A King County Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered that a 15-year-old suspect in the fatal Bite of Seattle shooting be released from juvenile detention.
The boy is accused of firing a handgun indiscriminately into a crowd of people attending the food festival at Seattle Center on July 26. Seattle police arrested him at the scene, and he was charged three days later with first-degree assault with a firearm and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Investigators so far have not found ballistic evidence connecting the teen's gun — a Polymer 80 9-mm ghost gun — to the two bystanders who died in the shooting.
During a Wednesday morning detention review hearing, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Logan Bryant said new bullet fragments were recovered from Seattle Center and submitted for DNA and ballistics analysis in the past week.
Judge Veronica Galván said the boy could be released on electronic home monitoring to live with his father and stepmother, on the condition that he be supervised 24/7 by at least one adult.
He must also continue receiving mental health treatment and not have contact with any of those injured in the shooting, Galván said at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center.
Police said the teen was exchanging gunfire with one or more people about 500 feet northeast of the Space Needle, causing thousands of people to flee. Investigators believe some of the bullets were fired by his friend, 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, who died at the scene from gunshot wounds and was found with a Glock 45 9-mm handgun, according to a Monday court filing.
Seattle police are still searching for at least one unknown suspect.
The shooting killed two festival attendees, Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44, and Ashley Whitehead, 56. At least four others were injured, including three adults and a 2-year-old boy.
Prosecutors formally requested that the 15-year-old be tried as an adult, triggering a lengthy defense investigation into the boy’s life and the alleged crime.
On Wednesday, Bryant said the teen poses a threat to the community and requested that he remain in juvenile detention.
Hong Tran, the boy’s public defense attorney, said the teen has enrolled in online school, started therapy and met with a mentor since his arrest. Tran requested that he be released to electronic home monitoring, where he would be supervised by adults “around the clock.”
“(He) recognizes that his actions were dangerous and inappropriate, and he’s committed to learning from his mistakes,” Tran said. “He really just wants to reconnect with his family and continue the process of healing from this trauma.”
The boy’s father asked Galván to let his son return home, where he has “a full support system.”
Before making her ruling, Galván said she was concerned that prosecutors had made “extraordinarily different” decisions about other recent cases involving juveniles suspected in similar crimes. She did not describe those cases, but said prosecutors had not sought to try any of the juveniles involved as adults.
“Disparities of that significance always cause the court concerns,” Galván said, adding that, regardless of public scrutiny, prosecutors’ decisions should be “the same when in the light of day and the same thing when nobody’s there.”
The teen’s family declined an interview outside the courtroom.
According to a Monday court filing, the 15-year-old allegedly met with a group of about 10 people, including Semo, at someone’s house before going to the Bite of Seattle.
Investigators said they reviewed a video Semo captured of the group which showed at least 11 guns lined up on the floor. One of those guns matched the one the 15-year-old was allegedly found with. Another was a Glock 45 9-mm handgun police found at the scene and later connected to Villalba’s killing, the filing states.
The document does not specify whether the gun Semo allegedly fired was the same gun used to kill Villalba.
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