After more than a year on the run, the man accused of fatally shooting 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson inside the six-block area that last summer was known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone was arrested Monday in Des Moines.
Seattle police identified Marcel Long as the man suspected of killing Anderson within a day of the June 20, 2020, shooting at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street and learned Long, now 19, had fled the state, according to the first-degree murder charge filed against him in August. He had been wanted on a $2 million arrest warrant since then.
Members of the U.S. Marshal's Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force recently determined that Long was staying at a Des Moines apartment complex, a Monday news release said. Long was seen walking on South 216th Street, near 14th Avenue South, and was arrested after a brief foot chase.
Long was booked into the King County Jail at 4:25 p.m., jail records show.
Anderson and Long had apparently been feuding since 2019, after they were involved in a fight — Anderson lost — that had been posted on YouTube, charging papers say.
Several people called 911 around 2:20 a.m. on June 20, 2020, to report the shooting, but arriving police officers were met by an angry crowd and left after someone yelled that the shooting victim had already been transported to Harborview Medical Center, the charges say.
Anderson died at the hospital 33 minutes after the first 911 calls.
Though detectives and crime scene investigators were unable to enter the CHOP zone to gather evidence, photograph the scene or interview witnesses as they normally would during a homicide investigation, several people either contacted police or were interviewed by detectives in the 72 hours following the fatal shooting, the charges say. One man photographed bloodstains on the pavement and turned shell casings into police, along with notes detailing where they were located. Several anonymous tips also identified Long as the gunman.
A Capitol Hill business owner provided police with high-quality video-surveillance footage that showed Anderson and Long talking before Long pulled a gun and pointed it at Anderson, the charges say. Other people tried to detain Long as Anderson walked away, but he broke free and ran after Anderson.
When Long and several others caught up to Anderson, the footage captured a fistfight, then Long raised his arm and appeared to fire twice with his gun angled downward, the charges say. Anderson couldn't be seen on that portion of the video and was presumably down on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds.
Anderson's father and mother have filed separate lawsuits against the city, claiming that city officials created a dangerous environment by allowing racial-justice protesters to occupy the CHOP zone. They say police and fire officials failed to render aid as Anderson bled out, The Seattle Times has previously reported.
"We are grateful for the hard work of law-enforcement for finally bringing in the suspect who shot Lorenzo Anderson," Evan Oshan, an attorney representing Anderson's estate and his father, Horace Anderson, said Monday in an emailed statement. The younger Anderson went by his middle name. "However, the flawed political system which allowed the CHOP zone to exist and allow lawlessness to reign on Seattle are at the core of why Lorenzo, a Black special needs teenager, bled out and died on June 20, 2020.
"The failed leadership of Seattle including the mayor, city Council, EMT and others responsible for not helping Lorenzo as he bled to death, due to negligence and/or incompetency of city, state and county management will be brought to justice," the statement said.
No arrests have been made and no suspects have been named publicly in the other fatal shooting that took place during protest at the CHOP, which left 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. dead and a 14-year-old boy wounded.
