Former King County sheriff says ‘we can’t arrest our way out’ of Seattle’s gun violence crisis

The mayor has a plan. The city council has a plan. Hundreds of pages of internal police text messages were released. Nearly two months after a mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival killed three people and wounded at least four others, at least one suspect is still at large.

Former King County Sheriff John Urquhart joined “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio to cut through the noise.

Five hours after Bite of Seattle shooting and no answers

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson signed a new executive order on Thursday aimed at strengthening Seattle’s emergency management coordination — including a requirement that public briefings happen within one hour of a major incident. The order came one day after Seattle police released hundreds of pages of internal messages revealing confusion among city and police leaders during the response to the July 26 shooting.

Among the most striking messages: then-Police Chief Shon Barnes, who was out of town at the time, texted nearly an hour after the shooting, “I don’t know who’s in charge, but someone needs to assume command.”

Urquhart said the messages largely confirmed what most people already suspected.

“We knew it was a fiasco. That’s the best word I can put on it,” Urquhart said. “At least the communication was a fiasco.”

He downplayed the significance of Barnes’ specific text, noting that Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis was the highest-ranking officer on scene and was in charge. Urquhart added the department’s failure to get information to the public for nearly five hours was a deeper, cultural problem.

‘Some agencies don’t respect the press enough’

When KIRO host Gee Scott asked Urquhart what law enforcement got wrong over the course of his career, the former sheriff didn’t hesitate.

“I don’t think we respected the public enough,” Urquhart said. “I don’t think we respected our elected officials enough. I don’t think we respected the press enough. To a certain extent, some agencies don’t respect the press enough even today.”

“The Seattle Police Department, for as long as I can remember, has a culture of not liking the press,” he added.

With a decade of experience as a public information officer (PIO), he regularly heard reporters complain they couldn’t get information out of the department.

“For some reason, I think that attitude happened at the Bite of Seattle, because they didn’t empower their PIOs to do their job,” Urquhart said.

Gee pushed back with a broader observation.

“You got to admit, the media and the press were mighty, mighty good to police officers and law enforcement over the years. They were kind of favorable,” Gee said. “Not anymore. That’s how it should be.”

The suspect still at large

KIRO host Ursula Reutin pressed Urquhart on the fact that, almost two months later, there has been little public information about the suspected shooter who remains at large. Seattle police have identified two persons of interest after reviewing roughly 450 hours of video, according to FOX 13 Seattle. One suspect was killed at the scene. A 15-year-old is in custody.

Urquhart offered two possible explanations.

“Number one, they have no idea who this guy is at all. That’s a good possibility,” he said. “But this far out, almost two months now, they should probably say that.”

The other possibility is that investigators know exactly who the suspect is but haven’t been able to locate him, and don’t want to tip him off.

“As much as I talk about how important it is to brief the press and bring them in and be respectful of them, there’s one thing that trumps all of that, and that is the integrity of an investigation,” Urquhart said. “Sometimes the press and all of you just have to be patient. There’s no justice until he’s arrested.”

Two plans, one problem

The Seattle City Council unanimously approved Councilmember Maritza Rivera’s resolution calling for a two-year partnership with the National Network for Safe Communities. Wilson released her own plan the same day, emphasizing community violence interruption and the city’s CARE Department.

Urquhart said it was difficult for even a veteran law enforcement official to parse the real differences between the two approaches.

“The mayor is talking about partnering with the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins. Councilmember Rivera is working with John Jay College. So who knows what the difference is?” Urquhart said. “I’m not saying one plan is better than the other, but clearly the council is fighting with the mayor’s office, and that needs to go away.”

He called for the two branches to work together.

“These two groups, the legislative side and the executive side, need to work much more closely together to solve this huge problem that’s really destroying Seattle and destroying lives,” Urquhart said.

He noted the explosion in gun availability was the single biggest change he’d witnessed over a career spanning more than three decades. Ghost guns, pistols modified to be fully automatic, and firearms in the hands of teenagers as young as 14 have fundamentally altered the landscape of violence.

He also made it clear that more arrests alone would never be the answer.

“What I’ve been saying for 20 years now is we can’t arrest our way out of society’s problems, and that’s coming from a cop,” Urquhart said. “Now that doesn’t mean that the police don’t have a role, and a really, really big role in all of this. We don’t want to forget that.”

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.