On July 26, gunfire erupted at Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle festival around 6 p.m. Other than a brief initial statement made by Mayor Katie Wilson’s office at 8:30 p.m., no information about potential ongoing threats or whether the area was secured was communicated to the public for nearly 5 hours. The city government provided an embarrassingly unorganized response to the tragedy, and Seattle residents are rightfully questioning the effectiveness of Wilson’s leadership after being kept in the dark.
The mass shooting killed three individuals and injured several others. Following the tragedy, the first press conference started at 10:50 p.m. As the press arrived at the scene hours earlier, Seattle Police Detective Brian Pritchard told reporters that the briefing was delayed because the Mayor’s office was waiting for “dignitaries” — referring to Rep. Pramilla Jayapal and Gov. Bob Ferguson — to arrive. Sources and officials have given mixed justifications as to why the press conference was delayed, and an important question remains: Were politicians, including our city officials, delaying critical safety information for the sake of public appearances and photo-ops?
Communications from Gov. Ferguson and Rep. Jayapal’s offices revealed that neither official was notified of a press conference until 10:10 p.m. A text message sent at 10:20 p.m. confirmed that Ferguson was on his way to the conference, indicating that the hours-long delay in releasing public safety information was not caused by his arrival time…