Tens of thousands of people at Seattle Center went five hours without knowing whether a gunman was still at large.

On the evening of July 26, a shooting at the Bite of Seattle killed three and wounded four others, including a 2-year-old boy.

A new analysis of SPD radio traffic and dispatch logs by former Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess documents what officers on the ground knew and when, and raises pointed questions about why that information never reached the public.

Burgess, who served on the council from 2008 to 2017 and was a Seattle police officer before entering politics, published his findings in Post Alley on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

His central conclusion: police determined fairly quickly that the shooting was most likely a targeted event aimed at specific individuals, not a random mass attack. The public was not told for nearly five hours.

"The police knew fairly quickly that this shooting was most likely a targeted event aimed at specific individuals," Burgess wrote. "The public should have been told this immediately, and they should have been told that Seattle Center was closed and everyone needed to leave the grounds."

What the dispatch logs show

According to Burgess's review, a lieutenant at Seattle Center broadcast the first radio alert of gunfire. A citywide "help the officer" call followed, pulling officers from Northgate to Capitol Hill to Rainier Valley to West Seattle.

The 911 system buckled. Call volume surged sixfold in 15 minutes: from 16 calls before 6 p.m. to 95 calls between 6 and 6:15 p.m., according to City of Seattle CARE Department data Burgess cited.

Officers on scene arrested a 15-year-old armed with a gun within minutes. Radio traffic captured officers administering CPR to a victim and requesting a tourniquet for a small child's arm.

Yet SPD's only public communication between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. was a single social media post at 6:29 p.m. No AlertSeattle emergency notification was sent. No SPD blotter post went up until 1:08 a.m. the next day. The press conference, initially set for 9:45 p.m., did not begin until 10:50 p.m.

The "dignitaries" dispute

The reason for the delay remains contested. Detective Brian Pritchard, who led SPD's on-site public response, wrote in a July 28 email to superiors that "it was discussed during several team briefings on scene that we were waiting for dignitaries to arrive before proceeding with the briefing," as the Seattle Times first reported on July 30.

Mayor Katie Wilson and then-Police Chief Shon Barnes both denied anyone was asked to hold off.

Gov. Bob Ferguson and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who appeared at the late-night press conference, each said they were not notified until after 10 p.m. that a briefing would be held, according to a KOMO News timeline.

Wilson acknowledged the failure in a July 31 Instagram video, saying information should have gone out faster through social media, the emergency alert system, the SPD blotter or an off-site press conference.

Staffing and command gaps

Police Chief Barnes was in Dallas at a Black Law Enforcement Association conference when the shooting occurred. SPD staffing at the Bite of Seattle was 39 personnel that day, down from 50 in 2025, according to Seattle Times reporting. Total weekend staffing dropped from 166 to 121 while attendance held steady at roughly 280,000.

Former SPD Chief and King County Sheriff Sue Rahr told KOMO News on Aug. 18 that the delay was inexcusable: "I just can't imagine not doing a public safety briefing in that first hour … That was a big communications failure."

Barnes resigned July 31.

What comes next

Burgess poses three questions he says remain unanswered: Why didn't police hold their typical infield media briefing? Who made the decision to skip it? And what role did elected leaders or their staff play?

The city's Office of Inspector General is conducting an independent review ordered by Wilson, with a final report expected by mid-December.

Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the Public Safety Committee and was physically present at Seattle Center the night of the shooting, has scheduled a Sept. 22 hearing at which Interim Chief Andre Sayles, Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis and Pritchard are expected to testify.

"We can't rely on a wish strategy or hope strategy," Kettle told KOMO News on Aug. 21. "This isn't rocket science, but we don't have a plan."