Socialist Seattle mayor joins hotel picket line as police hunt suspects after deadly weekend of shootings

Wilson joined King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and striking UNITE HERE Local 8 workers Monday at the Embassy Suites in Pioneer Square, hours after a 17-year-old was killed near Elliott Avenue and Bell Street in the third deadly Belltown shooting in roughly 24 hours.

The teenager was killed and a 21-year-old man seriously wounded shortly before midnight Sunday. Earlier that day, one man was killed and two people wounded in another Belltown shooting, while a woman was fatally shot while sitting in a parked vehicle near Third Avenue and Blanchard Street.

SPD said the shootings appeared unrelated. As of Tuesday, no arrests had been announced in any of the three killings.

The Embassy Suites workers have been on strike since June 18, before Seattle's first World Cup match and one day before the US-Australia game at nearby Lumen Field. The walkout continued throughout Seattle's World Cup games and has become what the union says is the longest hotel strike in Washington history.

Wilson and Zahilay joined striking workers seeking higher wages, year-round healthcare, pre-pandemic staffing levels and immigration-related protections, including notification if ICE or Department of Homeland Security personnel are on the property.

“It’s time to settle this contract and get these skilled workers back to delivering world-class service to guests from around the globe,” Wilson said.

Hilton has said it remains “committed to negotiating in good faith toward a fair and reasonable agreement” benefiting employees and the hotel.

Wilson's appearance also came as SPD continues searching for additional suspects in the July 26 Bite of Seattle mass shooting, which killed three people and wounded four others, including a toddler. One 15-year-old has been arrested and charged, but police have not arrested the additional people believed to have exchanged gunfire. Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles said Monday that detectives are still reviewing approximately 450 hours of video and hope to “make some arrests here soon.”

Following the latest shootings, Sayles generated widespread attention online when he described SPD's efforts to identify people police call “trigger pullers.”

“We call them trigger pullers in our community,” Sayles said, explaining that police want to identify them, build cases and work with prosecutors to “bring these individuals to justice.”

Wilson did not release a statement addressing the weekend's shootings until Tuesday, a day after appearing on the picket line. “What happened in Belltown this weekend is tragic and unacceptable,” Wilson said. “Three young people lost their lives, three others were seriously hurt, and countless neighbors were shaken awake by gunshots, street racing, sirens, or another painful headline in the paper.”

Wilson said she will unveil a “comprehensive, focused gun violence prevention strategy” next week focused on “community violence interruption and focused deterrence,” public safety and public health investments, additional staffing, and efforts to convince state lawmakers to pass additional gun restrictions. She did not announce a specific gang-violence strategy, despite suspected gang violence being at the center of the Bite of Seattle mass shooting and detectives now investigating whether the latest Belltown killing was also a “group or gang violence situation.”

Sayles acknowledged Monday that SPD's response to the latest violence is not fundamentally different from what police were already doing. “I don't think it's different,” Sayles said when asked whether the weekend prompted a new approach. “We just got to tweak a few things.”

The Embassy Suites appearance was not Wilson's first high-profile trip to a picket line involving a major Seattle employer. Days after winning the 2025 mayoral election, Wilson joined striking Starbucks workers and urged residents to boycott the hometown coffee giant. “I am not buying Starbucks and you should not either,” Wilson said.

Starbucks has since announced a $100 million Nashville investment expected to support approximately 2,000 jobs within five years. Meanwhile the coffe giants has been laying off hundreds of jobs in Seattle.

Wilson said Tuesday that SPD is “working diligently to hold those harming others to account,” but police have yet to announce an arrest.