The police chief in Seattle resigned under pressure on Thursday after days of criticism over the department’s handling of a shooting that killed three people at a food festival near the Space Needle.
Mayor Katie Wilson announced the resignation of the chief, Shon Barnes, four days after the attack, which also wounded four people. The shooting quickly became a political test for a new mayor, one of the country’s highest-profile democratic socialists.
Critics complained that the police department released information too slowly about the shooting on Sunday night, adding to the confusion and fear of people sheltering in place at the Bite of Seattle food festival, and that the department got some details wrong in initial reports. The department has defended its handling of the shooting and said that its focus, from the start, has been on the investigation and public safety.
“Our officers ran toward gunfire,” Chief Barnes said earlier in the week. “It’s an ongoing investigation, and sometimes information evolves, but that immediate response does not.”
Mayor Wilson announced the chief’s resignation in a news release.
“My vision for public safety in this city is grounded in transparency, trust, and genuine collaboration with the community,” she said in the release. “Keeping people safe requires trust, and trust requires that this department shows up in neighborhoods every day, builds relationships with residents, community organizations, and small businesses, and is accountable to the people it serves.”
Her decision prompted criticism from members of the Seattle City Council even before it was announced. Bob Kettle, the chairman of the council’s public safety committee, noted that relations between the first-year mayor and the more moderate council were “strained” before Mr. Barnes’ resignation.
“Now it’s further strained,” he said. “Chief Barnes showed up here on day one to work for Seattle. He was making a difference.”
Mr. Barnes came to Seattle in 2025 after leading the police force in Madison, Wis. He inherited a department struggling with staffing shortages, low morale and lingering distrust after the 2020 protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
He replaced Chief Adrian Diaz, who then-Mayor Bruce Harrell removed after an independent investigation concluded that he had concealed a romantic relationship with a subordinate and had misled investigators.
Civil rights leaders and downtown business leaders welcomed the selection of Mr. Barnes, and city officials accepted an unusual arrangement that allowed the new chief to rent an apartment in Seattle while his wife and children remained in Chicago. The Madison city government had agreed to the same arrangement with Mr. Barnes, who had spent more than two decades with the Greensboro, N.C., police department before moving to Wisconsin.
After Ms. Wilson defeated Mr. Harrell last year, she considered replacing Mr. Barnes but decided to keep him, along with the city’s other public safety leaders. The mayor, a newcomer to city government, may have been reluctant to dismiss a police chief less than a year into the job and with the World Cup just months away.
Six World Cup matches in Seattle were regarded as a success, drawing more than 400,000 spectators and helping revive downtown and Pioneer Square. Across King County, gun violence has fallen from its post-pandemic peak, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and Seattle police statistics show overall crime has continued to decline.
Even so, a recent series of high-profile shootings has fueled complaints that city leaders have failed to get a handle on violence in several neighborhoods. In April, gunfire outside a community center southeast of downtown interrupted Ms. Wilson’s announcement of new spending on meals and child care. Multiple bullets struck a building about 50 yards from the mayor, community leaders and reporters. Ms. Wilson’s young daughter was at the event and was rushed to safety.
Much of the violence has come near Aurora Avenue, a busy north-south corridor where drive-by shootings, open-air drug markets and prostitution have long challenged city leaders. Ms. Wilson has expanded the use of security cameras, but frustrated residents have erected homemade barricades to keep traffic out and the crime they believe accompanies it.
The food festival attack appears to have convinced Ms. Wilson she could not work with Mr. Barnes.
Seattle police warned people to avoid the Seattle Center area shortly after the shooting at 6 p.m. Sunday. They did not provide details to the public, including thousands of people caught in the tourist hub when the shooting began, for another five hours. A police spokesman told reporters that a news conference was delayed while the police waited for “dignitaries” — the mayor, Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington and a member of Congress — to attend. The mayor’s office initially announced that two suspects were in custody before correcting the statement.
Mr. Barnes, who was attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives conference in Dallas at the time, made statements the next morning that proved to be inaccurate or incomplete.
At a tense Monday news conference, the chief bristled at questions about his whereabouts Sunday and the fact that his family lives in Chicago. “I wish I had a crystal ball and we could schedule gun violence,” he said. “But we can’t.”
Mr. Barnes’s departure offers Ms. Wilson a chance to install a police chief more closely aligned with her own vision for public safety. It also comes after weeks of upheaval inside City Hall, including the departures of her chief of staff and communications director, which has reinforced criticism that her administration has struggled to find its footing.
Before Chief Barnes resigned, leaders in Seattle’s Black community rallied on Thursday morning in an effort to save Mr. Barnes’ job. Business groups and City Council members put out statements of support for Mr. Barnes and questioned the wisdom of making such a weighty decision in the middle of a homicide investigation.
Maritza Rivera, a council member, described the dismissal as an “impulsive and reckless decision” that illustrated the mayor’s “lack of experience and her incompetence.”
James Bible, a civil rights attorney who has sued the city over police use of force, said he was baffled by the decision. “It feels like they just, under this chief, started to get a handle on the misconduct issue that seemed ever-present,” he said. “Unless there is something the rest of us don’t know, this is so confusing.”
Investigators were still searching for other suspects in the shootings on Sunday. Investigators have said they believe two rival gangs were involved, and that at least four weapons were fired.
