More Shots Fired, But Fewer Victims In 2022: King County Prosecutor

KING COUNTY, WA — Even as the number of shootings continued to rise last year, fewer people were hit by gunfire, according to data compiled by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

The office's Crime Strategies Unit tracks quarterly and annual shooting statistics as part of its Shots Fired project, sourced from data submitted from law enforcement agencies across the region.

While the report incorporates information from more than 20 agencies, prosecutors said most is sourced from the eight agencies that account for most of King County's population, including the sheriff's office and police departments in Seattle, Renton and Kent.

According to the report, nearly 60 percent of shots fired incidents occurred in jurisdictions outside Seattle in 2022, including just over half of shootings with victims who were injured or killed. Not including shootings that were self-inflicted or at the hands of law enforcement, prosecutors recorded 83 deaths from homicidal gun violence last year, a decrease of 7 percent.

Separate calculations by The Seattle Times sourced from the Medical Examiner's Office found the number of overall homicides on pace with 2021, with Seattle accounting for nearly half of the reported killings.

The prosecutor's report noted a small decline in the number of people injured in nonfatal shootings, with 357 victims recorded last year, down 5 percent from 2021. At the same time, agencies reported a combined 1,654 shots fired incidents, a 16 percent surge from the year before.

Recently-elected King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion told the Times that while violent crime remains a concern, she was hopeful that slowing rates in the last quarter of 2022 could be a sign that things are "leveling off" after increases in recent years.