Seattle, WA
Widower of pregnant woman who was shot to death in Seattle sues homelessness authority
SEATTLE — The widower of Eina Kwon, a pregnant woman who was gunned down while sitting in traffic in downtown Seattle, has filed a lawsuit against the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, alleging the agency knew of escalating and threatening behavior by the gunman in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
Cordell Goosby shot Kwon and her husband, Sung Kwon, at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Lenora Street in June 2023.
Seattle Police Department officers are seen investigating the shooting in Belltown near the intersection of 4th Avenue and Lenora Street on June 13, 2023. (KOMO News)
Earlier this year, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Video showed the shooting was completely random as Goosby walked up the Kwon’s car at a turn light and opened fire. Eina Kwon and her baby were killed, while Sung Kwon was shot and survived his injuries.
RELATED | Belltown restaurant reopens months after shooting death of pregnant owner Eina Kwon
The case sparked a severe backlash about the dangerous conditions on the streets of downtown Seattle during a year that set a record for homicides in the city.
According to Sung Kwon’s lawsuit, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) knew Goosby was growing delusional and violent prior to the shooting, including the day prior, when the agency declined to screen him immediately for psychiatric admission.
Weeks of escalating behavior
The lawsuit brings to light many allegations about Goosby’s interactions with KCRHA workers in the weeks before he attacked the Kwon family.
A photo showing{ }Cordell Goosby being arrested in Belltown on June 13, 2023, following a shooting that killed Eina Kwon. (KOMO)
In April 2023, the complaint says KCRHA staff started receiving complaints about Goosby’s behavior at his county-funded apartment on 1st Avenue West in Seattle. The lawsuit alleges neighbors told KCRHA staff about an overwhelming odor of marijuana and noise coming from Goosby’s apartment, the lawsuit alleges.
By June 2023, those complaints had escalated into reports of Goosby fighting strangers, displaying aggressive behavior, and talking about shooting people.
The day before shooting the Kwons, a KCRHA case worker notified her supervisors that Goosby had told her he needed to “leave Seattle fast before he hurts someone,” the lawsuit claims.
Goosby also apparently claimed people were in his vents talking to him and he was being “gang stalked”
“(KCRHA case worker) sought out (KCRHA supervisor), whom she understood to be the point person for initiating an evaluation by a Designated Crisis Responder for involuntary psychiatric admission,” the lawsuit states. “(Supervisor) declined to see Mr. Goosby that day, telling (case worker) he would get to it on Wednesday.”
Day before the random attack on the Kwon family
On June 12, 2023, Goosby confronted a property manager at his apartment complex while screaming, saying he hadn’t eaten in days and was being antagonized by neighbors.
The lawsuit claims the property manager called a KCRHA supervisor, who then discouraged the manager from calling police and assured him, “Goosby was not dangerous.”
A photo of Goosby’s county-funded apartment. (KOMO)
“By the end of the day on Monday, June 12, 2023, KCRHA had taken no steps to help Mr. Goosby or intervene in any way and did not notify law enforcement of Mr. Goosby’s threats to hurt (case worker) and others,” the lawsuit states.
But after talking with the KCRHA staff, the apartment manager called Seattle police and reported Goosby was in crisis.
According to an SPD case note included in the lawsuit, the apartment manager said Goozby was enraged about claims that people were talking to him all day and night, and said “if they don’t stop, you know what’s going to happen.”
The police report notes KCRHA staff had been notified, and the officer advised the apartment manager to call back “if (Goosby) ever seemed on the edge of committing a violent act.”
4th and Lenora Shooting
At 11:00 a.m. on June 13, 2023, the Kwon family was in their Tesla driving to their Belltown restaurant when they stopped for a turn light at 4th Avenue and Lenora Street in downtown Seattle.
Armed with a stolen gun, Goosby ran up their car at random and started firing through the glass.
Eina Kwon was shot in the head and check and did not have a heartbeat when paramedics arrived. She was rushed into surgery at Harborview Medical Center, but she and her 32-week old baby both died.
Flowers sit at Lenora Street and 4th Avenue on Thursday, June 15, 2023, in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood to honor Eina Kwon. (KOMO News)
Sung Kwon was shot in the arm and treated for his injuries.
Goosby surrendered to Seattle police immediately after the shooting. He was charged with murder in the first degree and went through multiple competency evaluations until being deemed not guilty by reason of insanity this spring.
Why family says KCRHA is responsible
Lawyers for Sung Kwon allege KCRHA had a “duty to exercise reasonable care” to prevent Goosby from harming the Kwon family.
“Mr. Goosby was a KCRHA program participant and KCRHA undertook to provide him with housing and case management services,” the lawsuit states. “KCRHA failed to implement or enforce policies and procedures for supervising and responding to program participants who pose a danger to others. KCRHA failed to adequately hire, train, and supervise personnel to handle program participants who pose a danger to others. It failed to provide guidance, protection, or support to personnel, so they were enabled, empowered, or equipped to take reasonable steps to address program participants who pose a danger.”
The suit claims KCRHA staff asked with reckless disregard of the safety, and sought to prevent others from contacting law enforcement about Goosby’s threatening behavior.
“KCRHA was negligent in its failure to take reasonable care as it related to its knowledge of Mr. Goosby’s mental state and behavior thereby creating, combining with, or increasing the foreseeable risk of improper conduct of Mr. Goosby, which KCRHA knew caused a foreseeable risk of injury to others,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint does not list a specific dollar amount, but seeks for damages to be determined at trial.
SEATTLE — A man accused of stealing copper wire from the West Seattle Bridge is wanted after prosecutors say he failed to show up in court this week, prompting a warrant for his arrest.
New police body camera video shows an officer arresting the man, who had bundles of copper wire in his arms.
Seattle police arrested Gregory Wayne Galitzeck after prosecutors say he was caught stealing copper wire from the bridge in the middle of the night.
Court documents say Galitzeck had four 100-foot coils of stolen copper wire, causing about $100,000 in damage that Seattle City Light customers will have to pay to repair.
Prosecutors say that when he was caught, Galitzeck claimed to be a Seattle City Light employee.
People in West Seattle called the alleged theft shocking, but not surprising.
“I feel like we live in an alternate timeline now anyway, so nothings really surprising to me,” said Lisa Coronado, who lives in West Seattle.
The case comes amid a string of similar crimes. This was the second copper wire theft along the West Seattle Bridge in just weeks. Similar thefts have also hit agencies such as Sound Transit, with thieves selling copper wire for cash.
Galitzeck is charged with theft and impersonating a City Light worker. He was supposed to come to court this week to answer the charges but did not appear. A $5,000 warrant has been issued for his arrest.
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King County prosecutors are again pushing for a new law that would require recyclers to upload photos of purchased copper to a database, a step intended to help investigators track stolen metal.
Breast milk samples from moms in the Seattle area contained chemicals linked to health problems, new research has found.
The chemicals are often used in beverage can liners, receipt paper, and other products, and they’ve been linked to reproductive problems, cancer, and immune problems like asthma.
Ryan Babadi is the science director at the nonprofit Toxic Free Future, which co-authored the research. He said breast milk is still the best food for most babies.
“The problem is not breast milk,” he said. “The problem is that we have chemical policies that are allowing these contaminants to end up in women and breastmilk and result in exposure to infants during a very sensitive time period of development.”
Researchers collected breast milk from 50 women and tested it for various chemicals. They found that the majority of the samples contained BPA and the related chemical BPS, triclosan, and melamine. All three of these chemical groups are known as “endocrine disruptors” because they can mimic, block, or alter human hormones and thus affect a large number of systems. BPA, for example, has been linked to diabetes, the early onset of puberty, and a number of cancers. Triclosan interferes with thyroid function and could increase cancer risk. And melamine has been linked to kidney problems.
“This isn’t a problem that mothers or people in general can shop their way out of,” Babadi said. “We need government decision-makers and policymakers as well as the corporate environment to come up with policy solutions that protect us.”
RELATED: Trump administration actions contradict MAHA rhetoric on toxic chemicals
Breast milk for the study was collected in 2019. In the years since, Washington state has started regulating some of the chemicals the researchers found.
For example, as of last year, beverage cans in Washington aren’t allowed to contain BPA and related chemicals. And as of January, those chemicals aren’t allowed in receipt paper in the state.
That’s because, under a state law passed in 2019, the ecology department prioritizes harmful chemicals, identifies consumer products that contain those chemicals, and writes new regulations to ban or restrict them.
So far, the state has regulated not only BPA and related chemicals, but also phthalates in personal care products and vinyl flooring, triclosan in cosmetics, and PFAS chemicals in carpets, rugs, and furniture. Those last are known as “forever” chemicals because they do not degrade over time.
RELATED: 5 ways to reduce everyday exposure to ‘forever chemicals’
The state is now looking at chemicals in cosmetics, jewelry, cookware, paint, and artificial turf, among other products, for possible future regulation.
The state has not looked at banning or restricting melamine, one of the chemicals the researchers found in breast milk.
Babadi said in an email that Washington’s law is the nation’s strongest for regulating toxic chemicals, but he said it needed to be improved “to be able to enact bans in urgent scenarios when, for example, we observe harmful chemicals in breast milk.” The process for restricting new chemicals currently takes at least five years.
Marissa Smith is a toxicologist and the former technical lead for the Safer Products for Washington program. She now works on chemical policies across the ecology department.
She said the state’s current process of chemical regulation helps build compliance by giving manufacturers and industries plenty of lead time and compliance assistance.
“We generally do see compliance with state laws,” she added. “Most manufacturers want to sell products that are compliant.”
RELATED: Trump cuts demolish agency focused on toxic chemicals and workplace hazards
Smith emphasized that state-level chemical regulations like those in Washington and California can have an effect across the country, as manufacturers switch over to safer alternatives for their entire supply chain.
And Smith sees other reasons for hope.
“ Products are getting safer over time,” she said. “ There were some toxic flame retardants that were used in kids’ pajamas and other products, and we banned those, and we actually saw concentrations in our bodies and in our environment go down.”
For another example, Smith pointed to the dramatic decline in how much lead was in children’s blood after the U.S. banned leaded gasoline in 1996.
“ There’s just a lot of examples where we have actually regulated products and we’ve seen reductions in people’s exposure,” Smith said.
Seattle, WA
14-year-old dies in Seattle e-bike crash at Colonnade Park after losing control on steep stairs – MyNorthwest.com
A 14-year-old boy was killed Monday evening after crashing a motorized electric bicycle while riding down a steep staircase at Seattle’s Colonnade Park, according to the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
Investigators said the teenager was riding an e-bike on a staircase inside the park, located beneath I-5 near the Ship Canal Bridge, when he lost control. He suffered severe head and body injuries.
Seattle Fire Department (SFD) medics attempted life-saving measures, but the teen died at the scene, according to police.
The crash happened at Colonnade Park, a popular mountain biking destination known for its technical trails and riding features. Police said the investigation determined the teen lost control while attempting to ride down the steep stairs. Because of the victim’s age, SPD’s Homicide Unit responded to conduct the investigation, though authorities said the death appears to have been a tragic accident.
The fatal crash comes as electric bicycles continue to grow in popularity among teenagers and young adults across Washington and the country.
Research published by the American College of Surgeons has found that riders injured on electric bicycles are more likely to suffer serious trauma than riders on traditional bicycles. The study found e-bike riders faced a 17% risk of internal injuries compared with 7.5% for riders on conventional bicycles, a difference researchers attributed in part to the heavier weight and higher speeds of electric bikes.
Under Washington law, electric bicycles capable of producing more than 750 watts of power or traveling faster than 28 mph while powered by a motor are not classified as e-bikes and may instead be regulated as motor-driven cycles or motorcycles.
The Seattle tragedy follows several recent serious crashes involving young e-bike riders. Earlier this year, a child was critically injured in Kirkland after an e-bike collided with a vehicle, while other fatal e-bike crashes involving teenagers have been reported in Illinois and Missouri.
SPD will continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.
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