SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson denied that her staff had anything to do with delays to the Sunday night press conference around the Seattle Center mass shooting, but said she would review how the process unfolded during a press briefing Monday.
“We are absolutely reviewing what has happened over the last 24-48 hours. We are going to be making improvements as we go to make sure that we are being as timely and communicative and transparent as possible,” Wilson said.
The statement from Wilson, the first acknowledgment of the scale of the shooting by the entire city of Seattle, came more than two and a half hours after the first report of the shooting.
The press conference, delayed several times as KIRO7 was told “dignitaries” needed to arrive, did not start until 11--- five hours after the press conference.
“We are trying hard in a very difficult and chaotic situation and if you’ve been through situations like this 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,” Wilson said.
Seattle Police are still looking for a potential fifth victim as of Tuesday.
A 27-year-old man went to UW Montlake Hospital with a “graze” wound. Hospitals are required to report gun shot victims, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Detectives tried to contact the person, but were not able to before the person was discharged, so now medical privacy laws are standing between police and that person’s identity.
“I believe our detectives did try to speak to that person, but that did not happen and so now we voluntarily need that person, if they indeed were injured there, to come and with us,” Barnes said.
Barnes is asking that person, or anyone who knows him, to come forward.