‘It’s now the press v. the mayor’: Jake describes a standoff over Bite of Seattle shooting information

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes held a news conference Tuesday regarding the gang-related mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle on Sunday, where three people died and at least four people were wounded.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, reacted to the latest dump of information roughly 48 hours removed from the shooting, finding that Wilson and her staff have been in “cleanup mode” ever since.

“It was quite a testy back and forth,” Jake said. “It’s been interesting to watch because after the Bite of Seattle mass shooting, you then had information get out that seemed to be confusing, and I feel like they’ve been playing cleanup with how they’re dealing with the press, as you know, in the aftermath. Correct me if I’m wrong here, Spike, but it feels like this was not the way they wanted this to go.”

“No. They’ve been in cleanup mode since 11 o’clock Sunday,” Spike responded. “The mayor’s office released a statement about how many people were arrested; that was errant, so they said we’re going to wait until we get it right. Which led to the five-hour lack of any communication about potential dangerous situations or what we knew or didn’t know about the mass shooting.”

Thousands of Bite of Seattle attendees were left in the dark for hours

Jake questioned why there wasn’t at least a minor amount of information released to the public, which would have provided clarity for the hundreds of people scattered around the Seattle Center sheltering in place.

“You have multiple people dead, a festival with tens of thousands of people who run off. These people are literally hiding in restaurants, waiting for some information, and they get nothing,” Jake said. “They wait five hours, and then the question that everybody was asking was, ‘Well, who are these dignitaries, and why are we waiting for them when the relevant information can be given to us right now, from the police to the people still stuck down there?”

Wilson was asked if anyone in her office told Seattle Police Department leadership that they couldn’t hold the press conference between 7:45 and 8 p.m. on Sunday.

“Katie Wilson was asked about that by two different reporters,” Jake said. “They need to do some cleaning up on what her story is here because it’s not working.”

Mayor Wilson’s response:

“My understanding is that first of all, we had a lot of communication going back and forth between my office and [Seattle Police] and our state and federal elected officials as we were trying to work together on the response to this incident,” Wilson said. “At Seattle Center, we had a scene of active investigation where the police were actively looking for suspects. My understanding is that we were told that it was not helpful to have me or other elected officials coming down to the scene while that active search was going on. We went back and forth, and eventually landed on an appropriate time to address the press.”

The mayor’s response did not bode well with Spike, who believed that Wilson’s recollection of what transpired is different than what can clearly be seen, and was stated on video immediately following the shooting.

“Well, we have evidence to the contrary,” Spike said. “That may not be the mayor’s understanding of what happened, but there is documented evidence that someone from the Seattle Police Department told reporters gathered there that they were waiting for dignitaries to arrive to make a statement. If that’s not something she’s aware of at the moment, we need to figure out what the hell’s going on with the messaging policies and patterns of the mayor’s office and Seattle Police.

“Secondarily, you know whether it’s not safe to be on Seattle Center, whether dignitaries on Seattle Center grounds would be intrusive to any kind of situation where you’re trying to secure an area, that doesn’t mean information, as you pointed out, can’t be given to the community,” he continued. “Five hours is an extraordinarily long time to wait. This new information, it’s been going on almost 48 hours [since the shooting].”

Jake summed up a press conference that offered little clarity

Jake summarized his takeaways from the press conference, which he believed didn’t offer much understanding. Jake also noted that the discourse between the mayor and the media has felt like a battle for information rather than a shared effort to release the facts in the case.

“There’s a lot of question marks,” Jake said. “I feel like every time they have one of these press conferences, it’s now feeling like it’s the press v. the mayor, and that’s not where you want to be. You want to have the press there to help spread the information, and you want the mayor to be leading. Doesn’t feel like she’s leading in this situation. Feels like she’s playing defense, and something’s obviously not working out.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3