That was one of three firearms police have now accounted for. A Springfield 9mm was also recovered, though Barnes said investigators do not believe it was fired. The third weapon surfaced during cleanup on Monday, hours after the festival grounds had emptied, and it is the one that reframes the scale of what happened. Officers found a Glock pistol equipped with an automatic switch and a 40 round extended magazine, with 21 rounds remaining. A switch is an illegal aftermarket device that converts a semiautomatic handgun into a fully automatic one. Police believe that gun and the ghost gun were both fired.
Fourteen shell casings were recovered from the scene, and Barnes said they came from weapons of two different calibers. What police cannot yet say is who fired the rounds that killed three people. Asked directly at the Tuesday press conference whether the department knows, Barnes answered, “We do not.”
The Bite of Seattle shooting began around 6 p.m. Sunday at Seattle Center, where the annual food festival had drawn hundreds of thousands of people across the weekend. The Space Needle sits directly on the grounds. A livestream from one of the vendors caught the moment the gunfire started, with the camera still rolling as people dropped to the ground and ran. Attendees knocked down a section of fencing trying to get out. Accounts of how many shots were fired ranged widely, with some witnesses describing seven or eight and another saying he heard more than two dozen from near a stage where a band was playing.
Three people were killed. Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba was 44. Ashley Whitehead was 56. Junior Cee Niko Semo was 19, and investigators believe he was one of the shooters, not a bystander. He died at the scene. Five surviving victims, among them a 2-year-old boy, were treated and released. Police are still trying to identify an additional person who arrived at UW Medicine with a gunshot wound and could not be identified by staff, and they have asked that person or anyone who knows them to come forward.
The 15-year-old surrendered at the scene and was booked into the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center on investigation of firearms violations and first degree assault. A judge ordered him held in juvenile detention. Baller Alert is not naming him because he is a minor and no charging decision has been made. That decision is the next real development in the case. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was expected to receive the case file from Seattle police on Wednesday, and only then will prosecutors determine what charges to bring and whether the case stays in juvenile court.
It is worth being precise about what he is currently held on, because much of the coverage has blurred it. Nobody has been formally arrested for investigation of homicide in connection with the Bite of Seattle shooting. Barnes said so plainly. The firearms and assault allegations are what the detention is built on right now.
Court documents filed in juvenile court describe at least three people exchanging gunfire in the middle of the crowd, the 15-year-old, an acquaintance who died at the scene, and at least one other suspect who has not been identified. That is a revision of what authorities said initially, which was that they believed two people were involved. Mayor Katie Wilson and Assistant Chief Nicole Powell said on Monday that investigators believe the shooting was gang related, and detectives are still working to locate the third shooter. The Youth Peace and Justice Foundation has offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest.
