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Sean Hannity Overcome with Emotion During Interview with Dad of Teen Killed in CHOP

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Things took a turn for the emotional Wednesday night on Fox News’ “Hannity,” as titular late-night host Sean Hannity sat down with the father of a black teen killed last month in the since-dismantled “autonomous zone” in Seattle.

According to The Seattle Times, 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. was pronounced dead at a city hospital in the early morning hours on June 20 after being shot multiple times alongside another individual within the protest zone. Ambulances had been unable to reach Anderson Jr. for rapid medical response as a result of area occcupants’ unwillingness to recognize or cooperate with local authorities.

As if a senseless tragedy were not enough, however, closure has been evasive for the Anderson family in the weeks since.

Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. told Hannity he was denied access to his son’s body for days after initially being notified of the shooting by onlookers familiar with his son. At the time of his television appearance, the city of Seattle had still yet to reach out with the traditional notification of death or expression of condolences.

“To this day, right now, they still haven’t called me,” Anderson said, flanked by community activist Andre Taylor. “I don’t know nothing. All I know is my son is dead. … I’m still trying to figure out answers so I can sleep. I don’t sleep. My kids don’t sleep. I can’t even stay at home. My kids, they feel like they’re unsafe at home now.”

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“Somebody’s going to answer for this. And they need to come talk to me and somebody needs to come tell me something, because I still don’t know nothing and somebody needs to come to my house and knock on my door and tell me something. I don’t know nothing. All I know is my son — he got killed out there. He’s just a 19-year-old. No, that’s Horace Lorenzo Anderson, that’s my son, and I loved him. That was my son,” he said, breaking down.

“He is somebody. And I’m his dad. And I need answers and I demand it. I refuse to — I will not lay down.”



The tragic loss and immense lack of consideration brought Hannity — a father of two young adults himself — to the brink of tears.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Anderson,” Hannity said. “You know, I can only say this as a dad. You want to break Sean Hannity? You know, I’m a pretty tough guy. That would break me, what you’ve been through.”

At the time of the interview, the Seattle autonomous zone had been dismantled for only a handful of hours.

The zone was an experimental police-free community, first established on June 9 after a week of aggressive clashes between authorities and justice reform protesters, according to The Cut.

Known by the monikers Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone (CHOP) throughout its brief lifespan, the area progressively shrank within its roughly six-block radius as crime and lawlessness led to mass residential departures.

Multiple other shootings took place in the autonomous zone. A second fatal shooting that took place on June 29, however, kickstarted successful efforts by law enforcement to disband the protest zone.

Do you think the Seattle autonomous zone should have been dismantled more quickly?
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According to Anderson and Taylor, however, the decision to dismantle CHOP in light of recent tragedies was local authorities doing far too little, far too late. The zone should have been dismantled immediately.

“This doesn’t look like a protest to me no more,” Anderson said in a news conference last week, according to KIRO-TV. “That just looks like they just took over and said we can take over whenever we want to.

“They should deployed [the National Guard] here to say ‘Man, it’s time to go. It’s time to move on. And break this up,'” he added.

Who could argue otherwise?

Well, likely the social justice crowd who first established the zone in pursuit of a culturally Marxist utopia (oh, how fast that failed). Or perhaps the establishment media, who heralded the zone at its inception as a “festival-like” protest “haven where artists paint murals, speakers discuss topics of racial equity, snacks are handed out for free and virtually no police are in sight.”

Of course, you won’t see any apologies from those folks in light of these autonomous zone tragedies — or the abuse and crime we will likely hear about from victimized residents in the weeks to come. Those innocent black lives claimed or irreparably damaged by ongoing progressive “protest” efforts likely won’t receive a second glance.

For those folks, it isn’t “black lives matter.” It’s black lives matter when it fits the narrative.

Just ask David Dorn, Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. and the many black Americans killed or left economically bankrupt by recent weeks of anarchy.

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Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal. Having joined up as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, he went on to cover the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for the outlet, regularly co-hosting its video podcast, "WJ Live," as well.
Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal and regularly co-hosted the outlet's video podcast, "WJ Live."

Sciascia first joined up with The Western Journal as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, before graduating with a degree in criminal justice and political science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and worked briefly as a political operative with the Massachusetts Republican Party.

He covered the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for The Western Journal. His work has also appeared in The Daily Caller.




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