By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Black community leaders emerged from a Thursday morning meeting with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, where they urged her to reconsider reports that Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes had been asked to resign or face termination following Sunday’s deadly shooting at the Bite of Seattle festival, arguing that Barnes should not become the political “fall guy” for a tragedy they say was beyond his direct control.
The leaders spoke with reporters outside City Hall after meeting privately with Wilson, saying they unanimously opposed removing Barnes and urged the mayor to allow him to continue leading the Seattle Police Department.
The meeting came after intense public scrutiny of the Seattle Police Department’s response to the tragedy, which left three people dead and several others injured. Questions mounted over the department’s hours long delay in holding its initial news conference, as well as Barnes’ absence from the city while attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) conference in Dallas and his subsequent exchange with local reporters regarding the trip. Reports that Wilson had asked Barnes to resign or face termination sparked swift pushback from prominent Black community leaders, civil rights advocates and clergy across King County.
As of Thursday afternoon, City Hall had not publicly confirmed Barnes’ employment status.
Following the meeting, leaders emphasized Barnes’ efforts to strengthen relationships between the police department and community organizations, saying he should not be held solely responsible for a complex public safety crisis.
Dominique Davis, founder of Community Passageways, said Barnes stepped into a department that was already making progress and chose to build on existing partnerships with community organizations rather than disrupt them.
“Today was Black folks standing up for Black folks, right? I know we got a Black chief of police that just been here for a very short period. He stepped into this position and had a successful 2025, right? Stepped right in and didn’t shake it up too much. We were already in the momentum to have record-breaking statistics of safety in our community. He came in here and stepped into the agenda that was already being pushed through the community,” said Davis.
Davis said Barnes should not become the “fall guy” for circumstances beyond his control.
“On the back of [Seattle Center], there was a lot of chaos and mayhem, to no fault of his own. I don’t think he should be the fall guy for this situation. What we’re not gonna do is sit back and let it be a Black man, a Black man that just got here, a Black man that just started doing this work, and a Black man that hasn’t done anything egregious or wrong. Why would we sit back and let a mayor come in and just fire him like that? Because of a situation that was to no fault of his own, and that nobody handled properly,” said Davis.
Davis also said preventing violence requires long-term investment in community intervention programs alongside policing.
“Violence is always reactive, policing to a certain extent is reactive. We can’t read minds… That’s why proactive, preventive, and intervention work is the most important work of this whole community safety spectrum… I’m here today to support this man, who is a Black chief. I’m not gonna sit back and let a Black man become the fall guy,” said Davis.
Former Washington state Rep. Dawn Mason urged Wilson not to make a major personnel decision while the city is still grieving.
“Therapists tell us do not make important decisions while you are grieving. Seattle is grieving, the mayor is grieving. I could tell by her whole countenance and mourning this loss that the city has had. And this is the most important decision she has to make as a mayor, is her police chief. So, she needs to understand that,” said Mason.
Civil rights attorney James Bible, who has represented plaintiffs in litigation against the Seattle Police Department for years, said Barnes’ removal would be premature because of what he described as improved relationships between the department and the community.
“As a civil rights attorney, somebody that sued the Seattle Police Department repeatedly… this is the first time that I’ve sat in a room such as this one and said that resignation would be premature, that firing would be premature. We haven’t been in a place like this in the past 25 years where we’ve had a certain level of peacefulness that’s been present in Seattle in terms of conflict with the department.
“I represent some police officers in employment issues in relation to the city that have all said that certain things have improved since Chief Barnes arrived. So why would we move backwards? … We’ve finally found what perhaps is the right chief… Hopefully, it won’t come to [litigation] and she’ll just reverse her decision,” said Bible.
Hayward Evans, president of the Seattle-King County NAACP, Branch 1136, said community leaders left the meeting united in their support for Barnes and disappointed they had not been included in the process.
“The mayor would not give us a definitive answer. But if you would have been in the room, you could feel the spirit of the men and women who were in that room. All of us were in agreement and unity,” said Evans.
Evans also said many Black residents view the reported effort to remove Barnes within the context of broader concerns about Black leadership nationwide.
“The community wasn’t part of the whole process. Black people are under attack, not just in Seattle, Washington, but all the way to Washington, D.C. You see Black folks getting removed from positions around the nation,” said Evans.
Rev. Terrence Proctor of Church by the Side of the Road said the community should continue supporting Barnes as he works to strengthen relationships between the department and Seattle residents.
“If you finally have a chief of police that the people actually supported, we should navigate even some of the hiccups to move forward. And so, I’m optimistically hopeful as well,” said Proctor.
Rev. Reggie Witherspoon of Mount Calvary Christian Center said community leaders delivered a unified message during their meeting with Wilson.
“We have implored and admonished the mayor to reconsider her decision, and we can only hope that she will have heard the voices of these astute and amazing individuals behind me to reverse this decision. It was very productive, very excellent, very dynamic. And we stated our case very clearly, very articulately, why Chief Shon Barnes should still be the chief of the city of Seattle,” said Witherspoon.
The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), whose conference Barnes was attending in Dallas when the shooting occurred, also issued a statement Thursday expressing concern about reports regarding his future. The organization called for “transparency, fairness, and accountability” in any decision affecting Barnes’ tenure and said Barnes, a former member of its National Board of Directors, has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to constitutional policing, ethical leadership and community engagement.
As of Thursday afternoon, neither Wilson nor City Hall had publicly announced a final decision regarding Barnes’ future as police chief. Community leaders said they remained hopeful the mayor would reconsider any effort to remove him following the Seattle Center shooting.
