‘Of course there is’: Former King County sheriff says it’s obvious a Bite of Seattle shooting suspect remains at large

One suspect was killed at the scene, a teenager is in custody, and former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr said it doesn’t take a news conference to connect the dots on whether a third suspect in the Bite of Seattle gang-related mass shooting is still out there. She said the real question isn’t whether the suspect exists, but what the city is doing about the systemic failures that fuel gun violence in the first place.

“I think the public is aware that there was more than one suspect, and I think the public is aware that not all the suspects have been arrested, so the question of is there a killer on the loose, just by the process of deduction? Yes, of course there is,” Rahr said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “But what is the public going to be able to do about that at this moment? That’s what we need to think about.”

Interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles wouldn’t give a straight answer when Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka asked point-blank whether a killer remains free.

During the council hearing, Saka pressed Sayles with a blunt question: “Is there a killer on the loose? Yes or no?” Sayles said he couldn’t answer definitively, citing active warrants and surveillance video still being reviewed.

Rahr declined to second-guess the interim chief, saying he’s in “an impossible position” and that police must be careful about what they disclose while trying to apprehend a suspect.

Communication growing pains within SPD

Rahr, who served as King County Sheriff from 2005 to 2012, led the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, and served as Seattle’s interim police chief in 2024, said the city’s challenges right now are largely the product of a new administration finding its footing, not a fundamental disagreement over the value of public safety.

“We are in the process of onboarding a brand new mayor who has a brand new team,” she said. “A transition happening at the Seattle Police Department. What makes my heart ache is that I know from my inside experience at SPD, there’s a lot of good policing going on that is not being shared with the public.”

KIRO host Gee Scott suggested the real problem is a philosophical gap between the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the mayor’s office, saying SPD puts public safety first and the mayor’s office does not. Rahr pushed back gently.

“To be honest, Gee, I don’t know what the mayor’s philosophy is on public safety. I’ve never spoken with her,” she said. “What I do know is it 100% is the primary focus for the police department, as it should be.”

Rahr acknowledged communication breakdowns are real but cautioned against reading too much into them during a transition.

“Those practices have to be built, and people need to learn what their job is,” she said. “I think we need to recognize the transition we’re going through and give some folks the opportunity to learn and get better.”

Cameras are a ‘sidetrack’ — focus on prevention

The conversation turned to surveillance cameras, a flashpoint in Seattle politics after it emerged that CCTV cameras near the Bite of Seattle shooting site were not activated. Rahr, however, steered the discussion toward what she sees as the bigger issue.

“We get off on a sidetrack debating about cameras, and we are missing the bigger point,” she said. “What are we doing to prevent crime? We’re debating about how do we catch the bad guys, but we will create more benefit for our community if we focus on what we need to do to improve the conditions that create young people getting involved in gun violence.”

Rahr pointed to Flock cameras, automated license plate readers that enable near-total vehicle surveillance, as an example of the tension between law enforcement utility and civil liberties.

“It’s beautiful if you are a cop or a detective trying to apprehend a suspect. Not so beautiful if you value your privacy and your freedom,” she said. “Cameras are here; they’re everywhere, all the time. It’s just a debate about who has access, how quickly they have access, and how we aggregate the data.”

‘Sheer insanity’: Rahr calls out juvenile gun possession policies

Rahr saved her sharpest criticism for what she described as a broken approach to juvenile gun violence. She said Washington’s criminal justice system effectively allows up to five convictions for juvenile firearm possession before a 30-day detention is imposed.

“That is sheer insanity, in my opinion,” she said. “Now, I’m not saying the answer is lock the kid up until he’s 18. I’m saying at that point we should have an all-hands-on-deck intervention. What’s happening in the family? Get a case manager. Figure out what got this kid into that type of behavior.”

She pointed to the DADS program, Divine Alternatives for Dads Services, as an example of the kind of reentry work that addresses the root problem, helping fathers navigate the barriers of post-incarceration life: getting a driver’s license, finding a job, retaining custody of their children.

“We have a system that keeps young people trapped once they’ve been convicted of a crime,” she said. “We ignore the impact that the system has that perpetuates generational crime.”

Rahr added that the tension between punishment and rehabilitation has left a vacuum.

“We can’t just say, ‘Well, punishment doesn’t work, so we’re going to do nothing,'” she said. “That’s just as bad.”

A bold decision, poorly handled

On the forced resignation of Police Chief Shon Barnes, who was out of state at a law enforcement conference when the shooting occurred and was asked to step down days later, Rahr said the mayor made the right call, even if the execution was rough.

“I think the mayor made a bold decision,” she said. “I think it was communicated badly, and I think it was implemented in a very bumpy way. But I admire that the mayor made a decision she knew she was going to take a lot of flak for. That’s valuable, in my opinion.”

As for the nearly five-hour delay before a public press briefing the night of the shooting, Rahr said she’d never heard of a briefing being held up because officials were waiting for dignitaries.

“It’s clear to me that something went wrong,” she said. “I fear that this was one of those cases where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong.”

Next police chief: Look inside

Rahr said the city will have difficulty attracting a top-tier outside candidate for permanent police chief given the political instability. But she said that’s not necessarily a problem.

“I was so impressed by a number of up-and-coming leaders at SPD when I was there,” she said. “I can think of a number of people that would do an excellent job as chief.”

Rahr noted that an internal candidate would already know the city, the department’s culture, and have credibility with frontline officers, advantages an outsider would need months to build.

“Yes, we aren’t likely to attract somebody from outside because of the instability of the position,” she said. “But we have really good options.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.