Seattle Police Chief responds after two deadly shootings on Sunday

Seattle police looking into safety measures after deadly shooting at underground rave

Following two deadly shootings in SODO on Sunday, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes addressed the media on Monday. The chief emphasized his commitment to community safety and transparency in the wake of the separate incidents, which occurred just two hours and a few blocks apart.

SEATTLE - Keeping the community safe and for the sake of transparency — that was part of Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes' message on Monday when he talked with media.

He spoke out after two deadly shootings in SODO happened on Sunday, just blocks away from one another and two hours apart.

Those shootings brought the total of homicides to three in the past week.

On Monday, police confirmed the first shooting that happened on Sunday was at a rave under the bridge on First Avenue and S. Dakota in SODO around 4 a.m. One man died and a teenager was shot in the leg.

What they're saying:

"It saddens me because you have a place where you have peace, love, unity, respect — y'know, ‘PLUR’ — people are supposed to love the sound, love the music, and they’re doing it as a community where the weirdos, the outcasts can come and have a good time, and it’s become more of a scene of drugs, alcohol and gang violence," said Paul Tilton, who also goes by Turtles in the rave community said.

He was leaving Sunday’s rave when that shooting happened.

"You could hear ‘huh, huh, huh’ and then the pop, pop, pop and I looked over at my buddy, and he was like, ‘Yeah those aren’t fireworks,’" Tilton recalled.

Seattle Police called Sunday’s rave an unauthorized and unregulated gathering.

"The idea is that they have them unregulated and they have them without regulation from people, and they certainly do not let us know, I would like for them to do so, though, I would like for them to call us and say ‘Hey we’re having a rave, we’re having a big party and this is where it’s going to be, can you send some cars by,’ but that hasn’t happened yet," said Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes.

Big picture view:

He acknowledged raves like Sunday’s are okay, but steps need to be taken to make sure these gatherings are done in a proper manner.

"When we have incidents of gun violence, then we have to look at regulations, we have to look at how they’re getting the building, are they permitted, are they selling alcohol, providing illegal drugs for people so yes, there is a lot of regulation involved just like anyone else if they decided to have a gathering and have people there," Barnes said.

"It’s disheartening that people choose to one, bring guns to events like that and two, handle situations like that," Tilton said.

Chief Barnes said the department holds meetings twice a week with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Mayor’s Office and the City Attorney’s Office to access every incident of gun violence and what can be done better.

"My purpose as your Chief of Police is to assure and reassure the public that we are committed to preventing further incidents of gun violence," Barnes said.

As for the second deadly shooting on Sunday, Chief Barnes said they don’t have a motive or any leads at this time, but they are looking at public space camera footage.

Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.

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