By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Seattle police believe the Sunday night shooting that occurred during the Bite of Seattle food festival and that claimed the lives of three people, including one of the shooters, was gang-related.
But police appear to have held back crucial information from the public, and the City has come under scrutiny for the way it has handled communications around the shooting.
Police waited five hours to tell the public they had one of the suspected shooters, a 15-year-old, in custody, even though they arrested the teenager almost immediately. According to court documents, police also already knew around the same time they took the 15-year-old into custody that the second suspected shooter, a 19-year-old, had died in the shooting.
The Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) assistant chief of investigations, Nicole Powell, didn’t reveal this latter piece of information until a 4 p.m. news conference on Monday.
“It is an active investigation,” she said, in response to a reporters’ question about delayed information. “I think once we get that information, once we get the witness statement and videos and obtain more information, it’s the information that we put out right now.”
In response to other reporters’ questions, including how many guns were involved, she repeated that it is “an active investigation,” and that she could not provide any additional information.
Mayor Katie Wilson told reporters that her office had also just received that information an hour prior to the 4 p.m. news conference.
Katie Wilson
“Things are unfolding very rapidly and we’re getting reports that then, in some cases, subsequently turn out not to be true,” she said. “So we’re trying our best to be able to provide timely information.”
Police Chief Shon Barnes said in a news conference earlier in the day that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) weren’t sure whether the second suspected shooter was among the dead, and didn’t want to share inaccurate information.
Following initial reports of just two suspected shooters, police today updated that number to three. According to court documents, the shooters were allegedly engaged in a gunfight. They opened fire outside the Seattle Armory, ultimately claiming the lives of one of the shooters, a 19-year-old teenager, as well as two bystanders, a 44-year-old man, and a 56-year-old woman—who died of her wounds at Harborview Medical Center.
The shooters wounded four others, including a 2-year-old boy, who was walking his bicycle next to his mother at the time. He was described as being in “satisfactory” condition today. A spokesperson from Harborview said that the hospital discharged the three other injured people: a 39-year-old woman and two men, aged 23 and 27.
Police took one of the suspected shooters, a 15-year-old, into custody last night, but didn’t share that information with the public until five hours after they had caught the teenager.
Another suspected shooter remains at large. When asked for more information, Powell said that she could not share any further details.
Councilmember Eddie Lin said in a statement earlier in the day that the City “must do far better at supporting our kids in crisis” and that Seattle “must invest our time and resources with an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach.” This means working together, he said, instead of siloing providers and government.
“There’s nothing more important than healing and preventing further youth gun violence, and none of us can do this on our own,” he said. “I remain committed to sustainably funding community violence intervention and addressing core needs of our residents. That means violence interveners and meals for our kids, safe passage to school and mental and behavioral healthcare.”
“While we can’t get all the guns off the streets tomorrow,” he continued, “we can do much more to prevent them from getting into the hands of our kids. From safe storage to gun buy backs, red flag laws, and universal background checks, there remains immense work to do to reduce easy access to firearms.”
Councilmember Maritza Rivera also sent out a statement earlier in the day, urging Wilson to partner with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC). The NNSC is an international network with roots in Boston that works with law enforcement, community members, and service providers to reduce gun violence amongst vulnerable communities.
Calling Wilson “non-committal,” Rivera pointed to a gun violence symposium that she hosted, which Wilson, Barnes, City Attorney Erika Evans, and King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion attended, amongst more than 100 other representatives from the city, county, and community groups.
“The mayor is fully aware of my efforts. I have reached out to her to partner on this work and she has been non-committal,” she said. “My intent is to put funding for this in the budget, so we have dedicated resources to work with this group that has used evidence-based strategies to significantly reduce gun violence in cities like Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia—up to 60%. I also strongly urge the community to contact the mayor and voice their support for adopting this strategic approach.”
Wilson said that the City will hold another news conference at 12 p.m. on July 28, following public calls for more frequent updates.
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