting here with DG and dg. You say that you were in the car with Antonio and Robert.

[DG]

Yeah, I was in the car. From start to finish.

[Sydney Brownstone]

From dg, we don't only get a new account of what happened the night Antonio was killed. We also get a vivid picture of what CHOP was like for these kids who ended up there. You just start out by telling us, like, how you came to CHOP, like, what drew you there?

[DG]

Like, who wasn't at CHOP, you know, like, genuinely, I was 16 years old. Like, everybody was there. It was something to do. I was a young kid.

[Sydney Brownstone]

You know, when DG gets to chop, it was the middle of the pandemic. And for teenagers, CHOP was like the place to be. And are people There, like, to participate in the protest. Are they there to party?

[DG]

From my perspective, there was way more people there, like, just to be there. Like one just gigantic ass party.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Some of his other friends from high school were there. DG knew Robert west very well. He knew his family. They were friends.

[DG]

I was at his house. When we decided to go there, I was at his house. I was like, yo, I'm seeing all this stuff on social media. Like, we should go there. And he was like, okay. And we did.

[Will James]

DG gets to CHOP around the same time as Antonio did from California, about two weeks after Chop started.

[Sydney Brownstone]

How did you meet Antonio?

[DG]

Antonio at the Chop, through Robert. They encountered each other just like how I'm saying I encountered all these people together.

[Sydney Brownstone]

They kind of become the three musketeers.

[Will James]

Antonio and Robert and DG are basically living at chop. They're staying in a tent on the playfield.

[DG]

And that tent was like, me, Robert and Pocket's tent.

[Sydney Brownstone]

This was a nickname that Antonio had. He went by Lil Pocket or Pocket.

[DG]

We just become, like, real close. Like, real close. Up all night, you know, just real close.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Kind of sounds like summer camp, where suddenly people you met a few days ago are now the closest friends in your life. What did you learn about Pocket's story? About, like, where he came from, why he was there, what he was into?

[DG]

He said that he came from California. He took some money from his parents, and, like, he said he left a note. He was about that George Floyd stuff. That's why he had came there.

[Will James]

That kind of distinguished him from a lot of the other teenagers there.

[DG]

I just viewed it as one big party.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But then DG experienced the party turning just bad people. What do you mean by that? Like, what kind of people?

[DG]

People wanting to cause trouble.

[Sydney Brownstone]

They are teenagers surrounded by adults. DG tells this story about this one adult who they were particularly afraid of.

[DG]

There was this dude. He was like 7ft tall, you know, like, genuinely 7ft tall. The biggest dude I've ever seen in my life. And people were saying, like, he had, like, raped this girl. Supposedly everybody feared him. Genuinely, everybody was scared of him. You know, I had got this, like, the biggest wine bottle ever seen, bro. And I just watched him beat up my friend. And, like, I took the wine bottle and I went like this and threw it, and it hit him in his head, and he just dropped. Genuinely, he dropped. The biggest dude I ever seen just drop. The whole park starts coming up, like, praising us and all this. And then, since then, we were the park security.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Those boys in this kind of Atmosphere of chaos, of violence. And no police begin to feel like, well, maybe they're the police.

[DG]

So every time something happened in the park, people were coming from all over. Oh, this happened. We need you guys here. This and that. You know, we're just little ass kids, so it's fun. We're like, okay, go over there.

[Will James]

Who in this zone is not security at this point? You've got the sentinels. You've got all these other overlapping groups and individuals declaring themselves security. And now you've got three teenagers describing this Lord of the Flies environment. And people are telling them their security too.

[DG]

And that is really how everything started off. The trio of us, that's how we got so close. It was like, okay, there's no police or nothing, you know, so people are doing whatever they want, essentially. So we were like the only form of, like, justice in a way, you know, like. Cause there's no justice there at all.

[Sydney Brownstone]

DG remembers that something just felt off the night Antonio was killed that day.

[DG]

Like, I don't really know what we did. It's all just blurry.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Protesters remember hearing mysterious pops going off and wondering whether they were fireworks or maybe gunshots.

[DG]

Just an insane amount of stuff.

[Will James]

One protester remembers three kids running around with knives that evening.

[DG]

Wow.

[Will James]

Do you remember this?

[DG]

Oh, wow. I think I do know what you're talking about. Those three kids sound like us. Like, genuinely, like, you know, there was no. There was no group of no other 3 kids.

[Will James]

I'm surprised DG is willing to be so frank about something like this. It seems like he's being honest.

[DG]

I can promise you that there was no other group of no 3 kids. And we did have knives. That's why I said park security. Those knives were needed. Like, well, it wasn't safe out there for little kids.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Oh.

[Will James]

DG says he was with Antonio and Robert that whole night, except for about 10 minutes when he got into a fight with someone and accidentally maced himself.

[DG]

I, like, tried to mace him, but I maced myself. They were putting, like, milk or whatever in my eyes. Like, I was, like, going through it in that moment.

[Sydney Brownstone]

DJ says he's frustrated and his eyes

[DG]

are stinging, and so I'm not feeling it.

[Sydney Brownstone]

He just wants to go back to his tent. And he splits up with the other two boys, Robert west and Antonio.

[DG]

So, yeah, we split up.

[Sydney Brownstone]

He says he didn't know what they were up to until like, 10 minutes later.

[DG]

The whole entire park. I just heard gravitating towards one area,

[Will James]

towards the playfield, one of the central gathering points. At Chop. And the playfield itself is mostly empty, but there are tents around the edges of it.

[DG]

So I'm gravitating to it, too. Like, what's going on? And then boom. Like, this white Jeep's doing donuts on the turf and all this.

[Sydney Brownstone]

He sees this white Jeep driving around. We know at one point it comes within 10ft of a tent. It freaks the protesters out.

[Will James]

TG does not sound like he was scared of this. He certainly doesn't see any gunshots being fired from the Jeep.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I think he sees it as something people are doing for fun.

[Eric Diantino]

Yeah.

[Will James]

It makes him wonder, like, who is that?

[Sydney Brownstone]

Turns out inside the Jeep are his friends, Antonio and Robert.

[DG]

They run on the windows. They're like, get in, brother. I'm like, what? This is you guys in the Jeep doing all that?

[Will James]

According to dg, while he and his friends had been separated for those 10 minutes, Robert and Antonio had somehow gotten his Jeep. DG says he didn't know it was stolen and he has no idea if his friends were involved in stealing it.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Who was driving?

[DG]

From my memory, Robert was driving. I remember it very well, too. Pocket was right in front of me. And then Robert was driving.

[Will James]

DG says once he's in the Jeep with his friends, there's a moment when the mood suddenly flips.

[DG]

Yeah, you know, I'm laughing and like, as soon as we get off of the turf, though, we start getting shot at instantly.

[Will James]

That's after the break.

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[Sydney Brownstone]

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[Will James]

DG tells us that bullets start flying at the boys pretty much the instant they drive off the playfield.

[Sydney Brownstone]

So you go off the field, like, do you remember where the car goes?

[DG]

It was one big ass loop de loop. Like we were driving like 120 miles per hour on downtown Seattle. Like, there's no police to being found in life. And I'm looking around for him genuinely, because we're just getting shot at by assault rifle bullets and I don't know why.

[Will James]

Is someone chasing you?

[DG]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Will James]

Like in a car chasing you?

[DG]

Yes, like multiple cars.

[Will James]

Security videos we obtained from that night capture two cars chasing the boys. One is the silver Nissan Pathfinder whose passengers fired the first shots at them. The other is this white SUV covered in graffiti. That one drops out of the chase after a few seconds.

[Sydney Brownstone]

DG couldn't have seen these videos because they were released after we talked with him. But his description matches the video we have from the start of the chase. Then for about three minutes, the cars disappear from any videos. So we can't corroborate all of DG's account.

[Will James]

DG says he can hear the people chasing them talking to each other.

[DG]

They're treating it like it's a call of duty mission. I don't understand it. Giving out call outs and all this.

[Will James]

You hear them through the windows, giving these call outs?

[DG]

Yeah, literally through the windows. And you gotta imagine when I get out the car, I'm hearing even more call outs. Oh, we got them. Got them. We're right here. Did it all. Like, you know, oh, we're coming up right now. Like, yeah, I'm hearing all these call outs.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Were they on walkie talkies?

[DG]

Yes, exactly like that type of thing. What I heard is that they were ex military. So these people are like really advanced. Like, they're treating this like a spec ops mission or something. It's an execution. There's no better word for it than an execution. They were shooting us to kill.

[Will James]

Did you ever see who was shooting at you?

[DG]

Like to put a face to it? No, I couldn't because like I said, I'm laying on the ground.

[Sydney Brownstone]

He says he was lying flat in the back of the jeep.

[DG]

I'm laying there thinking, I'm gonna die. Like, you know, these bullets are like whizzing over my head and going through these seats. No, they're not hitting me, but they're hitting.

[Will James]

While they're racing through the streets, the boys are apparently on the phone with Cierra Walker, the woman who described herself as Antonio's street sister. And Sierra says she tells them, come back to Chop.

[DG]

You're safe.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Go by the pussy.

[DG]

You will be safe there.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Nothing will happen.

[Will James]

Cierra recounts this in an interview with the Daily Mail, and the boys seem to listen to her. Instead of driving as far away as possible, they loop right back around to Chop. But Sierra was wrong.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The boys round the corner by the vacant police precinct, There are cement barricades, and these mark the border of Chop.

[Will James]

In the middle of these barricades is a section that protesters have described as the entrance to Chop. It was usually guarded by security. The Jeep heads straight for it and crashes.

[DG]

I remember smacking into the barricade and I remember, you know, telling them, come on, we gotta go. It's literally that fright or flight scenario. Like, genuinely, I was scared for my life. I don't know why I'm getting shot. I don't know who's shooting at me. None of this.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Now gunfire is coming at them from the front, from the barricades, and DG remembers Antonio saying something.

[DG]

The only words I really remember is like, a pocket being like, oh, I got hit.

[Will James]

Sierra hears this same thing over the phone.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Pop, pop, pop.

[DG]

And one of them screamed out, I'm hit. I don't want to die.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And next thing I know, the phone hung up.

[DG]

I opened the door being like, we have to go. Like, we have to go. Because if I would have stayed there or whatever, they would have shot me and killed me on site. And I hopped out the car and I started running.

[Will James]

As DG is dashing out of the car, he hears shooting and someone yelling,

[DG]

get on the ground. Get on the ground. Like, they were yelling that to me.

[Will James]

Someone saw you get out of the car and was saying, get out.

[DG]

The shooters.

[Will James]

The shooters.

[DG]

The shooters seen me running from that area.

[Sydney Brownstone]

DG tells us that he gets away and he assumes that Antonio and Robert were running behind him.

[Will James]

Minutes go by. He's hanging around Chop or nearby.

[Sydney Brownstone]

It seems like the reality of the situation hasn't caught up to dg.

[DG]

I think the police got them and, you know, like, 30 minutes later, just chilling there, smoking, whatever. They're like, nah, everyone. All the reports are saying, doa.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Doa. He thinks both the boys are dead.

[DG]

And I just, like, break down. I just break down instantly. And then, like, it didn't feel real after that.

[Sydney Brownstone]

As DG is telling us this. He can't even look us in the eye. He turns his head and tells this part of the story, facing another direction. Like, it's too difficult to face. Even now, five years later.

[DG]

I was just crying in random people's arms. Like, I didn't even know them. I was just, like, crying. Like, even talking about it is, like, sad right now, but, like, yeah, bro, it was just fucked up.

[Will James]

DG doesn't realize this at the time, but later he says he finds out that a bullet did actually graze him on his calf.

[DG]

There's so much adrenaline going through me. Like, I don't feel that. I don't feel that. He calls his mom crying, like, breaking down. I'm just like, I need you to come pick me up. That was, like, the only words I could form, you know? And just her being a mom, she's like, I'm there, like, no questions, you know?

[Will James]

His mom and his brother show up to pick him up.

[DG]

My brother pulled up. He was, like, ready to do whatever because he didn't know why I was crying. Like, he didn't know something happened to me or what. You feel me? Like, he just seemed, like, just, like, crying or something. Like I was going to his arms, you know.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Bringing up a lot of stuff for you right now.

[DG]

Yeah. Like, when I really do think back on it, like, ask him to be the saddest because, like, I really, you know, and I try not to do that. I just, like, push it away. But it's like, yeah, it's just devastating for me, honestly.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Do you still think about this? Today you said you deal with ptsd. Like, how does that show up for you now?

[DG]

It's like, less, you know, I try not to think about it, but, like, yeah, I was really traumatized for, like, a year. Not getting in no cars, you know, really just, like, being inside the house.

[Eric Diantino]

Yeah.

[DG]

And, like, yeah, it was just, like, really crazy for me. I'm just happy to be alive.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Listening to the story from DG's perspective. There's something that really struck us, and it's something that knocks down the story protesters have been telling ever since the shooting happened, that the boys in the white Jeep were firing at them. More shots fired. More shots fired. More shots fired. More shots fired. Shooting into tents. Cars have been circling around, shooting more shots into tents. DG says that never happened.

[DG]

We didn't have no guns. You know, they tried to make the story, like, oh, they had guns, whatever. No, there was no gun in life. Because genuinely, if we would have guns, like, in that scenario, we would have been shooting back at them because like, what? Who's just going to drive and just let someone just shoot? That's like target practice, you know? Like, no 3, 16 year old boys would have been shooting back at them if we had guns or just sitting ducks, getting literally just like hawked down.

[Will James]

Newly released evidence from Antonio Sr. S wrongful death lawsuit supports DG's account. As part of its defense, the city of Seattle hired an analyst to look through footage from that night. The analyst synced up eight videos, recreated the paths of the vehicles and tracked gunfire that was picked up by cameras. His report notes shots from multiple sources. It says nothing about any shots coming from the white Jeep.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And those rumors about the boys being involved in a gang initiation?

[DG]

No, they weren't doing that. There was nobody to initiate them. Like, you know what I mean? Like what? No, I can absolutely say that's false. Never happened at all.

[Will James]

Protesters over the years have pointed to a few reasons why the shooting that killed Antonio was justified. They say the boys in the white Jeep were attacking chop, firing guns and either in a gang or doing a gang initiation.

[Sydney Brownstone]

At this point in our investigation, we can pretty confidently say none of these things are true. We found no convincing evidence for them and a good amount of evidence saying otherwise. What defenders of the shooting are left with is the boys were inside a stolen Jeep. They may have attacked and robbed someone earlier in the night to get it, and they were driving it recklessly.

[Will James]

And this raises a question for us. For a movement against police violence, is this the standard for lethal force? Three teenagers on an apparent joyride in a stolen car. DG feels that what happened to him and his friends should have been a bigger deal, but there's just been silence.

[DG]

Everybody just tried to superim the road, like the city, everybody. Like there's so many people, even to this day, like, whatever happened with that, like nothing, nothing ever happened with her at all. There's so much proof and evidence out there. It's like, how did it just get swept under the rug?

[Sydney Brownstone]

What makes you feel that way? That, like it's being pushed under the rug?

[DG]

You know, two white kids to get gunned down like that. They're gonna be like trying to find out who did it instantly. No, they just sweep it under the rug. Oh, it's just another chop shooting, you know, just another black kid that like, you know, regular. Just sweep it under the rug. That's how I viewed it five years to this day. Has there even been an arrest?

[Sydney Brownstone]

No.

[DG]

It's like they don't care.

[Will James]

We asked Seattle police about the status of their investigation and sent them a long list of questions. They declined to answer, saying the case is active and ongoing. DG says he just wants someone to be held accountable.

[DG]

Whether court system go probably won't happen, you know, and it is what it is. But, yeah, everything that's done in the dark comes out in white. It won't just be unknown forever as it just takes time. Like, eventually the real story is going to come out.

[Sydney Brownstone]

DG thinks it was Chop security who shot at the boys when they hit the barriers, and that there might have been more than one shooter.

[DG]

With those masks and those guns. Those were the only people there. You know, there wasn't just hella people like that. Those were the people chasing us down. Ex military, that's what they were.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But he didn't see anyone's face.

[Will James]

So we looked for other ways to identify the people DG described. A couple weeks later, we were searching through written records of 911 calls from the night of the shooting, and this one entry in that log stood out. It was from a caller who said he witnessed that shooting at the barricades from his window. The witness's name is Eric Diantino. The police talked to Eric once shortly after the shooting. I found him on Instagram, and he said he'd tell me what he saw.

[Eric Diantino]

It was hard to sleep because it was warm and no air conditioning, so he kept the windows open.

[Will James]

He's kind of lying awake at night.

[Eric Diantino]

And I remember just hearing this car, like, revving down the street, like, coming really fast. And I was like, what the hell? It's crazy. And so I got up and looked out the window. And as I looked out the window, I see a white. I believe it was a Jeep Grand Cherokee just cruising through, like, passing our building and then hitting the barrier at Chop and kind of crashing into it. And I was like, holy shit. Party knowledge. And that's when I see someone approach the passenger side of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, like, really close, like, point blank, and just unload his clip. And then the guy that shot the passenger just took off. And that was the end of it. It was nuts. It was probably the craziest thing I've ever seen.

[Will James]

Do you remember who the guy was who shot point blank into the car?

[Eric Diantino]

He looked like, I would say, a middle linebacker. Tall, big dude. It was too far from where I was at to see his face, and it was dark.

[Will James]

Eric originally told me that he thought the shooter was black, but when I talked with him later, he Said he could have been white and was wearing something on his head. And he had what, like a long gun or like a handgun?

[Eric Diantino]

Handgun, for sure.

[Will James]

Okay.

[Eric Diantino]

He looked like he knew what he was doing. Strong frame, you know, both hands on the gun.

[Will James]

Did he, like, walk up or run up?

[Eric Diantino]

He ran up. I had a few seconds between the Jeep crashing into the barrier and then seeing the shooter run up and shoot.

[Will James]

It might have been those few seconds that allowed DG to run and maybe saved his life.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Eric's account lines up with another 911 call from that night.

[Eric Diantino]

There must have been at least 10 shots fired.

[Will James]

I came over to the window to actually see what was going on.

[Sydney Brownstone]

This caller also lived right near the scene and witnessed the shooting firsthand.

[DG]

I physically saw a white Cherokee ram the barricades and then somebody actually shooting inside the vehicle.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Shooting inside the vehicle. I spoke to this caller who asked to remain anonymous to protect their safety. And they said they watched someone in all black who they identified as CHOP Security, actually open the front passenger door and fire into it at close range. According to dg, the front passenger seat is where Antonio was sitting.

[Will James]

Hearing this, other clues we found suddenly make more sense in retrospect. Like that voice caught on tape right after the shooting saying, you're not dead. Huh? Want to get pistol whipped?

[Sydney Brownstone]

It's looking more and more like Antonio's killer wasn't someone panicked and firing wildly into the night, but someone who walked right up to the door and shot at close range.

[Will James]

And we thought we might have a way to find that person.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Early on in this investigation, I found a blog post archived on the Internet, and I showed it to Will. So on this page, it's very convoluted, but basically, they say that they have decided to post information about who they think killed Antonio Mays.

[Will James]

Wow.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The post suggests that CHOP Security played a role in shooting Antonio and then may have helped cover it up. And not just CHOP Security broadly, but a specific faction.

[Will James]

They're saying they're members of the Sentinels, and it describes them as a cult. The Sentinels, the group that handed out radios and helped guard chop's barricades. This post laid out all these people or code names associated with them. An alleged member goes by the nickname Joker, and it says Joker appears to be a LARPer, which is like live action role playing.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Also, James Madison, the Sentinel, whose photoshopped image went viral.

[Will James]

We spent months digging into this blog post, gathering names and contact information for this group. And after hearing from DG and the 911 call, witnesses we decided it was time to talk to the Sentinels.

[Eric Diantino]

We have an idea of who did it.

[Will James]

Did police ever interview you about this?

[Eric Diantino]

No.

[Will James]

That's on the next episode of We Keep Us Safe. We've added a map to our website that shows the moves that the cars in this episode made leading up to the shooting. Visit npr.org chop to see that.

[Sydney Brownstone]

We keep us safe from NPR's embedded is a collaboration with the Seattle Times and KUOW. The series is reported and written by me, Sydney Brownstone, David Gutman and Will James.

[Will James]

This episode was edited by Luis Treyas and Laura Grenias with support from Katie Simon.

[Sydney Brownstone]

This episode was produced by Abby Wendle.

[Will James]

Additional reporting by our senior producer, Adelina Lanciannis. Research and fact checking by Danya Solomon and Miyoko Wolf.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Robert Rodriguez mastered the episode music by

[Will James]

audiosocket Connor Moore from Seymour Sound Firefly, Ramtin Arablouei, Tom Pyle and Running Dog Music and Universal Music Production.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And a big thanks to our NPR supporters. Embedded is where we do ambitious long form journalism at npr, and NPR helps keep that work going. Supporters also get to listen to every Embedded episode early. Find out [e-mail] if you'd like to email the show, you can reach [e-mail] I'm Sydney Brownstone. This is embedded from NPR. Thanks for listening.

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