Confusion and questions continue to swirl around the city's immediate response to Sunday night's shooting at Seattle Center that left three people dead and at least four injured, including criticisms that the city left residents in the dark about whether an active shooter was on the loose or if it was even safe to leave the house.
While people ran from the event after gunfire erupted at Bite of Seattle, hiding in restaurants and homes, others scoured the internet looking for a scrap of information. Aside from one message from Mayor Katie Wilson, details were few for hours.
Five hours elapsed between the shooting and the first statements by officials alerting the public that one of the shooters remained on the loose. During that time, Wilson erroneously announced that two suspects were in custody.
Wilson admitted her mistakes at two news conferences Monday, while defending her and the city's actions, flanked by many of the same people who were with her Sunday: police officials, Gov. Bob Ferguson and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, among them. New to the mix was police Chief Shon Barnes, who was in Texas at a police conference when the shootings occurred.
In complex situations like this, information flies around," Wilson said Monday morning. "And that's part of why it's taken us a while to be able to stand here and say this is accurate information."
She called a second news conference at 4 p.m., saying she heard the public's calls for more frequent updates. She announced the next news conference would be Tuesday morning.
It was at the Monday afternoon update that key details about the shooting became more clear.
Even Monday morning, it was unclear if there were two or three shooters. Officials said there were two, but then documents obtained at the appearance of a 15-year-old male Monday afternoon at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center revealed police thought three people might be involved, though one might not have been armed and there was only one gun recovered at the scene. The 15-year-old is under investigation for firearms violations and first-degree assault.
"It's unfortunate that sometimes, in any situation, early information is sometimes incorrect," Wilson said Monday morning. "There is a tension between providing information quickly and providing information accurately."
At the 4 p.m. conference Monday, Assistant Chief Nicole Powell said that preliminary information, subject to change, leads police to think the shooting was gang related.
Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44, Ashley Whitehead, 56, as well as suspected shooter Junior Cee Niko Semo, 19, died from gunshot wounds, according to the King County medical examiner’s office. Their deaths were classified as homicides. At least four others were injured.
But Sunday night, much of that was unknown while rumors swirled.
Wilson said Monday morning that she didn't believe it would have been appropriate to use the city's AlertSeattle emergency alert system — used extensively in recent weeks to tell the public about FIFA World Cup-related traffic problems — to tell the city there was a second shooting suspect on the loose.
"I think we were focusing on getting accurate information out through our normal communications channels and also not creating undue fear and confusion," Wilson said.
However, City Council member Bob Kettle, who leads the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said later Monday the AlertSeattle system should’ve been used to broadly communicate that Seattle Center was shut down and secured following the shooting, and that people were not in immediate danger from an active shooter.
“A lesson from this is to use AlertSeattle in this way,” said Kettle, who praised the quick action by the city’s emergency responders. “At the very least, to keep people away and let them know it’s been contained.”
Still, Kettle defended the general response, noting the complexity of a crime scene that moments before had thousands of people in it, and as police were searching for a second shooter who they were told had headed to the Imax theater at the Pacific Science Center.
“It was an ongoing operation at the time,” he said. “It’s hard to update when there’s an active operation.”
Police heard gunfire just after 6 p.m., as thousands gathered at an annual food festival at Seattle Center. According to police and court documents, it appears the suspects pulled guns and opened fire on one another outside the Seattle Center Armory, spraying bullets into a crowd and killing and injuring bystanders. Attendees fled for their lives, trampling one another and the crime scene.
Police are seeking the public's help in identifying the third suspect. Barnes said a SWAT team was mobilized for the search but was unsuccessful in locating the suspect.
Barnes was out of town at a National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives conference in Dallas when the shooting occurred, which garnered some criticism. He flew in overnight to attend Monday's news briefing.
Kettle defended Barnes' absence, and said the police response was not hampered.
“He has a strong team around him,” Kettle said. “It is not an issue.”
Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins said the injured included a 2-year-old boy, who was discharged Monday from Harborview Medical Center; a 39-year-old woman was who at the medical center in satisfactory condition; a 23-year-old man who was treated at Harborview and discharged; and a 40-year-old woman treated by medics who declined to be taken to the hospital. Scoggins said a 27-year-old man showed up Sunday night at the UW Medical Center clinic at Montlake with a gunshot wound and is being looked at as a possible eighth victim.
Police officials said there were numerous police officers at the event for security and that they quickly disarmed the 15-year-old suspect. He said officers and medical personnel "ran toward the gunfire in an attempt to render lifesaving aid and to disarm someone who was actively firing a weapon into a crowd."
Questions also emerged about the timing of Sunday night's news briefing. While media waited for hours after the shooting for a briefing that would disseminate some of the first verified information to the public, police public information officers indicated that the briefing was delayed while the mayor waited for the arrival of "dignitaries." When it finally began around 11 p.m., Ferguson and Jayapal appeared alongside city officials.
The governor, who had driven up from Olympia, and Jayapal, who said she was at her Seattle home, said Monday they weren't notified about the briefing until just after 10 p.m. Sunday and were near Seattle Center already, waiting if needed.
Wilson denied Monday that waiting on them was the hold up.
"That is absolutely not the case," she said. "There are times when elected officials' presence is not helpful. And that was one of those times. We don't want our law enforcement officials distracted taking care of elected officials when they have work to do."
Wilson, who has had to deal with thorny public safety issues like angry residents affected by gunfire on Aurora Avenue and whether to expand use of police surveillance cameras in the stadium district, said the lasting effects of Sunday's shooting are impossible to measure.
"My heart is with the victims of last night's tragedy and their families, and everyone who is suffering for their loss," Wilson said. "And I also know that many people who were not physically injured will carry what they experienced yesterday with them for a long time.
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