A later police reconstruction adds new details to the confrontation that killed Isaac Rios and critically wounded Matthew Lanske.

SEATTLE, Wash. — Seattle police have released a more detailed account of the Sept. 6 shooting near Third Avenue and Clay Street that killed 20-year-old Isaac Rios and critically injured 21-year-old Matthew Lanske, adding evidence-based details to a case that first drew widespread attention after Lanske’s family said he wandered through Belltown with serious gunshot wounds while people filmed him instead of helping.

The police reconstruction, issued Sept. 23, shifts the focus of the case from the early descriptions that followed the shooting to surveillance video, witness statements and interviews with people detectives say were directly involved. Police said the gunfire occurred during a physical fight as pedestrians and vehicles gathered for an illegal street takeover. All people directly connected to the shooting had been identified, police said, but the department did not announce an arrest. Detectives said the investigation would be sent to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review and consideration of possible charges.

According to police, the sequence began at about 12:29 a.m. when a 20-year-old man interacted with a 20-year-old woman near Third Avenue and Clay Street. She was with a 22-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman. Police said the encounter developed into a hostile argument before the groups separated. About nine minutes later, according to the department’s later account, the 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old companion approached the group again. Police said a fight followed involving the 22-year-old man, who had a legally possessed firearm. Detectives said the gun fired multiple times during the struggle, striking three people. The firearm later became separated from the fight and was picked up by the 20-year-old man, police said.

Those findings provide a more specific official chronology than the account initially given by Lanske’s family. His relatives told FOX 13 Seattle that Lanske and friends had finished dinner and encountered the street takeover before a man and two women tried to rob one of his friends at gunpoint. His sister, Rebecca Garberding, said Lanske tried to take the gun from the armed man and was shot. In later reporting, police did not confirm that a robbery or attempted robbery had occurred. FOX 13 reported that it asked the department whether the family’s robbery account was accurate but had not received an answer as of Sept. 23. That distinction remains important because the motive and legal significance of the confrontation had not been publicly resolved.

The consequences for Lanske were severe. His family said two bullets struck his abdomen and another shattered his pelvis and damaged a major artery. After the gunfire, Lanske moved away from the immediate scene and was eventually found in the 300 block of Denny Way. His mother, Shanda Barney, said he had managed to travel nearly two blocks while losing a dangerous amount of blood. The family said he later told them that he sought refuge at a nearby 7-Eleven but found the doors locked. Barney said her son remembered pleading to be allowed inside because he believed he was dying. Public reporting reviewed for this article did not include an independent account from the store workers addressing that allegation.

Lanske’s family also said people nearby recorded him on their phones rather than helping him. Barney told FOX 13 that knowing people were taking pictures or video while her son was struggling was nearly as painful for her as learning that he had been shot. The family’s account does not establish what every person nearby saw, understood or did, and police have not publicly issued findings assigning responsibility to bystanders or store employees. What is confirmed is that Lanske eventually contacted 911 and his girlfriend, police located him, and first responders took him to Harborview Medical Center. His family said he spent two days on life support and underwent multiple surgeries, with a recovery expected to last months.

At another location near the shooting, officers found Rios suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said officers gave aid until Seattle Fire Department medics arrived, and Rios was taken to Harborview, where he died despite efforts to save him. His family later identified him publicly and gathered at a memorial near the scene. Relatives described the 20-year-old as deeply connected to friends and family and called for answers about the shooting. His obituary said he was born in Everett, grew up around the Seattle area and was remembered as someone who cared strongly for people close to him.

Early reports about the shooting were less clear than the later police findings. Seattle police initially said officers had responded shortly after 12:42 a.m. to reports of victims in the 300 block of Clay Street and the 300 block of Denny Way. Two additional adults later arrived at Harborview after suffering injuries connected to the episode. As detectives collected surveillance video from nearby businesses, footage from the department’s Real Time Crime Center, community-submitted recordings and statements from the people involved, the department revised and expanded its description. By Sept. 23, police said they could identify the participants and describe the physical struggle that preceded the gunfire.

The investigation also shows the complicated role video can play in a crowded public shooting. Lanske’s family criticized people they say used their phones to record him after he was wounded, yet investigators later cited video from businesses, police systems and community members as a major part of reconstructing the confrontation. Seattle police created an online portal seeking photographs and video showing the minutes before the shooting, the shooting itself and possible suspect information. The department said people could provide evidence anonymously. The existence of useful footage does not resolve the family’s complaint about what happened immediately after Lanske was wounded, but it became central to detectives’ attempt to determine how the fatal encounter unfolded.

The violence occurred as an illegal street takeover was drawing people and vehicles to the neighborhood. KIRO 7 surveillance video showed cars moving through the intersection, spectators gathering and fireworks going off before a fight and gunfire. Residents told the station that similar gatherings had occurred in the area before. Police later explicitly described the shooting as related to a street takeover. The event was one part of an unusually violent stretch in Belltown in which three separate shootings over roughly a day left three people dead and several others injured, prompting renewed concern from residents and city officials about gun violence and late-night disorder.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson responded two days after the weekend violence by calling the deaths and injuries tragic and unacceptable. She said the city planned a broader gun-violence prevention strategy involving community violence interruption, focused deterrence, public-safety resources and other measures. At the same time, she said city data showed shootings and homicides had declined compared with earlier years. The mayor’s broader policy response did not determine what happened in the Rios and Lanske case, but the shootings placed renewed pressure on city officials to explain how Seattle would address both gun violence and recurring street takeovers in dense neighborhoods.

For the families, however, the investigation remains centered on what happened during a few minutes around Third Avenue and Clay Street. Rios’ relatives have continued to seek accountability for his death, while Lanske’s family has focused both on his recovery and on the response he received after he was wounded. The two family narratives overlap in grief but do not answer the unresolved legal questions. Police have not publicly identified the armed 22-year-old by name, and the department’s Sept. 23 account did not announce a conclusion about whether any participant committed a crime in connection with the gunfire.

The next formal step belongs to prosecutors, not police. Seattle detectives said their investigation would be referred to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review and consideration of charges after all people directly involved were identified. Police have not announced an arrest or publicly assigned criminal responsibility for the fatal gunfire. Until prosecutors complete that review, the Sept. 23 reconstruction remains an investigative account rather than a charging decision.

Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.