President Trump personally called the father of Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr., the first teen killed in Seattle’s lawless Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone last month, to offer condolence after hearing his heart-breaking interview.
“Incredibly, Donald Trump called me,” Anderson told KCPQ-TV. “The President of the United States called me today. He gave his condolences, and me, I’m not a political guy. I told him, ‘Nobody like you.’ I’m real. Donald Trump called me and he didn’t have to call me, he didn’t have to do nothing!”
The CHOP zone area came to life nearly a month ago when Seattle cops were told by elected officials to abandon the East Precinct. With cops gone, activists declared ownership of the six-block neighborhood, establishing the territory as no-cop “autonomous zone,” that quickly descended into chaos and violent crime at night. In the last two weeks, the violence turned to tragedy with four shootings resulting in the deaths of two teenagers — 19-year-old Anderson Jr. and a 16-year-old who were killed a week apart.
Anderson Jr. was gunned down in the early morning hours at the end of Juneteenth celebrations inside the CHOP zone back on June 20. Seattle Police said they responded to reports of shots fired inside CHOP in the early morning hours of June 20th. Officers were stopped at the zone “border” from responding to the scene “by a violent crowd of protestors. The officers were also blocked from entering the hospital as they were confronted by armed protestors.
The president called Anderson on Thursday to offer condolence and support after seeing his interview with Sean Hannity the night before. The family spokesman, Andre Taylor said Trump was moved by the grieving father’s grace in the face of tragedy, and was “incredibly gracious” in the seven-minute phone call.
“We just talked to the president of the United States,” Taylor told Fox News on Thursday. “How are you going to top that?” “He said he watched ‘Hannity’ last night, and told Horace, ‘Your son is looking down on you and watching over you. He was incredibly gracious, and it gave Horace some extra help as he buried his son.”
Taylor added that the president’s phone call before Anderson Jr. was laid to rest helped Anderson get through the tragic day by providing him some “measure of peace and strength.”
“It blew Horace’s mind,” Taylor added.
On Wednesday night, the eve before burying his son, Anderson appeared on FOX News ‘Hannity’ along with Taylor in an emotional 35-minute interview and told Hannity that neither the police nor Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has reached out to him at all in the two weeks since his son was killed. The heartbroken father said he learned about his son’s death through his son’s friends who also were at CHOP zone that night and recalled not being allowed to see his son’s body for a week.
“To this day they still haven’t called me. Nobody has called me or reached out to be like, my condolences, nothing, Anderson told Hannity. “It’s like they didn’t care, it didn’t matter. I haven’t heard from the mayor, from the police department. No city. Nobody called me or tried to find me. The police, somebody should have knocked on my door and said ‘we need to sit down and talk to you and tell you what happened about your son.’ The only way I found out was just two of his friends, just two friends that just happened to be up there, and they came and told me. They weren’t even from Seattle.”
“All I know is my son got killed up there,” Anderson continued. “They wouldn’t even let me see my son. It took me a whole week before I could see my son. They wouldn’t let me. I went to the hospital and they said we couldn’t see him.
Ambulances were also denied access to the scene, causing a delay in aid to Anderson Jr., along with another black victim who also was shot and seriously wounded. The two gunshot victims were transported to the hospital by a “CHOP medics” where Anderson Jr. was pronounced dead on arrival.
“My son needed help, and I don’t feel like they helped my son,” Anderson said. “They shouldn’t be picking kids up and throwing them in their trunk and taking them to the hospital. The paramedics should have been there. The police should have been there.”
He blasted Seattle officials for not shutting down the CHOP zone “long time ago” and addressed the Black Lives Matter movement, saying he understands their sentiment, but it’s not his “movement right now”
“I understand Black Lives Matter but that’s not what was going on,” Anderson said. “But that’s not my movement right now. My movement is to let them know that was my son.”
45Andre TaylorBlack Lives MatterCHOPFox NewsGeorge FloydHannityHorace Lorenzo Anderson JrMayor Jenny DurkanPresident TrumpSeattleWhite House News
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