Good afternoon members of the press.
Thank you for joining myself and Chief Barnes for
the latest information in this ongoing investigation.
I appreciate your partnership in this investigation.
We continue to make sure that injured victims receive the care
and the resources they need.
Yesterday, the medical examiner reported the identities
of the deceased: Ashley Whitehead, 44 years old --
oh, sorry, fifty -- correction --
fifty-four-year-old Ashley Whitehead, 44-year-old
Carlos Israel Sanchez Vialba and 19-year-old
Junior C.
Nicosema. Except for the 19-year-old, who
we believe was involved in the shooting, we understand
that all others who have passed or were injured were bystanders.
Thank you to those who organized and attended
the vigil on the Seattle Center campus last night,
honoring and mourning these three individuals
and all who have tragically lost their lives to gun
violence in our city.
I appreciated being there, being welcomed in community,
including those who knew the victims
and connecting with fathers who have lost
children to gun violence.
I had a chance to talk with vendors,
with youth, and others who were at the Bite
of Seattle on Saturday and members of the
Seattle Center community about their experiences.
I want to go off script for a moment just to share
one of the most important things tonight for me.
Aaron Murphy-Payne, who is the
father of Amar Murphy-Payne, who was shot and killed outside
Garfield High School in 2024, spoke eloquently, and
one of the things that he said was that when a
tragedy like this happens,
often we say, I can't imagine.
I can't imagine being there.
I can't imagine what it would be
like to be a victim or to be a family member of a
victim. And he said, we have to start imagining.
We have to start imagining.
And for me, as the mother of a two-year-old who spends a
lot of time at Seattle Center and knowing that a two-year-old
was shot, I can imagine.
And I think Aaron is right.
We have to start imagining because that lends us with
the urgency that it deserves.
To continue honoring all of those impacted by the
senseless act of violence, the community is invited to
gather for a silent vigil at 6:30 p.m.
on Wednesday.
Come support one another.
Bring a flower or a written message
to the International Fountain, a space for reflection,
compassion, and healing.
We're working with our Office of Economic Development and
the Seattle Center to reach out to the vendors who are
impacted by the shooting and to understand what type of
And we remain committed to working with impacted
neighborhoods across our city, from Rainier Beach to the
Chinatown International District and Little Saigon
to Capitol Hill and North Aurora, to address both
the immediate impacts and the root causes of gun
violence. Yesterday we shared that at least two
people exchanged weapons inside the Seattle Center Armory.
One is in custody and a second has been identified as the
19-year-old deceased man.
Police believe that this was targeted gang-related
violence and continue to look for other possible
suspects.
At the press conference held Monday at noon, I shared with
you our approach for dealing with gun violence long term.
We are bringing in an expert in gun violence
reduction, including youth violence prevention,
who will partner with our city staff and our
community-based partners to strengthen our coordination
and accountability across our existing bodies of work.
We are also in communication with and reaching out to the
National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform Communities,
Cure Violence Global, the National Institute
for Criminal Justice Reform, and Cities United.
These are organizations with demonstrated track
records of helping cities to stand up successful
gun violence reduction strategies across the country.
And we look forward to learning from them about
gaps and opportunities to enhance gun violence work.
And I want to express thanks to Councilmember Rivera for the
gun violence symposium that she recently organized to help to
move this conversation forward.
We will be undertaking this work in partnership with
our city council, the King County Executive and Council,
the Regional Office for Gun Violence Prevention,
our county attorneys, state and federal law enforcement
partners, and most importantly, our communities who are
disproportionately impacted by the epidemic of gun violence.
At the same time as we are advancing new strategies
at the local level, we also know that reducing
the number of guns on our streets requires
state and federal policy policy changes.
I want to thank you for the leadership of the governor and
state lawmakers who advanced this work in Olympia, and for
our United States senators and representatives who tirelessly
advocate for common-sense reforms in our nation's capital.
Let them know that you care, too.
I want to continue to express gratitude to our police
officers who have been working nonstop since the tragedy
occurred and are providing regular updates to my office.
And thank you to the victim advocates team at the
Human Services Department and all of our community
partners who are focused on violence interruption.
And I also want to again recognize and thank the staff
at the Seattle Center who've been steadfast in their support
and coordination during an incredibly difficult time.
I'm going to turn things over to Chief Barnes for some
updates on the investigation.
Thank you.
Good morning.
As the city continues to grieve the loss of
Ashley, Israel, and Junior,
please keep the survivors here in our hearts.
We remain focused on getting justice for all people involved
in every aspect of this tragedy.
That means we have a lot of work to do, and I want to
provide you with the most up-to-date information
about this active, ongoing, and dynamic investigation.
We've been pouring out information that we
have recovered, and we're not slowing down.
This includes video, physical evidence, photos, witness
and victim statements.
We have dozens of pieces of digital evidence to review
and are continuing to review that information as well as
searching the area for more.
Since Sunday night, we have received more than 80 calls
to our SPD tip line, which is absolutely incredible.
If you know anything, please call our tip
line at 206-233-5000.
At this point, we have interviewed all survivors
and more survivors, and will continue to do
so in the upcoming days.
Our hearts go out to the survivors, the families of
victims, and our community.
This is nothing short of a tragedy.
We've had questions concerning camera footage.
We have no real-time crime center cameras in that area,
reviewing all available camera footage in the entire area.
This effort is being led by our homicide detectives as well as
our SPD digital forensics team.
We actually have a team of specialized investigators
that know how to access, find, download camera footage.
This is not the case for a lot of police departments, so I
wanted to highlight that work.
We're still working on identifying other potential
witnesses and continue to ask the community for support.
Again, if you know something and yet you have not had
an opportunity to talk to us, again, 206-233-5000.
You can remain anonymous, but due to the high levels of calls
that we have been receiving, If you leave a message,
someone will get back to you as soon as possible.
I also want to make a plea to an eighth victim,
potential victim, that showed up on Sunday.
This person checked himself in with a potential gunshot wound.
Due to legal barriers, we're unable to acquire the
identity of this person.
However, if you are that person, please reach out to us.
We would like to make sure, number one, that you're
okay, and number two, if you would like to speak to
an investigator, please reach out to us so we can
determine if you may have seen what had happened.
I want to be clear that we have two deceased and four
identified injured people who are not related to
the suspects in any way.
They are innocent of this senseless act of gun violence.
Right now, we're working with witnesses to identify those
who may have been involved.
While there has been information swirling that
we're looking for only one suspect, we're not saying that.
It's possible that there could be more, but due to conflating
statements, we're trying to determine who was involved.
Once we have that information, we will release that and that
suspect description or suspect's description to the public.
I do not believe that there is an immediate danger
to the public because this was a targeted incident.
There are families grieving.
They've lived through a total nightmare.
They deserve justice.
We want to hold those accountable and
we want to be responsible and responsive to our community.
As we discussed yesterday, we believe this is linked
to gang violence and we're working to determine the
groups involved and what their relationships may be.
Let me add that we're also working with our federal
partners, state and local partners as a part
of this investigation.
To the investigation.
We recovered 14 shell casings from two different caliber of
weapons during our processing.
On the scene that night, we recovered a Polymer80
9mm ghost gun with an extended magazine that
had a 33 round capacity.
And when it was recovered, there were 19 rounds in the magazine.
I'm going to repeat that.
On the scene that night, we recovered a Polymer80
9mm ghost gun with an extended magazine that
had a 33-round capacity.
When we processed that weapon, there were 19
rounds left in that weapon.
Those who may be a ghost gun is an untraceable weapon
that lacks a serial number.
They are typically homemade and they are illegal.
This was the firearm that was recovered from the
15-year-old suspect who was in court yesterday for assault
and weapons violations.
The second firearm was a Springfield Armory Model RO Compact 9mm
with a standard magazine.
There were seven rounds in the magazine, and we do
not believe this weapon was used in the incident.
A third firearm was recovered by patrol officers
yesterday during the food.
This was a Glock Model 45 9mm pistol with a
fully automatic switch.
It had an extended magazine with a 40-round
capacity and 21 rounds were left in the magazine.
I'm going to repeat that.
The third weapon was recovered by patrol officers during
the food vendor cleanup effort at the Seattle Center.
This was a Glock Model 45 9mm pistol with a
fully automatic switch.
It had an extended magazine with a 40-round capacity.
There were 21 rounds left in that weapon.
Our detectives believe that the Polymer80 ghost gun and
the Glock 45 were used in this act of violence,
but we are still waiting on ballistic
testing to be completed.
We're working with the Washington State Crime Lab
to expedite this testing.
This time, we believe that none of the firearms
reported were stolen, but we're still working
to do what we call a trace on that one weapon.
Again, we are relying on help from our state and our local
and our federal partners.
This is hard work to investigate.
Our investigation is far from over.
We know that the summer is not over.
We still have outside events.
We still have concerts, festivals, and big
group gatherings.
I want to assure you that we will be upstaffing
these events throughout the course of the summer.
As friends at the Seattle Center and our colleagues,
we are here to provide any help or support that you need.
And let me finish by saying this.
We know that our community is grieving.
People have a lot of questions, and we're doing
our best to answer those.
We know that the families of these victims, I
attended the vigil last night along with the mayor
and had an opportunity to see some family members
and experience an amazing community-led event.
And it was really, for me, it was truly an honor to
be there with the family.
and first responders who ran toward gunfire and was able to
disarm a 15-year-old with a very dangerous weapon without
a use of force should be complimented.
And so I want to thank our officers,
our first responders, our firefighters, our
paramedics who also ran to render aid to people,
which included a two-year-old that was shot.
I want to thank them for their work.
We need the community's help in resolving this
and making sure that all who are involved in this
are held accountable.
And we also need your help to make sure that if
you know of any existing or ongoing conflicts
as adults, that we as community members work hard
to resolve those conflicts to ensure that something like
this does not happen again.
I believe we can do that through the power of community.
So as you heard, automatic ghost guns were involved.
And I cannot stress enough that this is why we have
initiated a multi-pronged approach to fight gun violence.
There's not, you know, one thing that we can do that is
going to solve this problem.
We need to do many things.
We'll take some questions now.
Mayor, I think we just heard from the chief that
his struggles with solving
were not real-time cameras in this area of Seattle Center.
This speaks to what proponents of that whole
system have been asking for, which is more
cameras in this city.
Did your perspective change based on the inability
of the police department to solve this crime?
So, the police department is on solving this crime.
As the chief mentioned, we do have footage from
cameras at Seattle Center.
My understanding is the police department is also
reviewing footage from private businesses around Seattle Center
to see if there is relevant information there.
But in terms of the expansion of the program, which has been an
issue for you since the start of your mayoral administration,
what has changed based on what we have talked about
now over the last 48 hours?
So cameras, CCTV cameras at Seattle Center
have, to my knowledge, never been part of the
proposed expansion to the CCTV camera program.
And we are continuing to follow the course that I charted
out earlier this year, which is we are awaiting results
of security and privacy audit and an evaluation of
the pilot program is ongoing.
And there will be a public conversation and decisions
made on the basis of what we learned from those.
And again, why were there no alerts, text alerts sent out?
this is an issue that Bob Kettle now has said
was a valid question to be asked going forward.
The alert system, alert Seattle, did not tell anybody
the Seattle Center was closed.
What have you found out in the last 24 hours?
Yeah, no, I mean, that is a valid question, and we're going
to be working closely with SPD and with our Office of Emergency
Management moving forward to make sure that we're
using every possible avenue to get information out to
the public in the future.
-Jane, we have a quick question for the chief.
-We have new information now that --
that 5 hour delay.
We have new information coming in saying that between 7:45
and 8:00 p.m.
Sunday night that someone in your office
talked to the SPD leadership, saying that they could not
hold that press conference, and SPD leadership wanted to
actually hold it immediately, and they were told it was
because of dignitaries.
Did anyone in your office tell SPD leadership
that they could not hold that press conference
between 7.45 and 8 p.m.
Sunday night?
That is not my understanding, no.
Do you know if there's anyone else in your office
that are making these calls without your knowledge?
That is not my understanding, no.
So my understanding, which I shared with you yesterday,
is that, first of all, we had a lot of communication going
back and forth between my office and SPD and our state and
federal elected officials as we were trying to work together
on the response to this incident.
Hold on, hold on.
And like I said, at Seattle Center,
we had a scene of active investigation, really
looking for suspects.
And so my understanding is that we were told
that this was not, it was not helpful to have
me or other elected officials coming down to the scene
while that active search was going on.
And so we went back and forth and eventually landed
on an appropriate time to address the press and
to share information.
That is my understanding.
Is there any protocol right now that SPD has to clear
it with your office?
Is there some type of indirect order
or an official order from your office
where they are handcuffed and you can't go to
press conference?
I think what makes it difficult to believe is because
they have had significant training that we
have heard about.
They've paid tens of thousands of dollars to
be trained by consultants.
So they know exactly how to handle a situation like this.
They have the information.
They know when to put the information out.
They know exactly how to do it.
And they have certified, trained professional law enforcement
who are well able to handle this without your
attendance or anybody else.
So how does this happen?
I just my response to the other reporter.
Would you do this again?
Let's do James and then we'll do you.
Chief, quick question for the chief.
This gunshot victim that turned up to the hospital.
It's my understanding that the hospital is compelled
to notify the police when a gunshot victim comes in.
Did that not happen?
I learned about this after the person was released,
and so we cannot compel the hospital to give us information
on that person, so we were not able to speak with them.
I believe our detectives did try to speak with that person.
That did not happen, and so now we volunteer to call this person
if they indeed was injured there to come and speak with us.
If you know this person or you are listening to
this press conference and you know something,
please call that number.
I think it's important that we get every piece of information.
Again, it could be possible that it wasn't involved, but it
could be possible that it was.
we're trying to piece together a lot of moving
and different parts.
And so we want to make sure that we leave no stone unturned.
And so to answer that question, my appeal is
to what do we do forward?
Moving forward, if you are that person or you know that person
or you're willing to give us information, you
can do that anonymously.
This is an ongoing and a very complex investigation,
and every piece I think is very, very important.
So that's all I'm going to say.
follow up here quickly.
So are you saying that the
hospital isn't compelled?
No, I'm not saying that
they're not compelled.
I'm saying that our officers
were not able to, our detectives were not
able to give you further information a little bit
later if you contact our office as of what that
process looked like.
But I know that we would like
to talk to that person and we cannot compel the
hospital at this point to give out that information
because yeah we're still trying to determine suspect
description we have so many people who are calling
in with information what we try to do is to get
The commonalities in the fight, what they were
wearing age description, ethnicity if we can so
that we can give out proper information.
I wanted I'm not, I'm not certain
if the sergeant saw that or if that's a part of the
original description, but I can get you that information.
I know that you've looked at a lot of video
footage and you're still reviewing that, but you
know, it doesn't seem like there's been a lot of detail
in terms of suspect announced potential suspects.
Yeah, potential suspects.
Yeah, we want it.
We want it.
Yeah, not at this time,
but again, that's why we're having
these regularly as information.
As we can verify it.
Correct so that we can put out information
so that our public can help us.
You never know.
People often take videos, selfies.
You could about imagine and so if we do
get a very good detail description
that we can use then we will do that.
We also have body-worn cameras.
So if our officers had something on body-worn
cameras, we want to do this.
We want to get it right.
And this is very, very important.
I've done these investigations before throughout the
course of my career.
And sometimes that early, quick information may not
be accurate, as you know.
But at this stage of the investigation, we
need to take our time.
We need to do our due diligence.
and we need to make sure information that
can be actionable and that we can find
out if someone may be a person of interest or
a witness in this case.
Chief, can you address what happened yesterday
following the post?
I'm sorry.
And then my hand is up back here.
And then we'll come back over here.
Chief, you said yesterday I reported based on several
plans to be out of town during the month of August.
You said that reporting was inaccurate, and I've been
unable, unfortunately, to get your office to respond to me.
So what was inaccurate about that reporting?
I have not planned on being out of town the
entire month of August.
You said the entire month.
I reported the first time.
Yeah, yeah.
No, not at all.
Medical procedure on Friday.
If I'm good to go, I'll be in the office.
It's my usual cheerful and bubbly self.
But if not, I'll take all the time that I need to
make sure that I'm okay, if that's all right with you.
I've asked and answered.
Thank you, Chief.
What I wanted to ask you about is how does the department
affect gang activity with the holiday gang unit?
Well, we have our gun violence reduction unit.
They take the lead on most of those cases, as well
as our intelligence unit.
We do most of it during our two gun screening calls
that we do on Mondays and Thursdays where we're analyzing
where gun violence is.
Flare ups and making sure that we're monitoring people
who may be actively using weapons or even have warrants
to make sure that we can get those persons into custody.
But all of our officers, this is a full complement
of everything that we do with this particular agency.
And we always look to make sure that we can make changes.
For example, one of the changes is our community response group.
They're moving from patrol to investigations.
We did that maybe a couple of weeks ago as part of our
reorg to make sure that we're getting the support that we need
when we hear that a violent crime may involve a gang member.
I'm Dr. Jacqueline Bowles with the Dean Wellness
Center, one of your partners.
You have working in the evidence-based violence
intervention project.
We are part of the hospital-based part.
We are also part of the state's evidence-based group.
Are you aware we have not been paid?
We have been paid by the city since April.
But we have been working.
We have been working.
We have been receiving clients.
We have been receiving referrals.
We've been taking care of gunshot victims
and their families.
We have not stopped any.
But this office refuses to process invoices, refuses to pay
us under a reimbursable grant.
I have written your office, Joy Hollingsworth's
office, your office.
How many offices does it take and this is why we have a
problem we're trying to work
are you aware we have not been paid and I'm not the only agency
I am not aware of that but we will look into it thank you
all right this question is for the chief um chief Barnes can
Can you address what exactly happened yesterday that
following the press conference?
What was that all about?
Yeah, I wouldn't describe it as a heated exchange,
but that's okay.
Listen, I respect our media.
I respect what you do.
I consider you a big part of the community.
I wish I could do it, but I don't have a
face for television.
But let me say this.
I'm always passionate about what I do as a police
officer.I'm always passionate about what I do
as a community member, and sometimes that passion is in
full display, especially if someone is questioning my
work ethic or my integrity.
But I understand that your job is to ask tough questions,
and so I respect that.
I want you to know that, and that's for everyone in here.
You have a tough job, and I do understand that.
a two-year-old shot should evoke strong emotions in people.
And for me, I question, you know, what can we do better?
I spoke about that yesterday at the vigil.
I think some of you may have been there.
You know, for the last six years of my career,
I've been a police chief.
That means that every time someone is killed, I get a
phone call of what happens.
And my process, as I explained yesterday, is the same.
I listen.
I question.
sometimes get angry.
I wonder what could have been done, what
happened, what contributed to this loss of life.
And then we sit down, we roll
up our sleeves, we go to the drawing board and we
say, what can we do differently?
Blamed before moving our community response group over to
investigations to help aid in some of the apprehension
and detection of gun violence and making sure people
are held accountable.
And I take that very, very seriously.
But I respect the work that absolutely
everyone in here does.
-Do you want to just squash the discourse about you know, you not being in town enough
-Yeah, you know, part of being a leader
is being here, being visible, and being present.
You know, part of being a leader in a major city
is that sometimes I have obligations,
and I wanted to be at the conference
to support one of our community members
who was getting an award and one of our community
service officers that was also getting an award
from the National Organization of Law Enforcement Executives.
How often do you travel to Chicago?
Your wife and kids still live there.
I'd like to know how often on weekends you travel there
and who's paying for that.
Certainly I don't travel as often as I would like to.
I think any reports that I'm gone every weekend
are grossly misstated.
I don't have that kind of money.
I'm here in the neighborhood that I live in.
I love my community.
They love me.
They know me.
They see me all the time.
You know, don't love the rent that I'm paying, but,
you know, affordability is something that we're working on.
Is that right, Mayor?
So I feel good about being
here in Seattle.
I love this community.
Thank you.
I just wanted me to check in.
Do we have more information?
I do.
OK. See one here and one here.
OK. Start cutting it.
OK. Thank you.
Okay. Mayor, just really quickly, let's talk about this
delay. Now that people have had time to digest, it took so long
to get information.
What is your message to the citizens of
Seattle? We've got another large event coming up this weekend.
What are you going to do to make sure there's good communication
to people when they need it?
Yeah, totally.
And I mean, I think, as I've said before,
there's this tension between providing information fast
and making sure that it is accurate so that we're not
creating unnecessary confusion.
And that is part of what we've been dealing with here.
At the same time, we are absolutely
reviewing what has happened over the last 24 48 hours
and be making improvements as we go to make sure
that we are being as timely and communicative and
transparent as possible.
Do you hear this?
What would you want to say?
Do you really want to hear?
How do you feel about this?
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we are trying hard in a very
difficult and chaotic situation.
And if you've been through in the past, like our
police officers have, right, like things,
information flies around.
And it is just objectively challenging to be able to assess
in real time and kind of decide what is shareable and what is
what we should hold back on.
So this is, you know, this is a work in progress and
we will be continually.
Who fired the rounds that killed the innocent bystanders?
We do not.
For both of you, today you would say, again, that there's
no public safety threat.
Yesterday you were talking about investigators looking
at the threat of retaliation.
Can you help people understand how there may not be a threat
with the threat of retaliation?
How do you work with the people who may be targets
of that retaliation?
Yeah, I mean, I think the bottom line here is that
because we believe this was a targeted shooting,
we don't believe that there's anyone out there
who is, you know, wants to indiscriminately fire at people.
Right. At the same time, because we believe that this
was gang related violence, there is absolutely a
danger to involved in those relationships.
Right. And so that is why we are
working with our community partners, community
organizations that do this work to try to do
everything we can to prevent retaliation, to prevent
continuation of violence.
I mean, you know, so we have a number of organizations
that we work with and fund through the Human Services
Department that do that work.
and we can provide more detail about that if you want.
But yeah.
Okay, thank you everyone.