Seattle police chief Shon Barnes has resigned, the mayor's office confirmed yesterday.

The big picture: Barnes' resignation comes after criticism over delays in public updates after Sunday's mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle and questions about how often he's away from the city.

The latest: Deputy Chief Andre Sayles will serve as the Seattle Police Department's interim chief, Mayor Wilson's office said in a news release yesterday afternoon.

Catch up quick: Seattle officials went about five hours before holding a public briefing after Sunday's shooting.

• Barnes said he was out of town at a law enforcement executives' conference in Dallas when the shooting occurred.
• He also has traveled to Chicago frequently to visit his family, who have been living there while he rents an apartment in Seattle, according to news website PubliCola.
• Earlier this week, Barnes got into a heated exchange with a reporter who asked about his travel schedule — an interaction that was captured on video and made headlines.

Flashback: Barnes was brought on by Wilson's predecessor, Bruce Harrell, in late 2024.

• He was one of the department heads Wilson kept on after she took office earlier this year.

What they're saying: Wilson acknowledged problems with the city's response to the shooting in a Wednesday interview with The Seattle Times.

• "The public did need information sooner about whether there was any remaining threat to the public, and about the status of the Seattle Center campus," Wilson told the newspaper.
• "That information sharing should not have taken five hours."

What's next: Wilson plans to hold a press conference at 11am today to introduce Sayles and discuss the search process for a permanent chief.

Share this story

The Seattle Film Commission is urging the Space Needle to resume showing Hollywood movies on Washington state's only full-height IMAX screen.

Why it matters: Washington moviegoers currently have to leave the state to see Hollywood films in the full-height 1.43:1 IMAX format.

Catch up quick: The IMAX at the Center theater — formerly called the Boeing IMAX Theater — stopped screening Hollywood feature films after the Space Needle bought it from the Pacific Science Center earlier this year.

• The programming change has drawn renewed attention with the release of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," which was filmed entirely in IMAX.

What they're saying: As moviegoers travel out of state to find full-height IMAX screens showing the film, "the largest screen in Washington state … sits empty," the Seattle Film Commission wrote in a letter Wednesday to Space Needle LLC.

• The commission — a city advisory group that recommends policies to support Seattle's film industry — urged the Space Needle to resume regular IMAX feature-film programming.
• "Seattle should be participating in culture, not watching it happen somewhere else," the letter says.

The Space Needle didn't respond to Axios' request for comment yesterday.

Tell a moviegoer

🥕 PCC Community Markets is clashing with its union after sending workers home without pay for wearing pro-Palestinian watermelon pins. (Seattle Times)

🚨 Police say preliminary testing shows the 15-year-old charged with first-degree assault and unlawful handgun possession did not fire the shots that killed two bystanders in Sunday's Bite of Seattle shooting. (Associated Press)

🏀 Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended from the team's next five home games and fined by the WNBA after confronting pro-Sophie Cunningham fans. (ESPN)

Amazon's AI cloud business soared in the second quarter, with the company's shares surging 9.4% in after-hours trading yesterday.

Why it matters: The AI economy — centered around cloud companies like Amazon and data center investments — is booming, even as questions mount about whether it's sustainable.

Driving the news: Amazon's net sales rose 20% year over year, easily topping expectations.

Yes, but: The company's free cash flow has turned negative as it invests heavily in the business.

Go deeper

Monti loves helping his people garden by digging holes, "even if they're in the wrong location," owner Lisa B. writes.

• He also "dislikes going to bed after 9pm" and tries to impose his early bedtime on the rest of the household, demanding "we follow him upstairs to go to bed on his terms," Lisa tells us.

Our thought bubble: Maybe we'd all get more sleep with a Monti around.

📸 Got a pet that deserves the spotlight? Hit reply and send us their name, some cute pics (horizontal if possible) and what they most like and dislike. They might just become our next featured star!