It was going to be a simple summer day on Sunday evening at Seattle Center. The city’s annual food festival, Bite of Seattle, had drawn thousands of people. It was the kind of event where kids run between vendor tents and parents carry paper cups of lemonade. The Space Needle loomed over the crowd like a permanent fixture of something good and familiar. Sixteen shots were fired on the northwest side of The Armory at 6:01 p.m. That familiar scene changed into something else in an instant.
There are three dead. Two men, one 19 years old and the other 44 years old, were died at the scene. An incredibly sick 56-year-old woman was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, but she died later that same night. Four others were taken to nearby hospitals. One of them is a 2-year-old boy who is still at Harborview in stable condition. A man who was 27 years old and had been shot came to UW Medical Center, but investigators were still trying to figure out what role he played in the crime before they could officially count him as a victim.
Police think it started with at least two people shooting at each other in the middle of a busy public festival. That’s important information because it means the three people who died may not have been involved in the fight that broke out nearby. When he spoke to the press, Acting Police Chief Tyrone Davis was careful about what he said, but it was easy to see what he meant. “Officers performed emergency aid to the wounded until Seattle Fire Department was on scene,” he said. Seven people were shot during a fight that they almost certainly didn’t see coming.
The shooting has led to the arrest of a 15-year-old boy. As of Monday, the second suspect was still on the run. Now, the police say there may have been at least three people involved. This information was made public almost 17 hours later than planned, and it’s already raising questions about how the department handled early communication. Still, it’s not clear if any of the people who died could have been the shooter. While Chief Shon Barnes agreed that it was possible, he said that would have to be looked into first. In the days after a tragedy like this, these kinds of loose ends tend to make families the most angry.
People who saw what happened said the same things that people always say at these times: first, they were shocked, and then they were scared. A local station talked to Nick Bate, who said at first he thought the loud cracks were fireworks. At the festival, one vendor said he heard several shots at once and saw parents grab their kids and run away. He also heard kids crying. Videos going around the internet show large groups of people jumping over fences and running toward exits. Some people sought refuge inside the Space Needle’s lobby, crouching behind pillars and display shelves while police swarmed the grounds outside.
Chief of Police in Seattle Katie Wilson said it was a “unbelievable tragedy and a horrible act of violence.” In addition, she said something more pointed than what police usually say after a shooting: this was the third major shooting in Seattle in just one week. That number has weight that is hard to explain away with a single policy argument. Governor Bob Ferguson of Washington sent the State Patrol SWAT to help and sent his condolences. Monday morning, the flag on top of the Space Needle flew at half-staff. The roof was still shaped like a football from Seattle’s role as a 2026 FIFA World Cup host city. It was a strange sight to see happiness and sadness sharing the same structure.
On Monday, the Pacific Science Center at the south end of Seattle Center closed. Automatic refunds were sent out. The investigation could last for days or even weeks. At least one suspect has not been caught yet and has not been identified. The two-year-old boy is in a hospital bed. Families of three people who went to a food festival on a Sunday afternoon and never came back are making plans for them somewhere in this city.
It’s hard not to think about how normal the things those three people were doing when they were killed were for a moment. That’s what makes things like the shooting in Seattle more than just numbers. A summer evening. Food vendors in the area. A well-known spot in the background. Then shots were fired.
