Answers about the lengthy delay in informing the public during the police response to the Bite of Seattle shooting scene were elusive Tuesday, with promises of a full review into the communication breakdown come fall.
But homicide detectives were writing search warrants, according to interim Seattle police Chief Andre Sayles, providing some hint of movement in the ongoing investigation.
Police quickly determined the shooting was between people who knew each other but that wasn’t relayed to the public, leaving people to wonder for hours if gunmen were indiscriminately killing festivalgoers at Seattle Center.
Sayles and police Capt. Randy Ward, who served as incident commander during the response to the July 26 shooting at Seattle Center that killed three people and injured four others, appeared before the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee with Alison Holcomb, the director of public safety in Mayor Katie Wilson’s office.
Ward and Councilmember Bob Kettle, chair of the committee, were the only two people in council chambers Tuesday who were at the shooting scene the night it happened. Assistant police Chief Tyrone Davis, who was acting police chief during the shooting response, was absent because of a family emergency. Detective Brian Pritchard, a police spokesperson who reportedly told reporters a news conference was delayed to await the arrival of “dignitaries,” did not attend the committee meeting despite a request from Councilmember Debora Juarez that he be there.
Davis and Pritchard are expected to attend a full debriefing Sept. 22 about the shooting, the police response and the political fallout, which included Wilson asking then-police Chief Shon Barnes to resign. He did so four days after the shooting.
Holcomb said Inspector General Lisa Judge will conduct an independent investigation, including a look into communications between city departments and officials’ decision-making. Judge was authorized to hire experts on active shooting scenes and her office is expected to release a report in the fall, Holcomb said.
Asked if Wilson or one of her designees told police to slow down, pause or delay the public release of information, Holcomb said she didn’t know.
“There were a number of different channels through which communication could have gone out and perhaps should have gone out and I can’t answer today why that wasn’t happening,” Holcomb said, noting the city’s response to the shooting and Barnes’ resignation have led to a politically charged environment.
Seattle police posted on X about the shooting less than 30 minutes after gunshots rang out just after 6 p.m. July 26, saying there were multiple shooting victims at Seattle Center and asking people to avoid the area. But no other information was released until a news conference around 11 p.m.
Wilson also posted a statement the night of the shooting, calling it “an act of horrific violence,” but offered no details on how it unfolded.
Sayles, the interim police chief, said about 30 officers were on duty at the Bite of Seattle and many of them heard the shots and ran toward danger, arresting a 15-year-old shooting suspect and administering CPR, wound care and applying tourniquets to shooting victims until Seattle Fire Department medics arrived.
About 200 officers responded to the scene, including a SWAT team that worked for about 1 ½ hours to clear the IMAX theater, where police had reports of a possible gunman running into, though a second shooter was not found. Deputies from the King County sheriff’s drone unit and agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported to the scene to aid without being called, Sayles said.
He said the police response was an “outstanding team effort” and commended the officers who responded to what he described as a chaotic, traumatic scene.
Councilmember Rob Saka asked Sayles, Is there a killer on the loose, yes or no?" but he declined to answer, saying there was a potential identification of a person in a blue shirt being involved. Sayles said he wanted to make sure any information released is "100% accurate and does not jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.
Councilmember Dan Strauss noted police quickly released information about a double homicide at a bus stop near Rainier Beach High School in January that killed two teenage boys and similarly, when police exchanged gunfire with a man in Ballard in February, wounding him.
In discussing Barnes’ departure, Strauss said he was told Wilson “has a different window” into police operations than council members do, “yet I haven’t been told what she sees through that window.”
“Why this is charged is because three people are dead,” he said. “Why this is charged is that people, Seattleites, went to sleep that night thinking there was somebody indiscriminately killing people at the Space Needle.
“This is charged because the mayor asked the police chief to resign with very little information,” Strauss said. “So the best that I can do is surmise there was some communication difference or difficulty, that the chief was asked to resign.
“That’s why this is charged. And this all could’ve been avoided if there was clear, transparent communication from the start,” he said.
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