The police chief of Seattle (and former police chief in Madison, WI), Shon Barnes, is in a bit of hot water.
On Sunday night at a food festival called Bite of Seattle, gunfire broke out. And when the chaos ended and the noise subsided, three people were dead and four injured.
Three people were killed and four others were injured in what police believe was a shootout between a pair of gunmen at a major food festival in Seattle on Sunday night.
One gunman surrendered after he was confronted by police, while another shooter was being sought after they fled Seattle Center, which was hosting the Bite of Seattle event, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis said at a late-night news conference.
“There were two people who we believe were shooting at each other,” Davis said.
Seven people were shot at the civic center complex, which is home to the city’s Space Needle.
The three victims who died were a 19-year-old man, a 44-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman, police said in a statement early Monday. Two people died at the scene, and a third died at the hospital.
Four people who were injured, including a toddler, were taken to Harborview Medical Center, the region’s top-level trauma center, where one of them died, Davis said. Hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg said the victims had injuries including gunshot wounds to an arm, a leg, the abdomen and a lower leg.
Police recovered two weapons at the scene.
A fifteen-year-old has since been charged with firing into the crowd, although the bullets from his gun did not forensically match with the bullets in the murdered festivalgoers.
A 15-year-old who was arrested for his suspected role in a deadly shooting at the Seattle Center on Sunday night was formally charged on Wednesday.
The teen, who KUOW isn’t naming because he’s a minor, is charged with first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement — for firing multiple times into a crowd — and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes said Tuesday the 15-year-old had an illegal “ghost gun” – an untraceable firearm assembled from individual parts — with an extended magazine that was missing rounds after the shooting.
…Police say it’s presently not clear who fired which shots in the shootout that killed three and injured five, including a 2-year-old. Charging documents say preliminary results indicate the 15-year-old’s handgun did not fire the bullets that killed Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba or Ashley Whitehead. But they allege that the juvenile “shot multiple times in an event largely filled with people.”
Other court documents allege that the third man who died in the shooting, 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, was involved in the gunfight along with at least one other unknown suspect. The documents say SPD recovered casings from four guns at the scene.
What was inexcusable was the delay in alerting the public to the details of a mass shooting in the downtown area.
…Gunfire erupted on the northwest side of The Armory at the Seattle Center at around 6 p.m. Sunday. Seattle police posted a brief social media update at 6:30 p.m. confirming a shooting had occurred.
It took five whole hours before a single public official stepped in front of a microphone to give a press briefing. The police department was represented by the assistant chief.
…Members of the media were initially told that a press conference would be held near the Space Needle around 9:45 p.m., prompting a swarm of reporters to gather outside the taped-off Seattle Center campus.
However, hours passed without any updates as unverified claims spread across social media. In a statement, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said that two suspects were in custody, when there in fact was only one suspect arrested.
At 10:30 p.m., Seattle Police Sergeant Brian Pritchard told waiting media that the briefing was delayed to wait for dignitaries to arrive.
The press conference finally began around 10:45 p.m., led by Seattle police Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis. Police Chief Shon Barnes was out of state attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference, hosted in Dallas.
Chief Barnes, who has been the department’s head since July of 2025, was out of town at a police conference.
That combined with the previous night’s delay and the absolute vacuity of the socialist nepo baby the city elected as mayor made for a spicy press conference on Monday.
If you can stand, try to listen to this daffy chica. Mayor Katie Wilson’s brain is lost at sea.
🚨Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson loses cool at Monday presser when confronted on why the five-hour delay on communicating details of Seattle Center shooting; city staff abruptly ends presser.
Wilson denies that Gov. Ferguson’s office delayed Sunday’s presser for photo op.… pic.twitter.com/Hu7RcAx2s8
— Lynnwood Times (@LynnwoodTimes) July 27, 2026
…@GovBobFerguson and Rep @PramilaJayapal attended presser but after city staff abruptly ended presser, didn’t contribute to the presser. Still no answer on who actually gave the order to delay communicating details of Seattle Center shooting to the press on Sunday.
Also, Wilson appeared to not be aware of City’s emergency text blast feature to residents.
There have been some interesting developments as far as the delay in the Sunday presser, too. A whistleblower from the police department has told the local Fox station that it was all in order to give the governor and Rep. Jayapal a chance to get there for the photo op.
A source at Seattle Police Department has come forward to Fox13’s Hana Kim that Mayor Katie Wilson LIED in her press conference today, about delaying the first public briefing 5hrs to allow Gov. Ferguson and Rep. Jayapal a photo opportunity.
The source told Fox13 that “Officers… pic.twitter.com/hXebLvJ97O
— Future 42 (@future42org) July 29, 2026
…The source told Fox13 that “Officers wanted to hold the media briefing Sunday night to update the public,” but that the Mayor’s office told them to “wait for dignitaries to arrive.”
This matches right up with the now viral video of an SPD Public Information Officer telling KOMO’s Jeremy Harris that they were “waiting for dignitaries to arrive…”
You know, before telling the public whether there was still a shooter on the loose or not.
As David Rose said so perfectly,
“time to dig.”
The real spiciness happened when the chief stepped up to the Monday mic and only got worse as the presser ended. Chief Barnes’ family is still apparently living in Chicago, and it’s been a bone of contention that he is rumored to often be out of the city on weekend visits back there to see them. That was the initial assumption when he was out of town during this shooting, and incorrect, as it turns out he was at a police convention.
INSANE: Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes was asked by @choeshow how often he travels to Chicago, where he lives, to see his wife and kids.
Barnes replies, “I don’t travel as often as I would like to,” then turns to Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson and says, “Affordability is… pic.twitter.com/uDNoLCxI9j
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) July 28, 2026
…Barnes replies, “I don’t travel as often as I would like to,” then turns to Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson and says, “Affordability is something we are working on, right?” for his apartment in Seattle when he gets paid over $374,000 a year.”
Barnes was out of town during the shooting at the Bite of Seattle, yet another high profile incident he was MIA for
Barnes then got into an acrimonious verbal, nearly physical altercation with another reporter who cornered him in the hall afterward. A rather large deputy had to run interference.
DEI Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes appeared to want to fight a journalist after he was asked about not being in the state often for work. It was learned that Barnes was in Dallas, Texas when the mass sh—ting happened.
The press conference was delayed for over five hours after… pic.twitter.com/WliS4CuKEe
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 27, 2026
I’m sure Mayor Wilson was delighted to have a distraction, and by Wednesday, it had been confirmed that she’d asked Barnes to either resign or expect to be fired.
Seattle City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth confirmed Thursday that Barnes had been asked to resign by Mayor Katie Wilson but that he was still chief. Another councilmember said Wednesday night that Wilson had given Barnes the choice to resign or be terminated. Others who work with the police department or have talked to people in it said they have heard the same.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Barnes declined to say whether he was still chief and that the decision “is up to the mayor.”
“It’s her responsibility as the city’s executive,” he said. “Whatever her decision, she’s going to do a tremendous job.”
He said he was off for the day.
“My family flew in yesterday and we’re going to spend some time at Seafair, watch the Blue Angels, and enjoy some of the great food around here.”
Now, my cynical self looks at this development and says he had to be hard up to take that crap job for a lousy $375,000 a year in the first place, but what do I know?
Well, for starters, I know they couldn’t pay me enough to move to Seattle, period, let alone be ‘in charge’ of a department that isn’t allowed to be ‘in charge’ of anything, but takes the fall for everything.
For example, they’d have more to go on as far as The Bite mass shooting; only the socialist mayor had turned the downtown surveillance cameras off again after World Cup crowds left. You know – in order not to be too intrusive to the homeless as they streamed back to repeople and set up camp on downtown Seattle streets.
Gee Scott didn’t hold back: Until Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson stands at a podium and says public safety is her NUMBER ONE agenda, everything else is a wash. She turned the cameras off the moment World Cup fans left town — and now Seattle’s asking why investigators don’t have more… pic.twitter.com/AusJ91Hp8B
— KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM🎙 (@KIRONewsradio) July 29, 2026
However, Shon Barnes also had this family gig going when he was the Madison chief, too, according to everything I’ve read. They stayed in Chicago, and he rented a bachelor pad, went home on weekends. This is also the second time he’s been out of the area when what residents consider a major incident has occurred (a gang murder earlier this year), and they’re kind of tired of it. The chief’s flippant answer didn’t help matters any, something about ‘Can’t schedule violence.’
Word of the mayor’s ultimatum and intentions now has the black community up in arms, so there is going to be a rumble over this one way or the other.
This is absolutely hilarious. Black civil rights leaders are mad a white mayor decided to fire a black chief. They just met with the mayor, came back down and said they’re hopeful she’ll change course. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is listless, has no backbone, and is 1,000% out of… https://t.co/Wjgb2Y31Jj
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) July 30, 2026
… Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is listless, has no backbone, and is 1,000% out of her depth. She’s gotta go.
Last night on the Fox talk shows, guests were taking bets on whether Wilson makes it to the end of her term, and some folks online were describing the city as ‘rudderless.’
There’s breaking news on the police chief’s employment just as I was wrapping this up:
BREAKING: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has announced the resignation of @SeattlePD Chief Shon Barnes. pic.twitter.com/gz4WA0gTgS
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) July 30, 2026
I would have to say he was the least of the problems in that place, even though he sure sounds like he was a perfect fit for the weirdness.
What a disaster.
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