NPR's Embedded to produce We Keep Us Safe, a new series investigating the unsolved homicide of Antonio Mays Jr.
NPR’s award-winning audio documentary podcast Embedded is partnering with The Seattle Times and KUOW to launch We Keep Us Safe, a new series investigating the unsolved homicide of Antonio Mays Jr. The 16-year-old Black teenager was shot and killed inside Seattle’s occupied, racial-justice protest zone in the summer of 2020.
We Keep Us Safe is hosted by The Seattle Times reporter Sydney Brownstone and KUOW’s Will James, of the award-winning NPR Network podcast Lost Patients, and features reporting by David Gutman, who covers local politics and government for The Seattle Times.
Beginning June 11, the eight-episode series probes whether the death of Antonio Mays Jr. was an act of self-defense by protesters or a killing in cold blood — and who should be held accountable six years later. The reporters have reviewed evidence that’s never been public before and interviewed witnesses who say they’ve never talked to police. Despite video footage of the incident and a recent $30.5 million jury verdict against the City of Seattle, why does Antonio’s case remain a mystery?
We Keep Us Safe is a gripping story of an unsolved killing that doubles as a lens into one of the most polarizing political moments in recent U.S. history.
“As reporters who covered the 2020 protests in Seattle, this story has hung over us for six years,” Brownstone said. “The killing of Antonio Mays Jr. at CHOP felt like a moral injury — both for us as reporters and for the city. The fact that so few people wanted to talk to us about this pushed us to dig into the painful parts of this story other people didn’t want us to know.”
“We had a feeling that this unsolved case had something to teach us about our city and about America right now,” said James. “And it did. It’s a story about uncomfortable truths and the lengths people will go to protect themselves.”
Embedded’s showrunner Katie Simon says the We Keep Us Safe series represents the best of narrative audio storytelling: “With this series, Embedded is adopting true-crime storytelling techniques and pairing those with the unparalleled journalistic rigor of Sydney Brownstone, Will James and David Gutman, who have spent more than a year delving into unresolved trauma in their city with compassion, clarity and nuance.”
“This series shows the power of local journalism,” said Michele Matassa Flores, executive editor of The Seattle Times. “When police, politicians and even many protesters wouldn’t discuss this case, our reporters set out to find answers on their own, interviewing nearly 100 people and pressing them for information. They’ve never given up on getting to the truth.”
“This is a story that needed to be told. And it was only possible through collaboration,” said KUOW chief content officer Marshall Eisen. “Embedded brought gold standard podcast sensibilities, KUOW and The Seattle Times journalists brought in-depth local reporting, and Omari Salisbury and Converge Media offered first-person perspectives and a trove of live-streamed media from the contested events of 2020.”
We Keep Us Safe will publish weekly in the Embedded feed wherever you get your podcasts.
NPR+ supporters get early access to every episode in Embedded. To sign up for NPR+, go to plus.npr.org.
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This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.