Seattle Police’s official account says seven people were shot three died and four others were hospitalized, including a toddler, rather than five additional people wounded. 

Accountability Now: Seattle Must Build a Real Recovery System After the Bite of Seattle Mass Shooting

To Mayor Katie Wilson, the Seattle City Council, the Seattle Police Department, King County leaders, the Governor of Washington, the Washington State Legislature, and the state agencies responsible for victim services

The Issue

My name is Charrita Tatum. I am a mother, a business owner, and a community advocate.

On July 26, 2026, gunfire erupted during the Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center an event where families, children, elders, workers, vendors, and visitors should have been able to gather safely.

Seven people were struck by bullets. Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44, Ashley Whitehead, 56, and a 19-year-old died. Four additional people were hospitalized, including a 2-year-old child. 

This shooting did not end when the gunfire stopped.

It created grieving children, traumatized witnesses, injured survivors, destabilized households, lost wages, medical expenses, fear, displacement, interrupted schooling, and surviving caregivers who may now be responsible for rebuilding an entire family while managing their own grief.

Mayor Katie Wilson said the city’s first responsibilities were supporting grieving families, caring for the injured, and providing clear and accurate information. She also acknowledged that people who were not physically injured—including witnesses, workers and others—may carry the experience for a long time. 

We agree.

Now those words must be reflected in written policies, funded services, staffing levels, timelines, public reporting and long-term commitments.

We are grateful for condolences.

We are done being asked to accept condolences as a recovery system.

Children and surviving caregivers cannot remain invisible

When a parent is killed by gun violence, a child does not experience only a death.

That child may also lose:

• Household income
• Housing stability
• Transportation
• Childcare
• School continuity
• A sense of safety
• Access to medical and mental health care
• Daily routines
• Family relationships
• The person who protected, supported or cared for them

The surviving caregiver may suddenly be responsible for parenting a traumatized child while arranging a funeral, communicating with police and prosecutors, applying for benefits, responding to schools, attending court, managing safety concerns, missing work, securing childcare and dealing with their own grief.

Research involving children bereaved by parental homicide and their caregivers demonstrates that their needs extend across the home, school, health, legal and community systems—and may change throughout childhood and into adulthood. Research also indicates that interventions supporting both bereaved children and their remaining caregivers can reduce the risk of more severe grief and mental health difficulties. 

Yet Seattle does not have a publicly identified, citywide protocol guaranteeing that every child who loses a parent to homicide will be identified, connected to support, protected at school and followed over time.

That must change.

We demand the following actions

1. A public 90-day Gun Violence Prevention and Family Recovery Plan

Within 30 days, city leaders must publish a plan that clearly identifies:

• Actions to prevent additional violence
• Actions to support people already harmed
• The responsible agency for each action
• Specific funding sources
• Implementation deadlines
• Measurable outcomes
• Public progress reports every 30 days
• Prevention and recovery must be treated as equally necessary public responsibilities.

2. An Immediate Family Recovery Response Team

Within 24 hours of a homicide or mass-violence incident, every directly affected family should be offered a coordinated recovery team that includes:

An independent victim advocate
A community-based survivor navigator
A behavioral health professional
A benefits and compensation navigator
A school or child-services liaison when children are involved
A single point of contact who remains assigned beyond the initial crisis

Families should not have to repeatedly retell the most traumatic event of their lives to disconnected agencies.

3. A Protected Child Survivor Identification and Support Pathway

Seattle, King County and Washington State must establish a formal protocol for children who lose a parent or primary caregiver to homicide.

• With appropriate consent and privacy protections, the protocol must:
• Identify dependent children affected by the homicide
• Connect the surviving caregiver with a dedicated navigator
• Contact the child’s school within two business days when authorized
• Establish a trauma-informed school reentry plan
• Provide flexibility for attendance, assignments and testing
• Offer tutoring and academic recovery support
• Address transportation, meals, childcare and safety concerns
• Connect the child with culturally responsive grief and trauma care
• Conduct follow-up during major developmental and educational transitions
• Children should not have to fail academically, enter a behavioral crisis or become system-involved before anyone responds.

4. A Surviving Caregiver and Family Stabilization Fund

Seattle, King County and Washington State must establish immediately accessible emergency funding that is not limited to reimbursement after a family has already spent money it may not have.

The fund should address:

• Rent and mortgage payments
• Utilities
• Food and household necessities
• Childcare
• Transportation
• Relocation and safety expenses
• Funeral and burial expenses
• Lost wages
• Medical and mental health costs
• Legal and court-related needs
• School clothing, supplies and educational expenses

A grieving caregiver should not be expected to choose between burying a loved one, paying rent and caring for a traumatized child.

5. Automatic, proactive Crime Victims Compensation outreach

Every injured survivor, witness, bereaved family and surviving caregiver should receive direct assistance with Washington State Crime Victims Compensation not merely a website or telephone number.

Washington’s program may provide up to $150,000 for medical and mental health treatment, up to $15,000 in temporary wage-loss benefits, and up to $40,000 in family benefits for homicide victims’ families, including burial expenses. 

Within 48 hours, qualified navigators should:

Explain potential eligibility
Assist with the application
Help locate the police report
Gather required documentation
Communicate with providers
Track the claim
Help challenge delays or denials
Provide services in multiple languages
Conduct targeted outreach through trusted community organizations

The city and state must publicly report application, approval, denial and payment data by race, age, ZIP code and relationship to the person harmed. National research and reporting have identified racial disparities in access to and approval of victim compensation, making equity monitoring essential. 

6. Long-term, culturally responsive care not crisis referrals alone

A crisis line is not a long-term recovery plan.

Children, parents, caregivers, witnesses and injured survivors must have timely access to:

• Individual and family therapy
• Traumatic-grief treatment
• Psychiatric care
• Peer support
• Caregiver support groups
• Community healing spaces
• Body-based and nervous-system-regulation services
• Case management
• Reentry into services when trauma resurfaces

Care must remain available for as long as clinically necessary, including when children reach new developmental stages and begin processing the homicide differently.

7. Victim-advocate staffing and caseload transparency

Seattle must publicly disclose:

• The number of funded victim-advocate positions
• The number currently filled
• Average and maximum caseloads
• Average response and wait times
• The number of victims who receive follow-up
• The number of children and surviving caregivers served
• Services available outside normal business hours
• Cases closed without successful connection to services
• The city must establish reasonable caseload standards and fund independent, community-based advocates when city and court advocates cannot provide timely support.

Federal victim-service rules already recognize services that respond to victims’ emotional and physical needs, stabilize their lives, support system navigation, coordinate multidisciplinary responses and address practical needs such as childcare. 

8. Public-event safety and emergency communication reform

The city must complete and release an independent after-action review addressing:

Security planning
Staffing and deployment
Entry and exit routes
Emergency evacuation procedures
Coordination among SPD, Seattle Center and event organizers
Real-time public alerts
Communication with people sheltering in place
Multilingual and accessible emergency information
Reunification procedures for separated children and families

Residents must receive accurate, timely information about whether there is an ongoing threat. Emergency communication cannot be treated as secondary.

9. Sustained investment in survivor-led and community-based organizations

Seattle, King County and Washington State must make multi-year investments in organizations already trusted by communities most affected by gun violence.

Funding must cover the true cost of:

• Victim advocacy
• Family navigation
• Youth intervention
• Violence interruption
• Gang-exit support
• Hospital-based intervention
• School-based support
• Housing stabilization
• Caregiver services
• Community healing
• Evaluation and accountability
• Organizations should not be expected to carry government responsibilities through short-term pilots, delayed reimbursements, unstable contracts or unpaid labor.

10. Paid survivor leadership and quarterly public accountability

Survivors and caregivers must not be used for press conferences, photographs, advisory conversations or listening sessions without decision-making authority.

Seattle should establish a paid Survivor and Caregiver Accountability Council with meaningful authority to review:

• Recovery policies
• Victim-service contracts
• Program budgets
• Equity data
• Public-event safety plans
• School-support protocols
• Agency performance
• The Mayor and Police Chief must also appear at quarterly public hearings to report on:
• Gun-violence trends
• Response and communication failures
• Case clearance rates
• Victim-service capacity
• Compensation outreach
• Child and caregiver support
• Prevention investments
• Progress toward publicly stated benchmarks
• Words are not enough

Words do not stabilize a household.

A vigil does not pay the rent.

A press conference does not provide childcare.

A referral does not guarantee access to therapy.

A short-term response does not carry a child through years of grief.

No parent should have to bury a child.

No toddler should be shot at a family event.

No child should lose a parent and then lose housing, school stability, financial security and access to care.

No surviving caregiver should be left to navigate grief, parenting, court systems, benefits, healthcare and financial crisis alone.

And no community should be expected to endure repeated violence while public officials offer compassion without policies, resources, timelines or accountability.

Compassion is the beginning. Investment is the response.

The shooting lasted minutes. Recovery will last years.

Sign this petition to demand that Seattle, King County and Washington State build a coordinated, equitable and measurable recovery system for victims, witnesses, children and surviving caregivers.

That time is not later. That time is now. No more Silent Seattle.