Is Mayor Wilson actually capable of leading Seattle?

The long-beloved Bite of Seattle festival beneath the Space Needle became the scene of a deadly shootout Sunday evening, leaving three people dead and four others wounded, including a 2-year-old boy.

Seattle police believe multiple people exchanged gunfire outside the Seattle Center Armory during the event. A 15-year-old was quickly taken into custody, but investigators continued searching for another person believed to have opened fire before fleeing the scene.

At a moment like that, Seattle residents needed clear and immediate information.

They needed to know what happened. They needed to know whether another shooter was loose. They needed to know what city officials were doing to protect the public and how witnesses could help police find the person responsible.

Instead, they waited nearly five hours for a public briefing.

As Change Washington detailed earlier this week, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson initially released a statement claiming that two people were in custody. She updated it without an announcement, after media had already begun disseminating the inaccurate information.

When city leaders finally appeared before reporters around 11 p.m., Seattle Police Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis confirmed that only one suspected shooter had been detained and another person had fled the scene.

For nearly five hours, families who had scattered from Seattle Center did not know that someone believed to have opened fire in the middle of a crowded public gathering had escaped.

That delay also cost investigators critical time. Witnesses had fled in every direction. Many had recorded videos, seen the shooters or observed what happened immediately before the gunfire began. Yet the public request for information did not come until hours later, when memories were fading, and potential witnesses had already returned home.

Police regularly provide preliminary briefings during major emergencies for exactly this reason. Officials do not need every detail before telling the public what is known, what remains unknown and how people can help.

Seattle’s leaders chose not to do that.

The initial explanation was that officials were waiting for “dignitaries” to arrive before beginning the press conference. But newly released records obtained by The Center Square appear to undermine that excuse.

According to The Center Square, text messages between Wilson and Gov. Bob Ferguson show the governor was nearby but was not told to come to the Seattle Center until after 10 p.m. Ferguson’s office also stated that the governor did not ask Wilson to postpone the briefing. Crucially, the phone records were NOT released. It’s imperative to know what other conversations may or may not have occurred between leaders that weren’t in writing. Citizens should demand full transparency from the “dignitaries” who upheld getting crucial information out.

Wilson has denied delaying the press conference to accommodate political officials. Yet a Seattle Police Department source told FOX 13 that police leadership was prepared to brief the public hours earlier and was asked by the mayor’s office to wait.

Someone made the decision to keep police from speaking.

Katie Wilson is the mayor. Responsibility ultimately rests with her.

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes has now been fired, according to multiple reports. Barnes was attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in Dallas when the shooting occurred and had faced mounting questions about how frequently he traveled outside Seattle while his family reportedly continued to live in Chicago. He then abruptly canceled a scheduled Wednesday interview about his travel and the department’s response.

Wilson was right to hold Barnes accountable. But firing the police chief does not absolve the mayor or explain why Seattle residents were kept in the dark for nearly five hours.

Law-enforcement leaders who were in Seattle were reportedly prepared to brief the public much earlier in the evening. They were not allowed to do so. Barnes may bear responsibility for being absent during a deadly crisis, but he was not the person who reportedly prevented the officers on the scene from communicating with the public.

That decision leads directly back to the mayor’s office.

Wilson cannot fire her police chief and expect Seattle residents to conclude that the city’s leadership failure has been resolved. Barnes was responsible for the police department, but Katie Wilson is responsible for the city government—including the people who reportedly instructed police to remain silent while a suspected shooter was still at large.

Most importantly, can residents of Seattle have faith in Mayor Wilson to choose a reliable, competent, and focused successor (preferably one who will reside in the city full time)?

Before becoming mayor, Katie Wilson had never run anything remotely comparable to the City of Seattle.

Her primary management experience was leading the Transit Riders Union, a small but politically effective advocacy organization with approximately $198,000 in annual revenue and only a handful of employees. She had never held public office, managed a government department, overseen a major institution or been responsible for emergency operations.

Seattle voters elevated her directly from community organizing to responsibility for a city government with approximately $8.9 billion in annual appropriations and thousands of employees.

Running an advocacy campaign is not the same as running a city.

Advocates pressure other people to make decisions. Mayors must make those decisions themselves. They must manage professional staff, coordinate departments, balance competing priorities and provide command during emergencies.

The warning signs appeared almost immediately:

• Her first major drug-policy action created immediate controversy.
• Her State of the City revealed an administration still developing basic plans.
• She acknowledged the homelessness strategy was failing but continued much of it.
• She avoided questions at the rollout of her own signature policy.
• She offered no convincing police-staffing or crime-reduction agenda.
• She sought to expand tiny-house villages without resolving serious questions about conditions inside them.
• She cleaned up encampments in tourist areas ahead of the World Cup while allowing residents in other neighborhoods to continue living with the same disorder.

Any one of these failures might be dismissed as the mistake of a new administration.

Taken together, they reveal something much more serious.

Katie Wilson entered office without the executive experience necessary to manage a city facing severe public-safety, homelessness, addiction and financial challenges. Since taking office, she has shown little evidence that she is growing into the responsibility.

The handling of the Bite of Seattle tragedy suggests things are getting worse when they desperately need to get better.

Three people were killed in one of Seattle’s most prominent public spaces. Another suspected shooter escaped. Police were reportedly prepared to speak, yet the public briefing was delayed for hours. The mayor’s office issued incorrect information, offered shifting explanations and failed to quickly enlist the public’s help.

This was not a disagreement over ideology. It was a fundamental failure of executive leadership during an emergency.

Wilson asked Seattle residents to judge her administration “first and foremost” on homelessness and public safety.

They should take her at her word.

On homelessness, Wilson has acknowledged failure without demonstrating a meaningful change in direction. On public safety, she has failed to present a convincing strategy and then presided over a communications breakdown that withheld critical information while a suspected shooter remained at large.

Her lack of judgment and command is more than merely embarrassing. It is putting the safety of Seattle residents and anyone visiting the city at risk.

The question is not whether Katie Wilson needs more time to grow into the job. Seattle cannot serve as an internship for an unprepared mayor.

Wilson has demonstrated that she lacks the experience, preparation and decision-making ability the office requires. The deadly confusion after the Bite of Seattle shooting should be the final warning.

Seattle needs a mayor who is ready to lead now, not one who is still learning how.

Maybe it’s time for Seattle to say, “like…bye” to Katie Wilson as Mayor.

Photo: Jonathan Choe, Discovery Institute