- Three are dead and four are recovering from gunshot wounds after a fatal shooting at Bite of Seattle.
- Bite of Seattle is one of Seattle’s most iconic events and draws more than 350,000 attendees.
- Sunday’s incident is the third major incident of gun violence in Seattle within a few days.
- Leaders called for increased resources to combat gun violence.
- The investigation remains ongoing as police search for second suspect.
Three are dead and several more are recovering from gunshot wounds, including a 2-year-old boy, after a fatal shooting at a crowded food festival in Seattle on Sunday.
Authorities believe there were two people shooting at each other at the event. Police have arrested one suspect, identified as a 15-year-old, who surrendered at the scene, and are actively looking for another shooter.
“What happened at the Seattle Center today was an act of horrific violence,” Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said in a statement following the shooting. “Impacted families are living through the worst moment of their lives, and an entire community is trying to understand how a gathering built around culture, connection, and joy ended in gunfire.”
The shooting started at 6:00pm PDT during Bite of Seattle, an annual three-day festival that hosts more than 350,000 attendees, according to the festival’s website.
“Bite of Seattle is about as iconic an event as we have in the city of Seattle,” said Washington Governor Bob Ferguson in a press conference following the incident. “It is where our community comes together and enjoys our city and being together, and any shooting like this is senseless.”
Of the three people who died, two died at the scene and a third died later in a hospital, authorities said. The four injured victims are all in stable condition following hospitalization.
“Right now this is an all-hands-on-deck response,” Wilson said in a press conference Monday.
No motive has been identified at this time.
Sunday’s events add lead to debate on law enforcement and surveillance in Seattle
Sunday’s shooting is the third major incident of gun violence in Seattle within a few days, following incidents on Thursday and Friday, Wilson noted in a press conference on Monday.
“We have far too much gun violence in this city and in this country,” Wilson said. “We have a lot of work to do as a city and as a country to make this better.”
Wilson recently paused the installation and use of surveillance cameras in certain areas in the city.
“There’s no doubt that these cameras make it easier to solve crimes, including serious ones like homicides,” Wilson said at the time. “But also: Cameras are not the one key to making our neighborhoods safe.”
On Sunday, Tyrone Davis, acting police chief of the Seattle Police Department when the event occurred, said there were no surveillance cameras in the immediate area where the shooting took place.
But on Monday, Wilson said the Seattle Center does have cameras and authorities are in the process of pulling footage to see if the cameras captured anything relevant to the case.
In a press conference on Sunday following the incident, Gov. Ferguson noted the need for increased law enforcement in the area, an issue he said he has pushed for since his first year as governor when he put a $100 million grant program in the state budget for local jurisdictions to get more law enforcement officers.
“We rely on our first responders at a time like this to keep our community safe and that’s why I support that,” Ferguson said.
Davis said the event will prompt discussions on how to secure the Bite of Seattle in the future.
“Whenever we have a large incident like this and it’s a serious tragedy, we always try to figure out how we can do things better,” Davis said. “There will be after action. We will work together with our city partners and all the stakeholders involved, because when we have the Bite of Seattle next year, we want it to be a safe event.”
Davis said there is no outstanding threat to the community and more information will be available as the investigation continues.