The lawsuit alleges workers failed to act on warnings before the 2023 Belltown shooting.
SEATTLE, Wash. — The husband of a pregnant Seattle woman killed in a random downtown shooting has sued the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, alleging the agency ignored warning signs before the attack.
Sung Kwon filed the wrongful death lawsuit more than three years after his wife, Eina Kwon, was shot while sitting in traffic in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. The complaint claims the authority knew the gunman, Cordell Goosby, was becoming delusional, threatening and violent before the June 13, 2023, shooting. The lawsuit seeks damages to be decided at trial. The agency has not been found liable, and the claims have not been proven in court.
Eina Kwon, 34, was eight months pregnant when she and her husband were stopped near 4th Avenue and Lenora Street on their way to work. Prosecutors said Goosby walked up to their car and fired into it without warning. Eina Kwon and her unborn child died after the shooting. Sung Kwon was shot in the arm and survived. The couple owned Aburiya Bento House, a nearby restaurant that became a gathering place for mourners after the attack.
The lawsuit says Goosby was receiving housing and case management services connected to the homelessness authority before the shooting. According to the complaint, staff had received complaints about Goosby’s conduct at his apartment in the weeks before the attack. The allegations included loud behavior, heavy marijuana odor, fights with strangers and statements about shooting people. The complaint says those reports showed a worsening mental health crisis that required faster action from agency staff and supervisors.
One key part of the lawsuit focuses on June 12, 2023, the day before the shooting. The complaint says Goosby told a case worker he needed to leave Seattle before he hurt someone. It also says he described people speaking through vents and believed he was being followed. The lawsuit claims a case worker sought help from a supervisor who could start the process for a crisis responder review, but the supervisor did not arrange an immediate evaluation that day.
The complaint also says an apartment manager contacted agency staff after Goosby became upset and said neighbors were antagonizing him. According to the lawsuit, the manager was discouraged from calling police and was told Goosby was not dangerous. The manager later contacted Seattle police anyway and reported that Goosby appeared to be in crisis. The lawsuit says no one from the agency warned law enforcement about threats the complaint says had been made to staff or others.
Goosby was arrested after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Earlier this year, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors said that outcome meant he admitted committing the act but was not held criminally responsible because of his mental state at the time. Officials said he would be committed to a state psychiatric hospital and would not be released without future legal and medical review.
The lawsuit does not claim the homelessness authority fired the gun. Instead, it argues the agency had a duty to respond with reasonable care because it was involved in Goosby’s housing and services. Kwon’s attorneys allege the authority failed to train, supervise and guide workers on how to handle a participant who posed a possible danger. The complaint says those failures increased the risk to the public and contributed to the attack.
The shooting drew wide attention in Seattle because it happened in the middle of the day in a busy part of downtown. Police said the couple did not know Goosby, and investigators found no personal dispute between them. Community members later gathered near the scene and outside the couple’s restaurant, leaving flowers and messages for Eina Kwon. Her death also became part of a larger debate over public safety, homelessness services and the treatment of people with serious mental illness.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority was created to coordinate homelessness response across Seattle and King County. Its work includes shelter, housing programs and outreach services through government and nonprofit partners. The lawsuit puts new focus on how agencies respond when a person receiving services is alleged to show signs of severe mental illness or possible violence. The authority’s legal response will be a central part of the next stage of the case.
No trial date has been announced. The case is expected to move through early civil court steps, including responses from the defendants, possible motions and requests for records. Those records could include internal communications, case notes, housing files and police reports tied to Goosby’s conduct before the shooting. The court will also have to decide which claims can proceed and whether the authority had a legal duty in the circumstances described by the complaint.
The lawsuit remains pending as of July 10, 2026. Goosby remains under psychiatric commitment after the insanity finding, while Sung Kwon’s civil case now shifts attention to what agency workers knew before the shooting and what actions they took.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.