At least three people were involved in a gunfight that killed three and wounded as many as five others, including a toddler, at a food festival near the Space Needle, the Seattle police said on Monday.
A 15-year-old was detained and charged with three counts of first-degree assault. In court documents, investigators said there were at least two other people involved in the gunfight: a 19-year-old man who died at the scene and another person whose identity is unknown.
Several people began shooting at one another around 6 p.m. Sunday, sending hundreds of festivalgoers scurrying for safety, the police said. Two people died at the scene, and a 56-year-old woman died later at a Seattle hospital. The toddler had wounds that were not life-threatening, the authorities said.
Information about the shooting was murky. City officials at first said that two people were in custody, but later reported that the police were still searching for a second shooter. Early on, officials had also suggested that only two shooters were involved in the gunfight, but later said they believe there were at least three shooters.
The shooting was only the most recent in a string of violent incidents involving young people in the city and the third major shooting in several days, Seattle leaders said. Nicole Powell, an assistant chief of the Seattle Police, said officers believe the shooting on Sunday night may have involved gangs.
“This has been an especially tough week in Seattle,” said Mayor Katie Wilson.
The city’s closed-circuit video surveillance system, the subject of intense debate when it was installed, does not reach the area where the shooting took place. Police investigators were examining other public and private camera footage and asking witnesses to turn over any cellphone video of the shooting or the moments afterward.
Violent crime is down in Seattle as it is in many American cities. Homicides in the city were down by 31 percent in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier, city records showed.
But Seattle officials, including the mayor, have struggled to respond to public safety problems in a few neighborhoods. Officials say challenges include gang violence, drive-by shootings, human trafficking and a spike in gun-related crimes among young people. Ms. Wilson said on Monday that she plans to launch a strategy to lower gun violence with a special emphasis on youth violence prevention.
“It’s gotten to a point where all these incidents are ending with gun violence,” said Gary Gatewood, a case manager at Southwest Youth and Family Services, a nonprofit that works with young people.
He attended an initial court hearing on Monday afternoon for the 15-year-old suspect, who court officials requested not be identified publicly. Mr. Gatewood said that his organization had worked with the teenager and the 19-year-old who died.
”We’re working with them every day and we’re trying to build a wall to get them away from the violence,” Mr. Gatewood said. “It seems like we have to keep building that wall higher and higher and higher.”
Shootings earlier this year also drew residents’ attention. In January, two high school students were killed at a South Seattle bus stop. A 15-year-old was charged, though the case is still making its way through the courts.
Shon Barnes, Seattle’s police chief, said that the city was suffering from a spate of gun violence tied to “small groups that appear to be at odds with each other.”
Bob Kettle, a Seattle City Council member and chair of the council’s public safety committee, said that in some cases, “you have individuals who may not be formally part of gang, but there’s a beef or an honor thing involved.”
“Because of their age and so forth, their ability to regulate isn’t great,” he said. “They’re spraying gunfire, which puts many more people at risk.”
Much of the recent attention on crime has centered on a stretch of Aurora Avenue, a busy north-south corridor where drive-by shootings and open-air drug markets have challenged city leaders for years. Police have attributed the problems along Aurora Avenue to gangs and organized crime networks.
Last week, three people were injured in an early morning shooting just off Aurora Avenue north of downtown. Over the weekend, residents in nearby neighborhoods reported multiple bursts of gunfire, including one incident in which stray bullets narrowly missed a home with an infant inside.
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