Bite of Seattle Shooting Leaves Three Dead as Manhunt Stretches On

Seattle detectives pressed through a second full day on Tuesday without locating the last gunman from the Bite of Seattle shooting, a burst of crossfire that killed three people and wounded four others as the city's largest food festival entered its final hours on Sunday evening. Court documents reviewed by KING 5 and ABC News describe at least three shooters exchanging fire near the Seattle Center Armory, sending bullets through crowds gathered beneath the Space Needle.

Officers began responding to reports of gunfire at Seattle Center around 6 p.m. on July 26. One suspected shooter, 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo of Seattle, died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds, the King County Medical Examiner confirmed Monday, according to KIRO 7. Police arrested a 15-year-old boy shortly afterward, while a third suspected participant escaped into the departing crowds and has not been identified.

Crossfire in a Festival Crowd

Bite of Seattle, staged each summer on the Seattle Center campus, draws more than 350,000 visitors over its run, filling walkways with food stalls, vendors and families. Investigators believe the gunmen were firing at one another rather than targeting the public, with seven bystanders and participants struck in the exchange, CNN reported. Because the shooting unfolded in a dense crowd at close range, officers arriving within minutes found victims scattered across the grounds and began emergency aid on the spot.

KOMO News reported that the King County Medical Examiner identified the dead as Ashley Whitehead, 56; Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44; and Semo, who investigators believe was among the shooters. Three of the wounded, a 2-year-old boy, a 23-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, were taken to hospitals. One critically injured victim died during surgery late Sunday, Time reported, raising the death toll from two to three overnight. Hospital officials described the surviving victims as stable, and the toddler remained hospitalized Monday, according to KOMO.

First responders converged on the campus within minutes of the initial calls, declaring a mass casualty incident and urging the public to avoid the area as thousands of festivalgoers streamed toward the exits. Officers "performed emergency aid to the wounded" while launching an immediate search for the shooters, an assistant chief told reporters Sunday night, per Time. One suspect surrendered at the scene while another fled, a sequence that shaped the first hours of the investigation, according to Time's reconstruction of the evening.

Mayor Katie Wilson, speaking near the festival grounds Sunday night, called the attack "a horrific act of violence." Her administration now faces the aftermath of a mass shooting at one of the city's most heavily attended public events, in a venue that also hosts museums, theaters and a daily flow of tourists visiting the Space Needle.

Probable Cause Found Against Teenage Suspect

Judicial review of the case began quickly. On Monday, a King County judge found probable cause to hold the 15-year-old on three counts of first-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, KING 5 reported. The boy did not appear in the courtroom and was ordered held in secure detention while prosecutors weigh formal charges.

Charging documents cited by KING 5 allege that officers saw the teenager standing on a north walkway of the campus, holding a handgun and firing into the crowd. Investigators have not said what relationship, if any, connected him to Semo or to the third shooter, though police described one of the dead men as an acquaintance of the arrested teen.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to pursue the case in juvenile court or seek to move it to adult jurisdiction, a determination that in Washington state turns on the severity of the alleged offenses and the defendant's history. First-degree assault counts of the kind found supported at Monday's hearing sit at the serious end of that spectrum, and the charging decision will signal how aggressively King County intends to treat the case.

Gang Links Suspected but Not Confirmed

Assistant Chief of Investigations Nicole Powell told reporters Monday that early evidence points toward a dispute between armed groups, and law enforcement sources told ABC News the shooting was preliminarily believed to be gang related. Police Chief Shon Barnes struck a more careful note, saying "I don't know if it's gang activity, but certainly group activity."

City officials have repeatedly highlighted how concentrated Seattle's gun violence is. Roughly 0.01 percent of the city's population is connected to 52 percent of its shootings, a share dominated by young people, Time reported in its account of the investigation. Sunday's bloodshed fits that pattern in the ages of those involved: a 15-year-old in custody, a 19-year-old dead, and victims who simply happened to be standing between them.

Search Narrows on Festival Footage

Detectives spent Monday and Tuesday assembling a timeline from surveillance cameras, vendor stalls and the phones of thousands of festivalgoers. Police have asked anyone with information or video to contact the department's violent crimes tip line at (206) 233-5000, KUOW reported. Investigators face an unusual complication: with one suspected shooter dead and another in juvenile detention, the surviving fugitive may be the only person able to explain how a confrontation escalated into gunfire at a family event.

Police have not released a description of the third suspect, and officials acknowledged Monday that they had not yet established his identity. Court documents indicate investigators counted at least three distinct shooters based on witness accounts and ballistic evidence recovered from the scene, KING 5 reported.

Security Questions Shadow a Signature Event

Seattle Center is an open urban campus rather than a gated venue, and Bite of Seattle is free to attend, which leaves organizers without the perimeter screening common at ticketed stadium events. City leaders will now confront whether one of the Pacific Northwest's largest festivals can continue operating without checkpoints, bag searches or weapons detection, and at what cost to the open character that has defined the event for decades.

Those decisions will play out against a grim national backdrop of shootings at public gatherings, and against local pressure that intensified within hours of the attack. For now, the investigation into the Bite of Seattle shooting remains open on three fronts: the manhunt for the third gunman, the prosecutors' charging decision on the detained teenager, and the question of what set armed young men against each other in the middle of a food festival.