‘The leadership stinks’: Gee says Bite of Seattle texts expose what’s really wrong at City Hall

KIRO host Gee Scott’s suspicions were confirmed when Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s office released hundreds of pages of internal text messages Friday, offering new details about the hours-long communication gap that followed the July 26 gang-related mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle.

The texts show the mayor’s communications staff knew the number of victims, the deaths, and who was in custody by 7 p.m., but no official public briefing took place until roughly 11 p.m.

“Smoke and mirrors,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Think about how much energy has been put into making you focus and pay attention over here when there’s just a simple story.”

Gee also believes the text release was a calculated move.

“These text messages do nothing for me because it doesn’t matter,” he said. “They are just putting it all out there, and they’re just trying to move on. They understand the news cycle.”

KIRO fill-in host Angela Poe Russell pointed to messages from Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, a mayor’s office communications staffer who has since left the role. At 8:30 p.m. the night of the shooting, Spangenthal-Lee asked where Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) statement was, noting it had been two hours since the department posted anything. He called the delay embarrassing and a “massive disaster.”

Angela added that SPD Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith responded that the department would not give any updates until 9 p.m.

“Clearly there was some kind of communication gap that was happening there,” she said.

Gee thinks the real story is an SPD detective’s email, not the text dump

Gee highlighted what he saw as the most important document in the entire saga: an email sent July 28, two days after the shooting, by SPD Detective Brian Pritchard, who had been leading the department’s public response on scene that night.

“He says, ‘I’ve been struggling with the messaging around the July 26 press briefing. It was discussed during several briefings at the scene that we were waiting for dignitaries, which was accurately communicated to our media partners,'” Gee said, reading from the email. “‘Unfortunately, it has been communicated that the July 26 scene press briefing was not delayed. This is not accurate.'”

Gee noted Pritchard was then absent from a Seattle City Council hearing on the shooting response and suggested SPD officers are caught in the middle.

“Law enforcement, Seattle Police Department, they have to toe the line a little bit because they got to make sure they do what the mayor’s office wants to do,” Gee said. “Because if they don’t, then the new interim chief has no chance of getting the job.”

Gee said the mayor’s stated desire to “move forward” rings hollow without accountability.

“You can’t move forward if you won’t take accountability for yesterday,” he said. “The fish stinks from the head down. We’re moving forward; just make sure with the understanding of knowing that the leadership stinks.”

Angela agreed.

“A lot of the pointing of the fingers has made it even worse,” she said.

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.