Photo courtesy of KIRO 7
A newly obtained voicemail is adding fuel to the dispute over who asked Seattle police to hold off on a public briefing after July’s gang-related mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle, which left three people dead and four others wounded.
The voicemail was left by Alison Holcomb, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s director of public safety, for Seattle Police Department communications officer Brian Pritchard, who was SPD’s public information officer at Seattle Center that night. KIRO Newsradio obtained the recording through a public disclosure request. In it, Holcomb says the mayor is on her way and asks, “if you could please hold on the 9:45 availability until the mayor is able to join you, that would be great.”
The recording backs up earlier reporting that Holcomb asked police to wait for the mayor. Previously released texts show that at 9:36 p.m., she asked SPD Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis, then-Police Chief Shon Barnes and SPD Chief Operations Officer Sarah Smith whether SPD was holding a media availability, writing, “If so, mayor needs to be there.” After Smith replied that it was set for 9:45 p.m., Holcomb texted Davis and Barnes at 9:42 p.m.: “Mayor’s on her way. Please wait for her.”
Davis has said Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt told him multiple times to hold off on briefing the public after the shooting, a claim Wilson has adamantly denied. The mayor has not said whether anyone else in her office asked police to delay the briefing.
Appearing before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Sept. 22 alongside Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles to present SPD’s after-action review, Davis said he had proposed either holding a press conference right away or holding one then and another once the mayor and other officials arrived. “I was also asked to wait,” he told the committee.
The after-action report found that the first press briefing did not happen until five hours after the shooting, a delay that has drawn criticism of both SPD and the mayor’s office, and that two internal briefings took place first. “Senior and elected officials distracted sworn staff from completing timely public safety information and on-scene decision-making,” the report stated. It recommended assigning an on-scene public information officer in advance with the authority to issue public safety alerts, noting that “a strong tactical response does not automatically produce a fast public information response.”
In a previously reported statement, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said she was notified at 10:10 p.m. that there would be a press conference at Seattle Center and arrived at about 10:40 p.m. “Any delay in waiting for the governor and I to arrive was about a matter of minutes, not hours,” Jayapal said.
The mayor’s office has previously said that strengthening public safety communication practices is a priority. It had not responded to a request for comment on the voicemail at the time of publication.
