SEATTLE — A deadly gang-related shooting involving ghost guns raises new questions about the Seattle Police Department’s ability to investigate such crimes without a unit strictly dedicated to gang violence.
Three people were killed, and at least four others were wounded during a mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival on Sunday at Seattle Center. Authorities said a 15-year-old suspect is in custody. Police also said the 19-year-old who died in the shooting was a suspect, and that investigators are still tracking down at least one other person and possibly others.
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In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Seattle police stopped short of calling it gang-related.
“The problem of gun violence is worsened by small groups,” Police Chief Shon Barnes said during a news conference Monday. “We have small groups that appear to be at odds with each other, and in our city 0.01% of the population is connected to 52% of our shootings.”
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By Tuesday, Barnes was more direct.
“We believe this is linked to gang violence, and we are working to determine the groups involved and what their relationships may be,” Barnes said.
The evolving assessment has renewed attention on how Seattle investigates gang violence after eliminating its dedicated gang unit in 2020.
Today, those investigations are led primarily by the department’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit, with support from the intelligence unit and other specialized investigative teams rather than a standalone gang squad.
“We have our Gun Violence Reduction Unit,” Barnes said. “They take the lead on most of those cases, as well as our intelligence unit.”
Barnes said the department analyzes gun violence trends twice a week, reviewing emerging conflicts, identifying people believed to be carrying firearms or wanted on warrants, and looking for signs of escalating violence. He also said the department recently moved its Community Response Group from patrol into investigations to strengthen its response to gun violence and gang-related crime.
“I think they are a little more effective. There’s more of a collaborative partnership with community organizations in the way we built it out,” said Dominique Davis, founder and CEO of Community Passageways, which works with high-risk youth to prevent violence.
Davis said the former gang unit may have made more arrests but placed less emphasis on preventing gang violence in the community. He regularly works with Paul Patu, co-executive director of Urban Family, in some of Seattle’s most challenged neighborhoods.
“It’s not an either/or proposition. It’s an expanded service structure,” Patu said of Seattle police’s revised approach to gang investigations. “Where you see the models working well across the country, it’s because there is a strong relationship between law enforcement and community violence intervention.”
Still, the Seattle Center shooting has prompted questions about whether detectives balancing multiple responsibilities can devote the sustained attention traditionally associated with gang investigations.
Seattle’s former gang unit included more than a dozen officers and detectives whose work extended beyond solving shootings. Investigators developed long-term intelligence on gang rivalries and territories, tracked suspects over time, analyzed digital and physical evidence, coordinated with regional prosecutors and worked proactively to prevent retaliatory attacks before they occurred.
Several police officers and crime scene investigators returned to Seattle Center on July 28, 2026, after a shooting at the Bite of Seattle killed 3 people and hurt at least 4 others on Sunday, July 26, 2026. (KOMO)
Gang investigations are often especially challenging because victims and witnesses may refuse to cooperate out of fear of retaliation or because of gang affiliations. That makes long-term relationships, intelligence gathering and institutional knowledge particularly valuable.
With those responsibilities now folded into the broader Gun Violence Reduction Unit, it remains unclear how much proactive gang-focused enforcement and prevention work occurs alongside the unit’s other violent crime investigations.
City leaders say they are expanding resources following Sunday’s shooting.
Mayor Katie Wilson announced the city is bringing in outside expertise on gun violence reduction and youth violence prevention to strengthen Seattle’s response.
“We are bringing in an expert in gun violence reduction, including youth violence prevention, who will partner with our city staff and our community-based partners to strengthen our coordination and accountability across the existing bodies of work,” Wilson said.
The city also plans to work with national organizations, including the National Network for Safe Communities, Cure Violence Global, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform and Cities United, to strengthen Seattle’s violence reduction strategy.
Beyond the city, King County’s Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention coordinates prevention and intervention efforts across the county, working with communities most affected by gun violence while expanding violence prevention and recovery services.
Regional law enforcement agencies also collaborate through groups such as the Sound Regional Violent Crime Task Force, which targets repeat violent offenders and assists with major investigations.
As detectives continue searching for additional people believed to have been involved in Sunday’s shooting, Barnes said the department is preparing for the possibility of more violence during the busy summer event season.
“We know that the summer is not over,” Barnes said. “We still have outdoor events. We still have concerts, festivals and large gatherings. I want to assure you that we will be increasing staffing at those events.”
