SEATTLE — The man who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson near Seattle's former "CHOP" protest zone in June 2020 was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday afternoon.
Marcel Long pleaded guilty in May to the second-degree murder of Anderson.
Tensions ran high in the courtroom Friday.
"He tried to run from this situation, they jumped him, they beat him, and then they shot him and then your system left him for dead, left my baby for dead," Anderson's mother told the court
According to charging documents, Long was seen on surveillance video approaching Anderson and pulling out a gun. He is then seen chasing Anderson - who ran away - and appears to shoot him.
"Our government failed us, our city and our state representatives failed us, our federal government failed us. The CHOP should have never happened. It shouldn't have been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks," said Anderson's aunt.
Anderson's father told the judge he wanted to see Long receive a 20-year sentence.
"The only way he is going to learn is if you put the hammer on him," Anderson's father said.
"I really truly apologize to both families I really do and I want just to say that," said Long's father.
Marcel Long apologized in court too.
Since he did not have any felony cases in his past, he was facing a sentencing range between 10 and 18 years. The recommendation for the state was a 14-year sentence, and that is what the judge handed down on Friday.
Long, who was 19 years old at the time, was identified as the suspected shooter on June 21, 2020, a day after the shooting, according to court documents. He immediately fled the state and was not taken into custody until nearly a year later.
U.S. Marshals identified Long walking along South 216th Street near 14th Avenue. He led law enforcement on a brief foot chase before being taken into custody.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office released a statement on the day of Long's guilty plea that read, "There is never a guarantee of what a jury will do, even in a case such as this one. Today’s guilty plea and the upcoming sentencing ensure that Mr. Long will have clear accountability for this murder conviction."
The protests and creation of CHOP followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
CHOP was located near Cal Anderson Park, inside the area of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and was occupied by protestors for weeks after Seattle police abandoned the department’s East Precinct.