Four Chiefs in Thirty Months: Seattle Loses Its Police Leader Five Days After a Mass Shooting

Seattle has a new police chief for the fourth time in roughly two and a half years. Deputy Chief Andre Sayles took over on an interim basis Thursday afternoon after Mayor Katie Wilson accepted the resignation of Shon Barnes — a departure that, by his own attorney’s account, began with the mayor asking him to step down.

The timing is what has made this contentious. Five days earlier, gunfire at the Bite of Seattle food festival left three people dead and several wounded, and the investigation into at least one outstanding shooter is still active.

How It Happened

Barnes had scheduled one-on-one interviews with Seattle media outlets for Wednesday afternoon. Those were abruptly cancelled.

That evening he appeared at a silent vigil for the victims at Seattle Center, wearing his full chief’s uniform, and left early. Sources have said a meeting with the mayor followed the vigil, and that this was where the request for his resignation was made.

A statement issued Thursday through his employment attorneys confirmed the sequence. It said Wilson requested his resignation Wednesday, that private conversations followed, and that Barnes ultimately offered to leave voluntarily. It also said he was surprised by the request, and that he believes this is the best path forward for a city still absorbing what happened at Seattle Center.

Wilson’s office announced the acceptance just after 3:30 p.m., following a day of no comment from the department.

The Communications Failures

Wilson released a video statement laying out the substance of her concerns, and she did not soften them.

She said an after-action review of the city’s communications with the public and media had revealed real gaps. Information, she said, could and should have gone out far faster — through social media, the emergency alert system, the department blotter, or a press conference held away from the scene.

Her most pointed line concerned what the public was not told: residents should have heard sooner about outstanding suspects and the status of the Seattle Center campus.

Those failures had already generated sustained criticism. Questions persisted through Monday about why nobody was warned that police were still searching for another armed person, even though investigators did not yet know that person’s identity or location. The Seattle Alert system went unused. A late-night news conference drew widespread complaint.

The tension surfaced publicly in a sharp exchange between Barnes and a reporter from the South Seattle Emerald, who pressed him on the delay and the shortage of basic public information. Barnes defended the department’s focus on securing the scene and pursuing the second individual, while acknowledging that people need timely information to make decisions about their own safety.

A separate line of scrutiny concerned Barnes himself — how often he was physically in the city, and where he was during the shooting. He snapped at a reporter who raised it.

What Barnes Said

His public statement avoided any hint of grievance. He called it an honor to lead the department, praised officers for how they performed in the aftermath, and expressed confidence in the community-based policing direction he says is taking root.

He framed his exit as clearing the way, saying he hoped the transition would let the city and department return their focus to youth gun violence and preventing further tragedies.

A Broad Backlash

The reaction from nearly every direction was negative — an unusual alignment in Seattle politics.

Four councilmembers, including Council President Joy Hollingsworth and Public Safety Chair Bob Kettle, issued a joint statement arguing that major decisions should not be made while communities are grieving, and that a leadership change now puts the city in a precarious position. They noted the city has cycled through four chiefs in two and a half years and said the priority should be stability rather than further disruption.

Councilmember Rob Saka said it was not a decision he would have made in the middle of a crisis. Hollingsworth said Barnes had initially declined the request to resign.

A group led by Black community leaders rallied Thursday morning in his support, including the Seattle NAACP, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Byrd Barr Place and Community Passageways. Dominique Davis, who founded Community Passageways, argued that summer always brings an increase in violence and that removing the leader of the police department during that period, immediately after a mass shooting, does not make sense. He described Barnes as genuinely engaged with the community.

Dawn Mason, a former state representative who attended a private meeting with the mayor, said she tried to convey that the removal would be a mistake. She raised a practical question: who would want to take the job under these circumstances?

The police union was blunter still. Guild President Kent Loux said Seattle needs leadership rather than another week of political drama, accused the administration of producing confusion and mixed messages, and said the mayor had made clear that public safety is not her priority.

The Downtown Seattle Association noted the city had been on a positive trajectory, with police hiring rising and crime falling, particularly in the downtown core.

Who Is Taking Over

Sayles brings more than 20 years in law enforcement, including a stint as police chief in Beloit, Wisconsin. He joined SPD in 2025 as deputy chief of administration and investigations.

The mayor’s office credited his oversight of the Gun Violence Reduction Unit and homicide detectives with closing difficult cases, including an arrest in the fatal shooting of two teenagers near Rainier Beach High School.

Wilson said she believes he is the right person to provide continuity while a search for a permanent chief proceeds, and described her vision for public safety as grounded in transparency, trust and collaboration with communities.

She and Sayles were scheduled to hold a press conference at City Hall on Friday morning.

The Underlying Tension

Barnes had been in the job barely a year. He arrived after the departure of Adrian Diaz amid scandal, served as interim chief from January 2025, and was sworn in as the city’s 38th chief that July, selected from 57 applicants. He came from Madison, Wisconsin — a city of roughly 280,000 with about 500 sworn officers, compared with Seattle’s nearly 800,000 residents and around 1,000 officers.

The disagreement now is not really about whether the communications failed. The mayor’s own review says they did, and Barnes acknowledged the public’s need for faster information.

It is about sequencing. Wilson’s position is that accountability could not wait. Her critics — councilmembers, community organizations and the union alike — argue that removing the head of a police department in the middle of an open investigation, during the busiest stretch of the event calendar, trades one problem for a larger one.

Both positions have force. The answer will depend largely on how the next several weeks go at Seattle Center and in Southeast Seattle, and on whether the city can recruit a credible permanent chief after this.