King County Executive Dow Constantine

Dear fellow King County employee,

A shooting occurred during yesterday’s evening commute in downtown Seattle, leaving one person dead and multiple people with injuries. It was the third shooting in two days within a several-block radius of downtown.

These events strike us all deeply – as residents, commuters, and public servants. Everyone deserves to feel safe. As we process this string of violent incidents, we must support each other, and appreciate the collective trauma that gun violence inflicts upon the entire community.

As always, King County employees displayed laudable courage and exemplary customer service, including but by no means limited to coordinators at the Transit Control Center who scrambled to adjust routes, Transit Police deputies who responded on scene, downtown Public Health employees who helped keep clients safe, bus drivers who displayed calm amid the storm, and Water Taxi crews who quickly added extra runs to help get people home.

We will continue to work with our partners at the City of Seattle and Sound Transit on any challenge to safety – downtown and elsewhere along the commute. And we will continue to tackle the root causes of violence in our community.

Many employees and their family members were downtown yesterday and witnessed the scenes or directly felt their impact. If you would like to speak with someone, King County provides two free services to employees that offer professional support and advice: the Employee Assistance Program and Making Life Easier. Both resources are free and confidential.

Our goal is to keep you informed when an emergency occurs in or around our workplaces. To make sure you are getting timely information during emergency incidents, please register your personal phone, personal email, or work cell information with KCInform, the King County employee emergency alert system. Find out how to register for alerts here. You can also sign up for Metro Transit alerts here.

Your safety, and the safety of our customers, is paramount. If you see something suspicious, say something. To report an emergency, or if in doubt, call 911. To report a non-emergency incident, contact FMD Security at 206-296-5000, FMD.Security@kingcounty.gov, or www.kingcounty.gov/IncidentReport.

Thank you for all you do to keep the people of King County – and your fellow employees – healthy and safe.

Sincerely,

Dow Constantine
King County Executive