Throughline - Listen to "We Keep Us Safe" on NPR's Embedded podcast

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

In the summer of 2020, teenager Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join a racial justice movement after the killing of George Floyd. Less than a week after he arrived in Seattle, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, hosts Sydney Brownstone of The Seattle Times and Will James of KUOW team up with NPR's Embedded to investigate Antonio's death, surfacing crucial evidence and eyewitness accounts.Find "We Keep Us Safe" in the Embedded podcast feed. Listen to Embedded wherever you get your podcasts, including the NPR App, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and via RSS.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, through line listeners, run here to let you know about a new investigative series from Embedded, NPR's award-winning documentary podcast. Here's the trailer. Back in 2020, a remarkable experiment took place. After an intense standoff with anti-police brutality protesters, police abandoned their own precinct. Protesters stayed and started occupying about eight city blocks in the middle of Seattle. There's several hundred people being completely peaceful. It's like a block party. They set up tents.

There was free food, a mutual aid station, a stage for speeches and music. It evolved into this community. They called it chop. The Capitol Hill organized protest. A place with no police. It was their attempt to build a better world. For a moment there. It was utopia.

But protesters feared an attack from right-wing activists. Some protesters appointed themselves chop security, began walking around in tactical gear, carrying guns. I'm not very familiar with fire. AR-15. That's an AR-15. And then one night, a Jeep drove into the camp. Shots of fire.

Shots of fire, Joe. Shots of fire, Joe. Protesters thought they were under attack and shot at the Jeep. Move out of the way! Oh, Jesus, Lord Jesus. After the shooting ended, one of the Jeep's passengers was dead. 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. That night, protesters saw him as a threat.

But his dad, who taught him what it means to be black in America, says his son was there for the cause. To be honest, if it meant that I'd have my son back, I wouldn't teach my son black history. Because I want to have him back right now. I said, man, they held with black history. Six years later, The case remains unsolved.

And no one has been able to explain how this place built to protect Black Life ended up killing a black teenager. I'm Will James. And I'm Sidney Brownstone. For more than a year, we've been investigating what happened that night, sifting through rumors. He put in work for the streets, I guess. That's what they were saying. That's why he got killed. Digging up new witnesses.

Is someone chasing you? Oh, yeah. For sure. In a car chasing you? Yes. multiple cars. And uncovering never-before-seen evidence. See this right here?

That's a long gun out of the front seat. Holy... Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series from NPR's Embedded podcast, The Seattle Times, and KUOW. Find Embedded wherever you get your podcasts, or at npr.org slash embedded.