New data from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says that King County started this year with gun violence homicides in the single digits for the first time since 2017.
In addition to the Tukwila Police Department, participating law enforcement agencies included:
- Auburn Police Department
- Bellevue Police Department
- Des Moines Police Department
- Federal Way Police Department
- Kent Police Department
- King County Sheriff’s Office
- Kirkland Police Department
- Renton Police Department
- Seattle Police Department
- Tukwila Police Department
- Washington State Patrol
“The past several years have seen unmistakable progress to reduce gun violence – that’s good news for King County and good news for our region which is preparing for FIFA,” said King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion. “While Seattle and King County started this year with less gun violence than several years ago, even one death from gun violence is one too many. We will keep building on our two-prong approach to 1) use data to identify and intervene with individuals most at risk before they become victims or perpetrators of violence and 2) identify those causing the most harm in our communities and seek necessary accountability to interrupt their harmful, violent behavior.”
According to the report, the number of shooting homicide victims in the first quarter of 2026 fell 61% from its 2023 peak, while the number of shooting injury victims declined 56% from its 2022 peak.
In 2024, gun violence in King County decreased for the first time since 2018, officials said. 2025 built on that trend, with even larger reductions in some major gun violence categories than 2024.
Both Seattle and South King County have experienced a continuous decline of shots fired in the last few years, with South King County experiencing a 61% decrease and the Seattle area experiencing a 47% decrease since their peak Q1 numbers in 2024, respectively.
In addition to publicly sharing quarterly and end of year gun violence reports, King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion is sharing monthly reports detailing the cases filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in which a firearm was involved; these charges include cases involving firearm violence.
“In the month of March, our office filed 60 cases based on law enforcement referrals in which firearms were involved,” Manion said.
King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Shots Fired Reports
Each successive report presents the most accurate data available at the time they are released.
“Minor discrepancies may exist when comparing current and past data as a result of new information revealed from law enforcement investigations,” officials said. “For example, the total fatal shooting victim numbers from a previous year may include a shooting death that was later determined to be a death by suicide. In this hypothetical example, the number of actual fatal shootings from a past year that we are aware of today would be slightly lower than what was represented in that respective report.”
Learn more and find previous annual and quarterly reports at kingcounty.gov/gunviolencedata.
