Text messages obtained by KIRO 7 cast light on the interactions between top officials in Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s office and Seattle’s police department in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Seattle Center in July.
The messages reveal internal debates over messaging, when leaders acknowledged that communications had broken down, and provide some insight into why it took over four hours for officials to address the public.
According to messages sent and received by Mayor Katie Wilson and her team, the mayor became aware of the shooting shortly after shots were first fired around 6 pm on Sunday, July 27.
The messages also show Shon Barnes, who was at the time Chief of the SPD, but has since been asked to step down from his role, was involved in the response to the shooting minutes after shots were fired.
Most of the text messages between Mayor Katie Wilson and her staff took place in group chats on both iMessage and Microsoft Teams. Both chats primarily focused on how and when the mayor would address the public.
Some key takeaways KIRO 7 is finding as it reviews hundreds of messages:
- Seattle Center was declared “contained” almost three hours before leaders addressed the public
- Alert Seattle, the city’s official emergency communications system, was not activated. According to one official in the mayor’s office, this was because they could not agree on whose responsibility it was to activate it, saying “it was everyone’s job and no one’s job”.
- Officials in the mayor’s office were frustrated at the slow response from SPD
- The mayor’s office knew the official victim count over an hour before that information was released to the public. KIRO 7 learned it had heard from sources at the time of the shooting but was only able to confirm the information when Seattle Fire posted about it on X.com shortly after 8 pm that night.
This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the night as we learn more.
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