MarQuies Demone Patterson Seattle man shot dead near Biden celebration rally at Capitol Hill neighborhood. Was shooting politically motivated? No arrests.
A 31-year-old man was fatally shot early Sunday after spending part of the night at a post election celebration for president elect, Joe Biden, in Seattle‘s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
MarQuies Demone Patterson, the father of two children, was shot near Cal Anderson Park just on 1am the Seattle Times reported.
Emergency services rushed him to the city’s Harborview Medical Center, but he later died from his injuries.
To date, police said there was no evidence to suggest the shooting was politically motivated.
KING 5 reported hundreds of people showing up to celebrate Biden’s victory at an impromptu block party.
Patterson’s mother, Que Vasser said the rally was festive and her son who had just left festivities had gone because he ‘wanted to go out and show his respect for the new president and the vice president.’
Was trying to make a life for his children
She added: ‘He was a hardworking, caring, loving, respectable young man. He was just trying to make a life for his children.’
He was a dad to two children aged nine and 10.
Vasser said her family members cautioned Patterson against going to the rally because of ‘animosity and biased people.’ But she said ‘we don’t know’ if the shooting had anything to do with politics.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. A handgun was reportedly found close to the scene and taken to police.
Politically motivated?
The incident occurred close to the so-called Capital Hill Organised Protest (CHOP) zone, which was declared autonomous by activists during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
The shooting comes just hours after a Trump supporter was challenged by a journalist for turning up at a demonstration with a rifle in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sky News journalist Alex Crawford had asked a man wearing a bullet proof vest, why he had dressed like that to protest the election. The man replied: ‘For security’.
He then alleged that Biden supporters had come out heavily armed for the event, before he got into a lift with other Trump supporters holding weapons. When Ms Crawford asked another man with a rifle and pistol why he has come ‘dressed like this’, he replied: ‘It’s a constitutional right.’
