First came the squeal of tires. Then came the explosions and the gunfire.
First came the squeal of tires. Then came the explosions and the gunfire.
From her Belltown home, Mia Doces said she watched street racers take over nearby intersections over Labor Day weekend, blocking traffic as cars spun in circles and crowds gathered around them. On Saturday night, she said, her calls to 911 came before shots were fired and a man was killed.
The violence has intensified pressure on Seattle leaders to respond to a string of public safety concerns, from street takeovers to gun violence, as Mayor Katie Wilson promises a new citywide strategy next week.
“They were spinning out in the intersection,” Doces said. “They had blocked the street so that they could do that in the intersection.”
The shooting near Third Avenue and Clay Street was the first in a string of deadly shootings in and near Belltown over the holiday weekend. Three people were killed and several others were wounded in separate incidents, according to Seattle police.
Now, Doces is asking Seattle leaders for immediate changes at the intersections where she said the street takeovers have repeatedly happened. “There’s no reason for this,” she said. “Those are intersections that can have some interventions put in them. They can have something put in the center of the intersection, so people can’t spin out.” She said physical deterrents could help prevent large gatherings that police cannot realistically monitor at every intersection.
Her concerns come as Mayor Katie Wilson faces renewed pressure over public safety following the Belltown violence and the still-unsolved fatal shooting at the Bite of Seattle in July.
A survey commissioned by Challenge Seattle and the Seattle Metro Chamber in August found roughly two-thirds of voters lacked confidence in Wilson’s public safety plan. The poll was conducted before the recent Belltown shootings.
Asked how she responds to residents who do not feel safe, Wilson said the city is moving to improve both its immediate response and longer-term strategy.
“We are working on moving forward,” Wilson said. “Interim Chief Sayles and I announced last week our updated communications protocols, so that we are coordinated. We are making sure that if there is another serious incident, the public is getting timely, accurate information.”
Wilson said in an interview Tuesday that the city plans to announce a more detailed gun violence prevention strategy next week, including a new coordinator housed in the CARE Department to work with community-based violence interruption providers. She also said her office will add a staff member to coordinate the city’s broader public safety work.
“We saw tragic, unacceptable violence over the weekend,” Wilson said. “We’re taking these near-term actions at the same time as we know that we need to do better on our longer-term coordinated strategies around gun violence and other persistent safety problems.”
The mayor is also still facing questions about the city’s communication failures during the July Bite of Seattle shooting, when people were locked down and the suspect remained at large, but no AlertSeattle message was issued.
Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, whose department was praised during the emergency, said his department regularly uses the alert system during significant emergencies. “Our PIOs will use the system to notify the community,” Scoggins said. “It’s not something that has been a speed bump or a hurdle for us. Our folks know, and we use it.” Scoggins said the fire department has a protocol for using the tool, but he said he did not know which agency or official was responsible for deciding whether to send an alert during the Bite of Seattle shooting.
Wilson said the city has updated its communication protocols and asked the Office of Inspector General to conduct an independent investigation into the events that night. She again declined to explain why she asked former Police Chief Shon Barnes to resign, saying the city is focused on moving forward.
For Doces, the question is whether the city’s new strategy will bring practical changes to her neighborhood and quickly.
“I’m not very confident in public safety at all,” she said. “I live downtown. During the day I walk around all the time, but I’m always on guard.” And she added, “Provide a solution for what we could do for the street takeover situation.”
