Only 3 guns recovered from Bite of Seattle shooting, police search for one more: court docs

The documents, filed Wednesday in King County Juvenile Court and obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, allege investigators recovered 13 shell casings from the July 26 shooting scene. A preliminary forensic analysis concluded that the evidence represented four separate firearms. However, Seattle police have publicly announced recovering only three guns during the investigation, suggesting at least one weapon used during the shooting has not yet been found.

According to the probable cause statement, investigators identified evidence from a .40-caliber handgun, shell casings preliminarily matched to the Polymer80 ghost gun allegedly recovered from a 15-year-old alleged shooter, and two additional groups of 9mm shell casings recovered from different locations across the festival grounds. Detectives also noted that additional shell casings were recovered after the initial crime scene processing because of the size and chaotic nature of the scene.

Those findings go beyond what Seattle police have publicly disclosed. Police Chief Shon Barnes previously announced officers recovered three firearms during the investigation: the Polymer80 ghost gun allegedly recovered from the teen suspect after his arrest, a Springfield Armory 9mm pistol that investigators said does not appear to have been fired during the incident, and a Glock 45 equipped with an illegal fully automatic conversion device, commonly known as a "Glock switch," that officers discovered during post-scene cleanup.

The newly filed charging documents, however, indicate investigators believe four different firearms were fired during the incident, suggesting at least one weapon involved in the shooting remains unaccounted for.

The filings also reveal that the teen's alleged weapon was not responsible for killing two of the three people who died.

According to a probable cause certification, preliminary testing by the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab determined that projectiles recovered during the autopsies of Carlos Sanchez-Villalba and Ashley Whitehead were not fired from Black's Polymer80 ghost gun.

The documents nevertheless allege that multiple Seattle police officers witnessed the teen firing repeatedly into a crowded festival walkway before taking him into custody. Officers recovered the Polymer80 ghost gun with an extended magazine from inside his coat. According to the charging documents, the privately manufactured firearm featured a rear slide plate engraved with the words "1 SHOT 1 KILL."

The probable cause statement also describes a cooperating witness who reported seeing another man wearing a light blue shirt fire what the witness believed were the initial shots before fleeing south through the festival. The witness told investigators that the suspect then drew a handgun with an extended magazine from a chest bag and fired multiple rounds toward that individual.

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The new filings come as the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office formally charged the teen with one count of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

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Prosecutors allege the assault charge stems from the teen firing multiple times into a crowd. The firearm charge alleges the suspect unlawfully possessed a handgun, which Washington law generally prohibits for anyone under the age of 18.

Notably, prosecutors did not file murder charges Wednesday.

In a statement, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said Seattle police have referred only one case from the Bite of Seattle shooting to prosecutors and that it was referred as an assault and unlawful firearm possession investigation, not as a homicide case.

Because the suspect was 15 years old at the time of the alleged offenses, prosecutors also filed a motion asking the court to decline juvenile jurisdiction, allowing him to be prosecuted as an adult. Unlike defendants who are 16 or 17 and charged with certain serious violent crimes, a 15-year-old may only be transferred to adult court if a judge approves the request after a separate hearing.

The filing of the motion does not automatically transfer the case. Prosecutors said the process typically takes several months and requires the judge to hear arguments from both the prosecution and defense before deciding whether the case should proceed in adult court.

The new court filings also provide additional context to criticism of Seattle officials' public messaging in the hours following the shooting. Seattle police initially announced that a suspect had been taken into custody and indicated there was no ongoing threat. Hours later, authorities acknowledged they were searching for an additional suspect, before later expanding that warning to say investigators believed there may have been two additional suspects, creating confusion as thousands of festivalgoers evacuated Seattle Center.

The July 26 shooting left Carlos Sanchez-Villalba and Ashley Whitehead dead, as well as the second suspected shooter, Junior Niko-Semo. The shootout also wounded four others, including a 2-year-old child. The investigation remains ongoing.

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