“Compared to the prior year, gun violence homicides, gun violence injuries, and overall shots fired all fell substantially,” the office’s summary of the report reads. “A two-year comparison shows a dramatic change from 2023 – with a decrease 47% decrease in firearm homicides and 45% decrease in firearm injuries.”
The numbers align with nationwide trends as a surge in gun violence during the pandemic has quieted across most of the country.
The county’s 2025 totals continued the drop recorded in 2024 as gun violence decreased for the first time since 2018.
With the report’s release, King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said her office is working to do its part to continue the trends.
Still, Manion, justice officials, and law enforcement have their work cut out for them.
In King County, youth shooting victims doubled from 2019 to 2024. Manion says that number dropped 61% in 2025 — also the lowest totals since before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Black males remain the majority of shooting victims, Manion’s office said while pointing to a hopeful drop recorded in the final three months of 2025 that showed a more than 50% drop in the number of Black or African American shooting victims — “a number that has not been seen in any of the quarters of the previous eight years.”
The updated report comes as Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes said improved hiring and retention have helped the city crime totals drop. CHS reported here on the 2025 SPD crime stats and the numbers for Capitol Hill and the Central District. Reports of shots fired and gun violence in the city fell in 2025 down 18% across Seattle and 34% across the East Precinct.
Homicides across Capitol Hill and the Central District fell to five in 2025 after spiking to a dozen in 2024. The 2025 killings were concentrated in a troubled hot spot for the precinct — the blocks around Cal Anderson and Pike and Broadway.
2026’s first deadly gun violence on Capitol Hill came Friday night. CHS reported here on the latest in the shooting as prosecutors weigh charges for the suspect. The killing is reported as the seventh in the city so far in 2026.
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