Seattle's police chief is out, days after a chaotic response to a mass shooting at one of the city's biggest summer events. Shon Barnes resigned Thursday, after hours of speculation that Mayor Katie Wilson had given him a choice: Step down or be fired. The city has faced intense criticism over a five-hour information gap Sunday night after the shooting at Seattle Center's Bite of Seattle that left three people dead, the Seattle Times reports. The silence left residents and visitors in the dark about whether an active shooter was still at large. Deputy Chief Andre Sayles will serve as interim chief.
Barnes, who was attending a law-enforcement conference in Dallas at the time of the shooting, had already faced questions about how often he was out of town. In a statement, he said he hoped the transition will now refocus the city on youth gun violence. Wilson praised the chief's service publicly while faulting police leadership for the communication breakdown. Business leaders and prominent Black clergy had urged her to keep Barnes, pointing to declining violent crime and the significance of having a Black chief. "At a time when our police department needs stability, consistency, and strong leadership, this decision takes us in the wrong direction," one councilmember said in a statement, per KING.
After an initial social media post announcing that there had been a shooting Sunday with multiple victims, it took nearly five hours for police to provide additional information to the public, per the AP, including whether there was any ongoing threat. In the meantime, Wilson announced that two people had been taken into custody, a statement she later retracted. Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis finally provided an update around 11pm.
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