The bullets that killed two innocent bystanders at Seattle's Bite of Seattle festival did not come from the 15-year-old police arrested at the scene — meaning the real killer is still out there, and a kid is taking the rap for murders he didn't commit. For ordinary Americans, this is the nightmare: you go to a family food festival, you get caught in gang crossfire, and the system can't even identify who actually killed the victims before it starts filing charges.
Court documents filed Wednesday reveal that preliminary testing on bullets recovered from the two dead bystanders did not match the ghost gun the 15-year-old was seen firing into the crowd, according to the Associated Press. Shell casings at the scene indicate four — four — separate weapons were fired during the shootout. A 19-year-old gunman was killed in the exchange. At least one other shooter remains unidentified and uncharged.
The King County prosecutor's office charged the teen with first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement and unlawful possession of a handgun by a minor. They want him tried as an adult. If convicted in adult court, he faces eight to ten years plus a possible five-year firearm enhancement. In juvenile court, the range drops to two to two-and-a-half years. But the charges are for assault — not for the killings those bullets actually caused.
Seattle's Democratic Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson was quick to point the finger. "We believe this teenager opened fire in the crowd, but details are still under investigation," she said, as reported by the New York Post. Those details turned out to matter.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Shon Barnes was in Dallas at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives' annual conference when the shooting happened. Confronted by a reporter about how often he's actually in Seattle — his family lives in Chicago — Barnes erupted. "Those reports are wrong, do you understand?" he said, while a staffer physically held him back. "I have been here working as hard as I can for this city from the day I got here, you got that?" When asked how much time he spends in Chicago, Barnes offered: "Certainly I don't travel as often as I would like to."
An eighth person with a possible gunshot wound checked into a Seattle hospital after the shooting, then checked out before investigators could interview them. Legal obstacles prevented detectives from obtaining the patient's identity, Barnes said. That person — potential witness, potential suspect — is also gone.
The violence is believed to be gang-related. Three people are dead, including a toddler among the injured. Four guns fired in a crowded public space. And the person who fired the fatal shots into those bystanders hasn't been identified, let alone charged.
The AP reporting carried by SFGATE, KABC-TV, and the Baltimore Sun all led with the ballistics mismatch — the most material fact. The Post led with Barnes' absence and blowup. What none of them pressed: why prosecutors filed charges before the ballistics came back, and why city officials were so eager to name a culprit before they knew who actually killed those people.
The question that hangs: in a city that can't keep its police chief in town or its streets safe, who is being held accountable for two dead bystanders — and who is being allowed to disappear?
