Seattle police arrested a 44-year-old man in connection with one of three fatal Labor Day weekend shootings in the Belltown neighborhood. Detectives, working alongside a SWAT team and the Gun Violence Reduction Unit, took the suspect into custody for the September 6 murder of 23-year-old Tionna Simpson. Simpson was found inside a vehicle near Blanchard Street and Third Avenue around 2 a.m. with gunshot wounds to her head and torso, and later died at Harborview Medical Center. The suspect was booked into the King County Jail, while his identity remains withheld pending formal charges.
Simpson’s death was part of a violent holiday weekend in Belltown. Roughly 90 minutes before her shooting, another incident at Clay Street and 3rd Avenue left 20-year-old Isaac Rios dead from a gunshot wound to the chest and injured two others. The shooting coincided with an unsanctioned street party involving dangerous vehicle burnouts and explosives. Less than 24 hours later, 17-year-old Kaleb Osborne was fatally shot in the head and neck near Pier 66, in an attack that also wounded a 21-year-old man. Police have made no arrests in the latter two cases and have not publicly linked the three incidents beyond their timing.