Seattle police arrested a man Monday in connection with one of three fatal shootings in Belltown over Labor Day weekend.
Detectives arrested a man, 44, for investigation of shooting to death a 23-year-old woman early on the morning of Sept. 6 near Blanchard Street and Third Avenue, according to police.
Around 2 a.m., responding officers “found a woman inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds to (the) head and torso, police wrote. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition and died there.
The deceased was identified Monday as Tionna Simpson, according to the King County medical examiner's office.
The man has been booked into King County Jail for investigation of murder, according to the police department. The Seattle Times typically does not name suspects until charges are filed.
To find the man Tuesday and bring him into custody, Homicide Unit detectives worked with a SWAT team and the Gun Violence Reduction Unit, according to the department.
About 90 minutes before the woman was shot to death, gunfire left one man dead and two others wounded at Clay Street and 3rd Avenue, about a half-mile away in Belltown.
The King County medical examiner's office identified the victim in that shooting as 20-year-old Isaac Rios. His cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, and the office classified it as homicide.
That shooting happened roughly around the time of an unsanctioned street party near that intersection. A neighbor described watching cars do burnouts and someone setting off what appeared to be canisters of explosives.
Less than 24 hours later, Kaleb Osborne, 17, was shot to death and a young man, 21, was wounded late Sunday at Elliott Avenue and Bell Street, near Pier 66. Osborne died by homicide, of gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to the medical examiner's office.
No suspects have been arrested in the other two deadly shootings. Detectives have not publicly identified any link between the three homicides, aside from the timing.
Even as crime has trended down in downtown Seattle, violent crime in Belltown is up since 2018, and the spate of shootings and rowdy partiers has some neighbors on edge.
Mia Doces, a resident and commercial property owner who witnessed partiers doing burnouts around midnight, described herself as liberal but said she'd be open to outside agencies — perhaps even the National Guard — to help police the downtown core.
"I’m really, really mad, I’ve 100% had enough with what’s going on in downtown Seattle," she said in an interview last week.
The trio of fatal shootings came as Seattle City Council members and Mayor Katie Wilson discussed new measures to reduce gun violence in the wake of July's mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival at Seattle Center.
That episode left three dead and at least four wounded, including a toddler, and culminated in Wilson's ouster of Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes.
After the Bite of Seattle shooting, Councilmember Bob Kettle called on the mayor's office to get more closed-circuit television cameras working, and to fund the city's Real-Time Crime Center and automatic license plate readers for police vehicles.
Shortly after the trio of Belltown shootings, Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera introduced a resolution to adopt a pilot program for reducing gun violence that has worked in other cities, saying, “We are, all across the city, angry and frustrated."
Meanwhile, Wilson planned to announce a “comprehensive, focused gun violence prevention strategy this week, with investments in her proposed city budget to bring down gun violence.
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