Interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles briefed the public over Labor Day after a 24-hour period of gunfire left three people dead and three wounded in three incidents near Belltown. He said the department would work with nearby businesses, add patrols, and concentrate on known people who fire guns, while its intelligence unit tried to curb related street disruptions. Some observers asked whether the volume of calls had stretched the force.

Sayles holds the post after former Chief Shon Barnes left days after the city mishandled its first response to a July festival shooting that killed three people, one of them an alleged gunman, and wounded four. Local journalists Jonathan Choe, Ari Hoffman, and Katie Daviscourt objected online to the chief’s wording for those who shoot, calling it a shift in how officials describe the acts.