‘The mayor is just not ready for prime time’: Spike rips Mayor Wilson’s response to deadly Belltown shootings

Three people were killed and three others wounded in three separate shootings across Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood in a single 24-hour stretch over the Labor Day weekend, and KIRO host Spike O’Neill said Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s response has been a failure of both communication and common sense.

Spike didn’t mince words about the mayor’s handling of the crisis on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

“The mayor is just not ready for prime time,” he said. “It’s a brand-new communications team. Her initial communications director, press secretary — they all quit. Doesn’t seem like anybody’s been brought in with experience in that arena to speak to the mayor’s handling and communicating with the city.”

KIRO Newsradio reporter Luke Duecy, who weighed in on the mayor’s office response on the show, said the optics speak for themselves.

“From a PR look, it’s not a great look,” he said. “It doesn’t look like the mayor’s office is taking it seriously. I’m sure they are, but actions speak louder than words.”

A deadly Sunday in Belltown

The violence began just after midnight Sunday when an illegal street takeover, cars doing donuts at an intersection in Belltown, devolved into a fight and then gunfire. Three people were injured, and a fourth died at Harborview Medical Center. Around 2 a.m., officers found a woman shot inside a vehicle at 3rd and Blanchard; she also later died.

Then late Sunday night at Elliott Avenue and Bell Street, a 17-year-old was shot and killed and a 21-year-old was wounded.

No suspects are in custody.

Mayor’s response draws fire

Wilson did not issue a standalone public safety statement until Tuesday morning, roughly 48 hours after the first shooting. Her first remarks came Monday while she was attending an Embassy Suites picket line alongside King County Executive Girmay Zahilay.

Duecy said the setting undercut the gravity of the message.

“It sounds odd to me as a journalist hearing such a serious sound bite with picketing going on in the background,” Duecy said. “She was holding her daughter and holding a picket sign, having to put both down in order to answer questions about three deadly shootings in one day.”

Spike said Wilson’s team should have anticipated reporter questions and issued a statement before the mayor appeared at the rally or, at minimum, walked her a block away from the noise.

“‘My constant presence on this picket line isn’t mandatory. I’m here in support. I’m not leading this event,'” Spike said, modeling what the mayor should have said. “All these would have been better solutions.”

Wilson’s written statement, released Tuesday, also raised eyebrows. Its second paragraph opened with: “Seattle is not unique in facing too much gun violence. Cities across America are suffering.”

“Classic line to mitigate an issue,” Duecy said. “‘It’s not just us. Everybody’s got problems.’ That caught my eye from a PR lens.”

‘Taking out the trash’

Spike and Duecy also took aim at the timing of the mayor’s office releasing hundreds of internal text messages from the Bite of Seattle response, dropped late Friday afternoon.

“In the industry, they call that taking out the trash,” Spike said. “You put the story headlines you want least coverage of on an audience that is on vacation.”

The texts showed staff debating whether Wilson should go to the Bite of Seattle scene and growing frustration between her team and police over communicating with the public.

‘Trigger pullers’ and ‘groups’

Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles went to the Belltown scene and pledged to pursue suspects, but introduced unusual terminology.

“We call them trigger pullers in our community,” Sayles said.

“SPD’s chief calling suspects wanted on suspicion of murder ‘trigger pullers,'” Duecy responded. “We’ve also heard SPD now refer to gangs as ‘groups.’ Groups with trigger pullers. I’ve never heard those terms as a journalist.”

Spike questioned whether the softer language serves anyone.

“You can’t call someone an active shooter, you’ve got to call them a trigger puller? You can’t call people gang members, you’ve got to call them groups?” he said. “Is that the posture of the city’s administration and law enforcement community to be more woke? I’m trying not to paint it with too broad a brush, but I don’t know how else to describe that decision to make all communications softer.”

No crisis playbook

KIRO producer Laura Scott raised a broader question: whether Wilson was set up to fail without a crisis communications plan inherited from prior administrations.

“Does one exist?” Duecy asked. “We’ve had city council say that one doesn’t exist.”

Spike was less sympathetic.

“Do you need a plan in place, or is common sense enough to say, ‘Hey, alert the public?'” he said.

Wilson announced Tuesday that she will unveil a gun violence prevention strategy in the coming weeks.

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