By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
UPDATED, 7/30, 5:15 a.m. PDT: The 15-year-old arrested at the Seattle (Washington) Center following a deadly mass shooting during that facility’s annual “Bite of Seattle” has been charged with one count of Assault in the First Degree and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree, by the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
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BULLETIN: Thursday morning, local media in Seattle is reporting that Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes may be on his way out in the aftermath of the Seattle Center shooting. KING, KIRO, KOMO and KCPQ are all reporting on the Barnes situation. Barnes has been on the job only one year, but questions have been raised about his frequent travel and his family’s continued residence in Chicago.
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Forensics has reportedly established that neither of the bystanders killed in the shooting were hit by bullets fired from the gun carried by the juvenile suspect.
KOMO News, the local ABC affiliate, is reporting that the teen’s assault charge “stems from allegations the teen fired multiple times into a crowd.”
The shooting aftermath has exposed what critics have described as incompetence on the part of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and her administration, including Police Chief Shon Barnes.
Three people died as a result of the shooting, including one alleged 19-year-old gunman who reportedly had a previous encounter with Seattle police following a shooting two years ago.
Police recovered three handguns during the investigation, all three chambered for 9mm ammunition, while Chief Barnes told a press conference that investigators have recovered spent cartridges in two different calibers. There has been no word on the whereabouts of any gun chambered for a different caliber.
But Washington gun owners had their expectations confirmed Wednesday when Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote an 885-word article suggesting a gun ban at the Center, enforced with checkpoints. This is already done at a Center event called “Bumbershoot,” and at Seattle’s Lumen Field where the NFL prohibits firearms at football games.
The suggestion has drawn more than 1,000 reader comments, many of them blistering. Social media is also filled with comments from gun owners who generally argue that persons with valid concealed pistol licenses should not be prohibited from visiting the Seattle Center, which is public property. The Center’s conduct rules prohibit weapons, however there is a notation that the possession or display of a firearm at the Center is prohibited “unless permitted by applicable law.”
Applicable law, according to attorney Bill Kirk, president of Washington Gun Law, would be Washington’s concealed carry law which says, “Restricting the possession of firearms in any stadium or convention center, operated by a city, town, county, or other municipality, except that such restrictions shall not apply to…Any pistol in the possession of a person licensed under RCW 9.41.070 or exempt from the licensing requirement by RCW 9.41.060.”
He noted that several existing gun laws were violated even before shots were fired. The dead 19-year-old, identified as Junior Cee Niko Semo, may have been armed with a converted Glock pistol equipped with an illegal “Glock switch” and a 40-round extended magazine, while the 15-year-old was allegedly armed with a 9mm semi-auto fitted with an unserialized Polymer 80 frame—and dubbed a “ghost gun” by authorities and prohibited by state law—fitted with a 33-round extended magazine. This firearm was not a 3D printed gun, as initially implied in some reports. Both magazines have been illegal in Washington since 2022, although it is not known whether they were covered by a “grandfather clause” allowing magazines owned before the ban took place to be retained. However, four years ago, the surviving suspect would have been 11 years old and Semo was 15 years old, and not likely to have been the original owners of either magazine.
Sheriff Keith Swank in neighboring Pierce County went on social media to sarcastically declare, “If we just passed some more unconstitutional gun laws this won’t happen again. Then no one will ever experience ‘gun violence.'”
Semo’s reported earlier legal problem also involved the illegal possession of a handgun equipped with a Glock switch.
While gun owners are already bracing for a gun control fight, they may fall back on Washington’s preemption statute, dating back more than 40 years.
Meanwhile, Mayor Wilson has announced the city will be bringing an “expert” on “gun violence reduction” as part of an effort to reduce violent crime involving firearms. She also said her administration has been communicating with several groups: the National Network for Safe Communities, Cure Violence Global, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform and Cities United. All of this translates to gun control, say critics.
But local reporters are still fuming that it took police five hours to hold their first press briefing following the Sunday shooting, possibly to allow “dignitaries” time to arrive and get some face time on television. During that period, police apparently knew there was a third gunman still on the loose.
It was not until 17 hours later—the next morning—when other revelations were made by Barnes, who had flown back overnight from a law enforcement convention in Dallas. His previous absences have also become an issue, and part of the story.
An unscientific online poll conducted by KOMO revealed 85 percent of respondents think the solution for curbing so-called “gun violence” is “Tougher sentences for offenders.” Only 7 percent think “more gun control laws” are the answer.
