New Bite of Seattle texts add to calls for Katie Wilson to resign

More than six weeks after the deadly Bite of Seattle shooting, Seattle residents still do not have a clear account of what happened inside City Hall that night.

Instead, the latest release of internal communications has added another round of questions.

In a classic Friday-afternoon-before-a-long-weekend data dump, Mayor Katie Wilson’s office released hundreds of texts and Microsoft Teams messages covering the hours after the July 26 shooting that killed three people and wounded four others. The mayor’s office said it released the records voluntarily in the interest of transparency. But it also acknowledged that the release did not include every text or Teams message from the period.

The overarching impression from the records is difficult to miss: officials were struggling to determine who should communicate, what information should be released, whether the mayor should go to Seattle Center, and how the mayor’s office and Seattle Police Department were supposed to coordinate with one another. The Seattle Times editorial board reached a similar conclusion, writing that from the records it was “difficult to ascertain who is in charge.” 

That is especially troubling because the records show the mayor’s staff knew significant details relatively early. Within about 20 minutes, staff were discussing multiple victims and what they were describing internally as a mass shooting. Yet the public waited hours for a substantive briefing, while the mayor’s office eventually issued a statement incorrectly saying two suspects were in custody. 

The texts also make the already-confusing story about the delayed press conference even more complicated.

Reporters were told that night that officials were waiting for “dignitaries.” Wilson later said it was not her understanding that anyone in her office had told police to wait for dignitaries. But the newly released messages show that when SPD was preparing a 9:45 p.m. briefing, Wilson’s public safety director, Alison Holcomb, contacted police and wrote, “Mayor’s on her way. Please wait for her.” The briefing ultimately began around 11 p.m. 

That does not prove Wilson was the only “dignitary” officials were waiting for. But it does put the mayor herself directly into at least one decision to postpone a planned briefing. Six weeks later, the city still has not provided a definitive explanation for the full delay. 

Former Police Chief Shon Barnes has added another contradiction. Barnes, who was out of state during the shooting and whom Wilson asked to resign four days later, told KOMO he did not order officials to hold back information and does not know who did. Interim Chief Andre Sayles has likewise cautioned that the mayor’s records should not be viewed as the complete account of what happened.

And more than six weeks later, basic questions remain about both public alerts and the criminal investigation. The released texts show Wilson’s team trying to determine how AlertSeattle worked and whose responsibility it was, while the investigation into the killings remains unresolved. When Sayles was pressed in August about another potential person involved, the most specific description he would give was someone wearing a “blue shirt”; more recently, police have said they are examining two persons of interest, but no one has been arrested for the three killings.

Meanwhile, the violence has continued across Seattle: three people were killed and four others wounded in three separate shootings in and around Belltown over Labor Day weekend, with no arrests announced in any of the cases.

And then there is perhaps the biggest question raised by Friday’s release: What is in the messages we still have not seen?

The mayor’s office has confirmed that Friday’s disclosure was incomplete. Sayles has said he wants the full record before conclusions are drawn, specifically warning against releasing information only to discover later that “three or four people’s text messages” were missing. SPD says it expects to release its own internal communications from the shooting response. 

Seattle is still left with more questions than answers. The communications breakdown has no settled explanation. The newly released records reveal confusion within the mayor’s team over basic crisis communications. The police chief Wilson removed says he was not responsible for withholding information. Additional records remain undisclosed. And most importantly, no one has been arrested for the three killings. 

The latest disclosures reinforce the conclusion behind its call for Wilson to step down: after six weeks of contradictory explanations, unresolved questions, and an unsolved triple homicide, Wilson has not demonstrated the crisis leadership the organization believes Seattle residents should expect from their mayor.

The reality is now too obvious to ignore: Katie Wilson needs to resign as Mayor of Seattle.

Change Washington has created a petition calling for exactly that. Supporters of that position can review the petition, add their names, and find information about the campaign here.

While this is not a recall and thus is not legally binding, this petition is an important tool for Seattle residents and Washingtonians across the state to show that this leadership, or lack thereof, is not tolerable for our state’s largest city.

We deserve a complete accounting of what happened that night, who made the decisions that left the public without critical information for hours, and what city leaders are doing to ensure the same failures are not repeated.