More than three years after an expecting mother was shot and killed in Seattle, her husband has stepped forward as the plaintiff in a wrongful death lawsuit. The legal action is not aimed at the man who fired the shots, but at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and it raises pointed questions about what the agency knew before the tragedy unfolded.
The case centers on the suspect, a man named Cordell Goosby. Back in June of 2023, King County prosecutors say Goosby shot a married couple who were sitting in their car near 4th and Lenora, in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. The attack shattered a quiet moment on a city street and left one family grieving while the other faced years of court proceedings.
The human toll was devastating. Anna Kwan, who was 32 weeks pregnant at the time, was killed. Her husband, Sung Kwan, was shot in the arm and survived. It is that survival, and the loss of his wife and their unborn child, that has now placed him at the center of a lawsuit seeking to hold a public agency accountable.
The criminal case took an unusual turn. Goosby was initially charged with first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Before trial, his attorneys pursued an insanity defense. A defense expert evaluated Goosby and determined he was insane at the time of the shooting, and prosecutors then hired their own independent expert who reached the same conclusion. With both sides in agreement, prosecutors accepted a not guilty by reason of insanity plea.
The latest lawsuit shifts the focus to the agency that had been working with Goosby. The suit claims that he was being supported by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and provided with services, including direct work with case managers, in the period leading up to the shooting. According to the suit, the authority was in a position to see how his situation was developing.
The most serious allegations go to the question of warning signs. The suit claims the authority knew that Goosby's mental state was declining and did not intervene before the shooting. Court documents claim that at one point Goosby told an authority supervisor he was thinking of conducting drive by shootings. The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial. Fox 13 reached out to the authority for a comment on the lawsuit and said it was still waiting to hear back.