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Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, center, and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, left, attend the vigil for victims the day after a shooting at Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle food festival, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson<\/p>\n
With a backdrop of the Space Needle, candles are seen lighted during the vigil for victims the day after a shooting at Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle food festival, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson<\/p>\n
SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Seattle\u2019s police chief has resigned amid criticism of the city\u2019s response to a fatal shootout at a food festival last weekend, Mayor Katie Wilson said Thursday.<\/p>\n
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The announcement followed hours of speculation about whether Police Chief Shon Barnes would step down, as some of his supporters said he had rebuffed Wilson\u2019s request that he resign.<\/p>\n
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Wilson said she was appointing Deputy Chief Andre Sayles, a law enforcement veteran with more than two decades of experience, as interim chief.<\/p>\n
Barnes told The Seattle Times earlier Thursday that whether he remained as chief was \u201cup to the mayor.\u201d He said he was off for the day and spending time with family.<\/p>\n
In a written statement, the mayor said she was grateful for Barnes’ service. The statement included comments in which Barnes called it an honor to have served the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this transition gives the city and this department the opportunity to return full focus to what matters most, addressing youth gun violence and preventing more tragedies,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n
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Barnes was out of town at a law enforcement conference when gunfire erupted last weekend at the Bite of Seattle, an annual three-day festival that draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers. Three people, including one suspect, were killed, and four people were wounded. One of the injured was a 2-year-old boy.<\/p>\n
Dozens of officers were at the event, and at least one saw a 15-year-old suspect firing into a crowd and quickly persuaded him to surrender, according to court documents. Police are still searching for at least one other person.<\/p>\n
Both the Seattle Police Department and Wilson have faced criticism for slow and confusing communication in the shooting’s aftermath.<\/p>\n
After an initial social media post announcing that there had been a shooting with multiple victims, it took nearly five hours for police to provide any additional information to the public, 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.<\/p>\n
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Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis finally provided an update around 11 p.m. Sunday night during news conference that was also attended by the mayor, Gov. Bob Ferguson and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal.<\/p>\n
Barnes was the second Black police chief in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Several Black community organizations, including the Seattle NAACP and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, rallied to try to save his job Thursday. In an open letter to the mayor’s office, they credited him with improving relations between the department and the community, helping reduce gun violence and strengthening the department’s operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tragic fatal shooting at the Bite of Seattle was heartbreaking for our city, but Chief Barnes should not be made a scapegoat for the complex challenges of public safety,” the letter said, calling it \u201cthe wrong decision at the wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Civil rights lawyer James Bible was with a small group of Black leaders who met with Wilson early Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that she will take a step back and make a different decision for now and then create criteria for any future decisions,\u201d Bible said.<\/p>\n
Barnes was appointed by Seattle’s previous mayor, Bruce Harrell, in December 2024 after serving as chief of the Madison, Wisconsin, police department.<\/p>\n
When Wilson \u2014 a democratic socialist who once supported defunding police \u2014 won the mayor’s race last year, she kept Barnes on as chief. That was a signal to the city’s business establishment and community groups that she did not intend to take a radically different approach to public safety.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSeattle had been on a positive course on public safety with police hiring trending up and crime trending down, particularly in the downtown core,” Jon Scholes, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, said in an emailed statement. “It\u2019s imperative the next chief of police is able to maintain progress that\u2019s been made and instill confidence in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes faced some criticism for spending time in Chicago, where his family lives. Sgt. Patrick Michaud, a department spokesperson, said Thursday that Barnes has made four trips to Chicago this year and spent in total about 18 days traveling there. Barnes also has traveled to several police executive and recruitment conferences.<\/p>\n
Barnes was named as the chief of police in Seattle five days after he was thrust into the national spotlight because of a shooting at a religious school in Wisconsin. At the time, Harrell said Barnes had demonstrated \u201cimpressive leadership capabilities\u201d during an investigation into the shooting.<\/p>\n
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The resignation comes as Seattle heads into another big festival weekend. Seafair Weekend Festival 2026 \u2014 a boating event, air show and festival \u2014 starts Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, center, and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, left, attend the vigil for victims the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[138231,111965,138232,138236,138235,138237,23681,59373,138234,93849,87517,59371,59372,61262,82,84,83,16601,138230,138233],"class_list":["post-392748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-andre-sayles","tag-bob-ferguson","tag-bruce-harrell","tag-james-bible","tag-jon-scholes","tag-katie-wilson","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-patrick-michaud","tag-pramila-jayapal","tag-product-30119-ap-washington-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-festival-shooting-police-chief-space-needle","tag-tyrone-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}