Two dead and five injured, including a young boy, in Seattle Center shooting
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DEVELOPING Updated 18 minutes ago Guns in America Guns in America Two dead and five injured, including a young boy, in Seattle Center shooting One suspect was taken into custody, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said. Listen to this article with a free profile 00:00 00:00 Add NBC News to Google At least two dead, five injured in Seattle shooting 03:44 Get more news Live on Share Add NBC News to Google July 26, 2026, 10:10 PM EDT / Updated July 27, 2026, 12:43 AM EDT By Dennis Romero Two people were killed and five others were injured in a shooting at Seattle Center on Sunday night as the civic center complex hosted a major food festival.
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Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Grace Nuñez said its first responders arrived shortly after 6 p.m. and attempted lifesaving efforts for two patients but were unsuccessful.
Four of the injured were taken to the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center, the region’s top-level trauma center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
All had been shot, and the injuries included gunshot wounds to an arm, leg, abdomen and lower leg, Gregg said.
One woman was in critical condition and in surgery. “The other patients are in satisfactory condition (a pediatric male patient, a 23-year-old male and a 39-year-old female),” she said by email.
Nuñez, of the fire department, said one patient, a 40-year-old woman with minor injuries, declined to be taken to a hospital.
A police officer responding to the shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival Sunday. Lindsey Wasson / AP Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said in a statement that city police took a suspect into custody. She also thanked first responders.
“I also want to recognize Seattle firefighters and medical personnel at Harborview who are treating the injured, as well as Seattle Center and event staff and bystanders who helped people reach safety and provided aid in terrifying circumstances,” she said.
Additional details about the person in custody were not immediately available.
Speaking on X, the Seattle Police Department asked members of the public to stay away as detectives and officers try to determine what happened.
The Seattle office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on X that some of its special agents were at the scene assisting Seattle police with the investigation.
The Bite of Seattle food festival was wrapping up its annual event Sunday, the final of its three days.
Estan Wakonabo was waiting in line with his girlfriend for a photo booth when people around them started running furiously, he told NBC affiliate KING of Seattle.
Add NBC News to Google Witnesses describe scene after multiple people injured in Seattle shooting 03:55 Not long afterward, Wakonabo said, he noticed people on the ground, some with obvious gunshot wounds.
“There’s bodies everywhere,” he said of those on the ground who appeared to be injured. “I mean, I counted eight.”
The entrance to Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center on Sunday. Lindsey Wasson / AP Paul Skinner was helping operate a Bite of Seattle booth for the food truck Crave when chaos erupted, he said.
“We just heard what at first sounded like firecrackers, but it’s just a little too crowded for that kind of thing,” he told KING. “So then, when the crowd started moving quickly in herds, you knew it was something was happening.”
He added, “We all got down and took cover.”
Isaiah Flores Sanches described hearing the gunfire.
“It went from something being so playful and so joyful to being something so horrific, and I seen people on the floor trying to take cover,” he told KING.
Bite of Seattle says it draws more than 350,000 people to its annual three-day festival, for which admission is free. Organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The civic center complex that grew into Seattle Center included core structures erected for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, including the Coliseum, the Seattle Center Monorail and the Space Needle.
Dennis Romero Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
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