Three people were killed and other four were injured in a shooting at Seattle Center on Sunday night as the civic center complex hosted a major food festival, police said.
Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis said one suspect is in custody and they are searching for another one. Investigators believe the two were shooting at each other and that there is no ongoing threat to the public.
In a press conference, Davis said two people died in the scene and a third one later succumbed to its injuries in the hospital.
Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Grace Nuñez said its first responders arrived shortly after 6 p.m. and attempted lifesaving efforts for two patients but were unsuccessful.
Four of the injured were taken to the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center, the region’s top-level trauma center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
All had been shot, and the injuries included gunshot wounds to an arm, leg, abdomen and lower leg, Gregg said.
Nuñez, of the fire department, said one patient, a 40-year-old woman with minor injuries, declined to be taken to a hospital.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said in a statement that city police took a suspect into custody. She also thanked first responders.
“I also want to recognize Seattle firefighters and medical personnel at Harborview who are treating the injured, as well as Seattle Center and event staff and bystanders who helped people reach safety and provided aid in terrifying circumstances,” she said.
Additional details about the person in custody were not immediately available.
Speaking on X, the Seattle Police Department asked members of the public to stay away as detectives and officers try to determine what happened.
The Seattle office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on X that some of its special agents were at the scene assisting Seattle police with the investigation.
The Bite of Seattle food festival was wrapping up its annual event Sunday, the final of its three days. It wasn’t clear whether the event was involved in the shooting. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Esten Wakonabo was waiting in line with his girlfriend for a photo booth when people around them started running furiously, he told NBC affiliate KING TV of Seattle.
“It was a stampede,” he said.
Not long afterward, Wakonabo said, he noticed people on the ground, some with obvious gunshot wounds.
“There’s bodies everywhere,” he said of those on the ground who appeared to be injured. “I mean, I counted eight.”
Paul Skinner was helping to operate a Bite of Seattle booth when chaos erupted, he said.
“We just heard what at first sounded like firecrackers, but it’s just a little too crowded for that kind of thing,” he told KING. “So then, when the crowd started moving quickly in herds, you knew it was something was happening.”
He added, “We all got down and took cover.”
Isaiah Flores Sanches described hearing the gunfire.
“It went from something being so playful and so joyful to being something so horrific, and I seen people on the floor trying to take cover,” he told KING.
Bite of Seattle says it draws more than 350,000 people to its annual three-day festival, for which admission is free. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The civic center complex that grew into the Seattle Center included core structures erected for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, including the Coliseum, the Seattle Center Monorail and the Space Needle.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates…
Dennis Romero | NBC News and The Associated Press
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