Gun-related crimes decrease in Renton

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Firearm-related crimes continue to decrease in Renton after peaking in 2023.

At the July 20 Renton Committee of the Whole meeting, several representatives from the Renton Police Department presented an update on gun violence in the city.

Crime analyst Abby Elliot said the 2022 to 2023 growth the city saw in firearms crimes, such as murder and manslaughter cases, robberies, assault with firearms, drive-by shootings, illegal discharge with a firearm and illegal possession of -firearms, and the decline since then mirrors patterns they have seen in many other crime types in the city.

The total number of shots fired in King County shows a similar trend of peaking in 2023, before declining again. Overall shots fired numbers include confirmed gunshots, gunshots with property damage, gunshots resulting in injury and gun homicides (does not include suicides or officer-involved shootings). It only includes incidents with the unlawful discharge of a firearm that would warrant being reported to the police.

“Gun incidents citywide, countywide and even nationwide are decreasing,” Elliot said.

Police sergeant Eric Gordon theorized the increase in 2023 is due to COVID.

“Prior to COVID, it would be unheard of to walk into a bank with a face covering, right? That would never occur. We wouldn’t allow it,” Gordon said. “During COVID, that became acceptable, right? I think since 2023, what we’re seeing is we’re seeing less and less people wear them because it’s not as much of an issue anymore.”

The data shows the highest activity for gun cases is on the weekends and from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Elliot said January and July have the highest instances of gun-related cases.

Elliot presented a heat map of Renton showing the highest concentration of these crimes was in the downtown core and the Renton Highlands.

There have been a total of 805 reported firearm thefts in the city of Renton since 2021. The majority of these thefts are from car prowls, residence burglaries and motor vehicle thefts. The Renton Police have processed a total of 1,633 firearms over that same time period, through seizures and surrenders. One-third of the processed firearms are surrendered.

“There’s a drop in 2024, and in 2025 there is a brief rise again,” Elliot said. “That is due to us helping process uh firearms from outside agencies, as well as taking in more firearms with violent-related cases such as assault with a firearm and murders.”

Gordon works with the Violent Crimes Unit (VCU), which is a unit created in 2022 as a supplemental patrol squad to conduct violent crime and gang investigations, and high-risk criminal apprehension. The VCU became integral during the spike of violent crimes in 2023.

“It kind of came to a flashpoint,” Gordon said. “Our chief had the wherewithal to allow us to do this full-time and really target the folks that were doing a majority of the crime in our city, which in turn reduces the amount of crimes that we have to respond to.”

The VCU has made a total of 215 felony arrests since 2023 for a variety of crimes, including murder, armed robbery and human trafficking.

Gordon said since 2023, their unit has taken 66 guns off the streets. This includes AR-15s, AK-47s and “Ghost Guns,” which are unserialized, untraceable firearms assembled at home.

“The loophole in this is that it’s very hard to prosecute those because you have to show that they knew what it was and what they’re doing,” Gordon said. “So the knowledge component is very hard to prove. Recently had a case where documented gangster had three of these in his possession. The prosecutor’s office also wanted nothing to do with it just because of the way the filing standards and way the wording is in the actual statute makes it very hard to prosecute.”

Gordon said 16 of the guns were reported as stolen. Eight of the guns had “switches” attached, which can turn pistols into fully or semi-automatic firing. Gordon said people can buy these on Temu, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, or 3-D print their own at home.

The VCU will attain social media warrants to attain photos of gang members showing off their guns online. However, he said it is very hard to make an arrest from a photo.

“They’re pretty brazen about what they post in open content. A majority of these are juveniles,” Gordon said. “Say I know who the person is. I can ID that they’re a felon and they’re in possession of what I believe to be a firearm. I now have to prove that that photo is an actually functioning firearm because there are toy guns.”

Gordon said they cannot get a search warrant based on a photo. He said it is common for these gang members to be between the ages of 12 and 16.

“A lot of that has to do with the fact that older gangsters are recruiting younger folks to do the crimes for them as a way into the gang,” Gordon said. “They also know that there’s a lot more leniency on the juvenile side of the house in the state as it comes to prosecution. So, it makes it a lot easier and most of these kids don’t have criminal records.”

Deputy Chief Ryan Rutledge highlighted community partnerships such as Community Passageways and Urban Families, community groups that work to get youth out of gangs.

“King County has a lot of different groups that are doing this and they’re trying to grow it,” Rutledge said. “Really it takes police departments, maybe traditionally in the past that haven’t used that network. Renton wants to be a leader in that. We want to lean into the community and to see how can we have that buffer and then we could help build trust with that.”