The shooting killed three people and wounded four others. Seattle police say no suspect has been arrested.
Seattle’s interim police chief says the department expects to release its own internal messages by the end of the week, after Mayor Katie Wilson’s office disclosed a series of texts detailing what her staff knew in the early minutes after the July 26 mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle.
The shooting killed three people and wounded four others. Seattle police say no suspect has been arrested.
Wilson’s office released the messages Friday afternoon before the Labor Day weekend, without a public records request. The disclosure offers the mayor’s office account of the response, but it also renews questions about why the public waited hours for information while people at Seattle Center remained in lockdown and the gunman was still at large.
Within about 20 minutes of the shooting, then-mayoral spokesperson Jonah Spangenthal-Lee told multiple city staff members there were reports of a shooting at the Bite of Seattle involving “multiple victims,” according to the messages. The mayor’s public safety director, Alison Holcomb, said she had already heard from then-Police Chief Shon Barnes about what she called a “mass shooting” and also indicated Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis would soon provide on-the-ground intelligence.
But the texts also show city staff debating how and whether to address the public. Holcomb discouraged a press conference, writing that it “doesn’t do anyone any good,” while suggesting that the mayor’s office issuing a statement first “serves an important purpose.”
Wilson also acknowledged in the thread that "Chris Daniel's is calling me, fyi," as staff discussed whether to speak with KOMO News.
Wilson said Monday that the release of texts was made “in the interest of transparency.”
But Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee Chair Bob Kettle said the texts do not appear to tell the entire story.
“It’s not just the five-hour delay,” Kettle said. “It is, are we executing properly? Are we operating properly? Is there a checklist? It’s not just SPD, but is the mayor going through a checklist?”
Barnes, who was later removed as chief, told KOMO News in an exclusive interview that he did not make the decision to delay information to the public.
“I did not,” Barnes said when asked whether he ordered officials to hold off. “I do not know who made that call. I can tell you this: if I was here in Seattle, we would have informed the public continuously more than one particular interview.”
Holcomb faced similar questions during an Aug. 11 public hearing, including whether the mayor’s office slowed, delayed or paused the release of information. She said she could not answer directly, citing the number of people involved in providing information and asking questions.
Interim Chief Andre Sayles said Monday that the mayor’s office messages should not be viewed as the complete record of what happened that night. “My biggest thing is [I] want to make sure we have all the information,” Sayles said. “I don’t want it to be where we put out information and then there’s three or four people’s text messages missing.”
Asked when Seattle police would release its messages, Sayles said the department hopes to do so by the end of the week.
The messages released so far also do not resolve another central question: why the city did not use AlertSeattle, its emergency notification system, to send cellphone alerts during the shooting and lockdown. The system has been used during other emergencies and major road closures.
The expected police release could provide a fuller timeline of the response, including what commanders knew, when they knew it and how decisions were made about public communication during one of Seattle’s deadliest recent shootings.
