Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes snapped at a reporter who questioned how often he is in the city, telling him “those reports are wrong” before a staffer stepped in to hold him back.
The Seattle Center shooting left three people dead and four others injured on Sunday evening at the Bite of Seattle annual food festival when as many as three shooters opened fire on each other, with innocent bystanders caught in the crosshairs.
The viral confrontation happened Monday morning.
South Seattle Emerald reporter Connor Nash asked Barnes whether reports that he had planned to remain out of town until mid-August were accurate.
“That is not accurate,” Barnes responded. When Nash asked when Barnes had originally planned to return, the chief turned around, walked back into the room and approached the reporter. “Let me tell you something,” Barnes said.
“I don’t have to tell you where I go. I had a medical procedure on Friday.” “I have been here working as hard as I can for this city from the day I got here. You got that?” Barnes added.
Nash pressed further.
“But there are reports that you’re not in town often.”
“The reports are wrong. Do you understand?” Barnes fired back as a city staffer repeatedly urged him, “Let’s go,” and pulled him from the room.
The chief defended his travel schedule Tuesday.
When asked separately how much time he spends in Chicago, Barnes said, “Certainly I don’t travel as often as I would like to.” “Any reports that I am gone every weekend are grossly misstated. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m here in Seattle. I love the neighborhood. I love my community, they love me,” he said.
Additionally,
Barnes, who was police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, before coming to Seattle, confirmed that his wife and children still live in Chicago. He said he does not get back to the city as much as he wants.
“I wish that I had a crystal ball and we could schedule gun violence, but we can’t,” Barnes said.
On Monday morning,
Barnes missed a Sunday night press conference on the shootings, flying back that night from Dallas to attend a second press conference on Monday morning.
Wilson addressed the delayed initial response Tuesday.
An update announcing a shooting, which was first reported around 6 p.m., was not posted by the mayor until 8:30 p.m. That post contained erroneous information about two suspects being arrested, when only one was in custody. A revised post was made an hour later. A press conference was then delayed twice, starting five hours after the shooting, at 11 p.m.
“My office put out a statement at 8:30 pm, which again included an initial inaccuracy. So again, this speaks to the tension between providing information early and providing it accurately,”
Wilson said.
Barnes said one reason the press conference was delayed was that police had information that a suspect had run into the IMAX theatre, and the search for that suspect ended about 15 minutes before the press conference.
Tuesday, Barnes downplayed the confrontation.
Barnes downplayed the incident, saying he “wouldn’t call it heated” before saying that he respects the media and the role they play in sharing information with the community.
“I consider you a big part of the community,” Barnes said Tuesday. “I understand that your job is to ask tough questions.”
“He’s passionate about his work as a police officer, which can sometimes be uncomfortable when the subject matter involves loss of life.” “Every time someone is killed, I get a phone call and a description of what happens,” he explained. “And my process is the same. I listen, I question, sometimes get angry.”
Meanwhile, a complaint was filed.
When the reporter pressed Barnes for information on absences from the city, the chief, caught on video, stood within inches of the reporter’s face, shouting, “Those reports are wrong,” without offering an explanation. A police staffer had to physically step between Barnes and the reporter to end the encounter.
In the viral moment Sunday evening,
authorities responded to reports of shots fired just after 6 p.m. at the Seattle Center.
Three people were killed, and four others were injured after three people exchanged gunfire at a Seattle Center during a large event on Sunday evening, according to Seattle first responders.
The three people who died were a 19-year-old man, a 44-year-old man, and a 56-year-old woman. Two of those victims died at the scene.
During a Monday afternoon news conference, Mayor Katie Wilson and Assistant Police Chief Nicole Powell said investigators now believe Junior Cee Niko Semo, 19, was one of at least two people who exchanged gunfire.
A 15-year-old boy remains in custody on suspicion of first-degree assault and firearms violations.
A third person who was killed in the shooting, identified as 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, is believed to be one of the suspects in the shooting.
The shooting occurred as thousands of people crowded the Seattle Center grounds for Bite of Seattle over the weekend, including an estimated 100,000 visitors daily.
Seattle’s Seafair Weekend Festival takes place next week.