Antifa march, attack onlookers and vandalize downtown Seattle in response to officer involved shooting

Antifa and Black Lives Matter marched in downtown Seattle Wednesday night, to protest a police-involved shooting that occurred along Seattle’s waterfront late Tuesday night. Activists smashed windows of businesses and assaulted members of the press along the way.

The police-involved shooting left one civilian dead, after the Port of Seattle Police Department (SPD) called in a suicidal subject holding a knife to his throat and requested emergency response from SPD.

"SPD responded to a call from the Port of Seattle Police Department about a subject in crisis. Port of Seattle officers described the subject as a white male wearing a black coat and black pants, holding a knife to his throat."

After officers arrived at the scene, the individual charged at Seattle PD officers with a knife.

"SPD officers arrived in the area and quickly located a man matching the description. Port of Seattle Police approached the man and attempted to use a less-lethal tool, but the device was ineffective. The man moved toward officers, and two Seattle Police officers fired, fatally striking the man," the statement said.

Although the body-cam footage of the shooting released by Seattle PD seemed to be justified, a militarized faction of Antifa called 'Seattle Youth Liberation Front' organized the protest by putting out an event flyer on Twitter.

The group of more than one-hundred met at Westlake Park for a vigil around 6pm and began their march shortly after.

Activists marched from Westlake to SPD West Precinct, halting the march in the middle of the street to throw projectiles over the fencing at the precinct. From there, Antifa militants started targeting individuals in the crowd, including reporters and video 'streamers.'

A group of the activists recognized me within seconds, pointed me out in the crowd and signaled to the group where I was so they could target me.

After members of Antifa started chanting my name, a group began to throw eggs at me and 'mob' me out of the protest.

As I was being mobbed by Antifa, I called 911 for help after failing to find Seattle Police Officers in the area. I eventually ran into a group of bike officers who told me they couldn’t help me as they needed to keep eyes on the protest and to head to the West Precinct to file a police report.

I was unable to file the report due to the fact that West Precinct is blocked off with cement barriers to protect the building and officers from protesters as anti police riots are a regular occurrence in Seattle.

The march continued on as the group moved in a well-organized fashion, vandalizing businesses and continuing assaults on individuals live-streaming the crowd.

Antifa attacked multiple individuals throughout the night as they were attempting to live-stream the march. One of the videos captured Antifa throwing large chunks of ice at an individual filming them.

An Antifa militant dressed in 'black bloc' drove by a group attempting to leave the protest and unleashed a can of bear spray.

Tension escalated throughout the night, resulting in a fight between Antifa and a security guard for a right-wing streamer. The man marching alongside Antifa started harassing a streamer preventing him from filming with an umbrella, prompting the security guard to grab the umbrella and fight back.

A group of bystanders took issue with Antifa and showed their distaste for the Black Lives Matter Movement. "How does chanting, 'Black Lives Matter,' help my people," said a black bystander arguing with a white Antifa militant.

A terrifying moment occurred when a security guard belonging to a right-wing live-streamer pulled out a gun and pointed it at the crowd as tension began to escalate. The same security guard flexed his weapon multiple times throughout the night.

Even with heavy police presence by the Seattle Police CRG Taskforce--whose job is to specifically monitor and contain protests--Seattle did not announce any arrests despite  being present during the assaults themselves.