Black community leaders rally for Seattle police Chief Shon Barnes

Black community leaders representing the Seattle NAACP, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and a number of other organizations Thursday morning called on Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to rescind her reported decision to oust police Chief Shon Barnes.

“We need to understand that this African American, Black and Brown community is absolutely behind Shon Barnes and we are a strong constituency,” Bishop Reggie Witherspoon of Mt. Calvary Christian Center said, standing before a group of about two dozen who sat inside the Seattle City Hall on the steps to the City Council chambers.

The group did not know for certain if Barnes had been fired.

A city official confirmed to The Seattle Times on Wednesday night that Wilson was planning to tell Barnes he needed to resign or he would be fired. Others who work with the police department or have talked to people in it said they have heard the same.

The Times asked Wilson on Wednesday afternoon in a sit-down interview whether she was planning to keep Barnes and she declined to say anything at the time.

As of Thursday morning, Wilson’s staff had not responded to inquiries, and a police spokesperson directed questions to the mayor’s office.

A coalition of about six leaders secured a meeting with the mayor at 9 a.m. Thursday to tell her she needed to “fix her mistake,” Witherspoon said, and reinstate Barnes.

When the group returned from the 9 a.m. meeting, Seattle civil rights attorney James Bible said “I did not hear any decision actually made” by the mayor.

Before the 9 a.m. meeting, Witherspoon clutched several printed pages of statistics that he said reflected the success of Barnes’ yearlong tenure as police chief, calling particularly on a decline in gun violence and an increase in gun confiscations.

During 2025, Barnes’ first year as chief, the number of criminal offenses reported to the Seattle Police Department dropped by 5% from the previous year. In the first six months of 2026, the city saw a similar number of offenses as it did during the same time frame last year.

“We are a strong constituency and we want the mayor to know that you need to reckon with us,” Witherspoon said to cheers. “You need our support. You need our help, but you keep X-ing out our Black leaders like they don’t matter.”

For Selena Taylor, who sat just behind Witherspoon as he spoke, the matter of gun violence and its toll on young people is a personal one.

Taylor’s son, Ezra, was one of three killed after he was shot in the head by errant gunfire in Des Moines in 2021. He was walking to his car and had just called his mother after his shift as an Amazon security guard to tell her he was on his way home.

She praised Barnes’ commitment to decrease gun violence and make a change when it’s so desperately needed.

“That’s why this is so important to me,” said Taylor, who started the nonprofit Ezra’s Hands Outreach to help empower young people.

Leslie Braxton, senior pastor at New Beginnings Christian Fellowship in Kent, said he was at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference in Dallas with Barnes. The pastor said he was disappointed to see “highly competent, qualified Black people who are being purged for nonperformance reasons” and often replaced by less competent people.

“Seattle is mourning this loss,” said former Washington state Rep. Dawn Mason. “You don’t make an important decision in the middle of grief.”