Thursday, July 2, 2020

Father of CHOP shooting victim speaks out in emotional 'Hannity' interview: 'All I know is my son is dead'


Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr., the father of a 19-year-old black man who was shot and killed last month inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) publically pleaded for answers on "Hannity" Wednesday night, saying police and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had failed to reach out to him since his son's death.
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"They need to come talk to me and somebody needs to come tell me something, because I still don't know nothing," an emotional Anderson told host Sean Hannity. "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 got killed up there.
"They say, 'He's just a 19-year-old.'" No, that's Horace Lorenzo Anderson [Jr.]. That's my son, and I loved him."
"Somebody needs to come to my house and knock on my door and tell me something."
— Horace Lorenzo Anderson, "Hannity"
The younger Anderson was killed early on the morning of June 20 when shots rang out near Cal Anderson Park on 10th Avenue and East Pine Street inside the CHOP. A 33-year-old man was wounded in the shooting.
Anderson Sr. broke down in tears as he recalled learning of his son's death.
"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," he said. "They weren't even from Seattle. Now, mind you, I haven't heard --  the police department, they never came ...
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"Someone should've came and knocked on my door and ... should've been, like, coming to talk to me and let me know about my son. To this day, I really don't know nothing. I'm still here sitting. I don't know nothing."
Anderson, who plans to bury his son on Thursday, told Hannity that he is "numb" and hasn't been able to sleep as questions about his son's final moments remain unanswered.
"I still don't know what's going on," he said. "I'm hearing from YouTube. 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 are unsafe at home. I've been buying motel rooms and I don't have that type of money. I wasn't prepared for this."
"My son needed help, and I don't feel like they helped my son," Anderson said of law enforcement. "My son needed help, and  I don't feel like they helped my son ... I feel like he doesn't -- without this, he would just be nobody. He's just -- it doesn't matter, he's just another guy. Just another child, just swept up under the rug and that's it and forgotten about."
At one point in the interview, Hannity became emotional as Anderson described the daily trauma of waking up to the realization that his son is no longer alive.
"I wake up in the morning ... I look for my son in the morning. He's not there no more. You know I'm saying? It's like I go in there, I'm kissing a picture. He's not there."
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"You're taking away generations," he went on. "You're taking away our youth. You are taking away, my son never had a chance to have another child. My grandbaby would never be ... that's a generation taken from me."
"I understand Black Lives Matter and everything that's going on," Anderson said at another point in the interview. "But that's not my movement right now. My movement is [to] let them know that was my son."
Despite his grief, Anderson told Hannity that "I am being a Christian now, in my heart" as he tries to lead his family through this time of tragedy.
"Everything is in God's hands now," he said. "God's going to take care of it, I feel like ... God is going to take care of me and he is going to take care of my son."

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