‘The governor’s office putting out a fire’: Center Square reporter breaks down Ferguson-Wilson texts after Bite of Seattle shooting

Speculations have been swirling around why it took five hours for the city to brief reporters on a gang-related mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle. Center Square reporter TJ Martinell obtained a screenshot of a text message conversation between Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and Governor Bob Ferguson following the shooting.

Martinell told “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio the text messages, which came from a public records request to the governor’s office, appear to have been fulfilled so quickly to quell any rumors that Ferguson was the reason for the delay.

“This is the fastest public record I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “I submitted the public record on Monday and got this yesterday. So I’m interpreting this as Governor Ferguson’s office trying to dispel any thought that he asked them to delay — which obviously the text messages don’t show, but there are so many questions left to be asked.”

Martinell added that he reached out to Wilson’s office and the Seattle Police Department, but neither responded.

Texts between Wilson and Ferguson after Bite of Seattle shooting

“I had a very strong suspicion that this was the governor’s office putting out a fire, because I think there were people making accusations that he had ordered them to delay until he got there,” he said.

The texts, as seen in Martinell’s article, show Wilson sending a text message to Ferguson at 7:41 p.m.

“We are pulling together a conference call now, and most likely a public conference later tonight,” she wrote.

“I can be there by 9 p.m.,” Ferguson responded.

Then at 10:13 p.m., Ferguson wrote, “Pls call.”

“I’m available now, just tried you,” Wilson responded.

Wilson’s text suggested a news conference that night wasn’t guaranteed

Martinell pointed out that Wilson said, “most likely a public conference.” He inferred the word “likely” means there was a possibility that the city might not have held a news conference at all.

“My question is, does that mean there would have been no police briefing?” Martinell asked. “Like the public would have had no idea what had happened, and gotten no update until potentially the next day.”

KIRO host Charlie Harger joked that Ferguson was throwing Wilson under the bus.

“Could you actually hear the sound of the bus being about to go over Katie Wilson when you received that back so quickly?” he said.

“I think that there’s probably total mayhem and chaos in Katie Wilson’s office,” Martinell responded.

Harger asked Martinell how unusual it is to go five hours after a mass shooting without a single police briefing.

“Yeah, that is really unusual,” Martinell replied. “That’s why there was so much controversy, and there’s been so many questions raised about why it takes so long for them to provide information. I mean, did they find something out about one of the suspects that they were trying to keep a tight lid on? Was it somebody who had connections with somebody in the police department? Again, these are all questions we don’t know, and that’s part of the problem.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above

Listen to  “Seattle’s Morning News” weekdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3.