A 30-year-old man was charged Friday with killing a pregnant woman in what Seattle police say was an unprovoked Belltown shooting that also wounded the woman's husband.
Cordell Goosby is accused of first-degree murder in the death of restaurant owner Eina Kwon, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot alongside her husband while stopped in a car Tuesday morning at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Lenora Street.
Goosby was also charged with first-degree assault, accused of shooting into the couple's car and wounding Kwon's husband and fellow owner of the nearby Aburiya Bento House, 37-year-old Sung Kwon.
Sung Kwon was shot multiple times in the arm and treated at Harborview Medical Center. The couple's baby girl died after an emergency delivery at the Seattle hospital.
On Friday, police, prosecutors and investigators with the King County Medical Examiner's Office were continuing to review medical records to determine whether Goosby can also be charged in the baby's death.
Under state law, a person can be only charged with murder for the death of a person who was "born alive," Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the prosecutors, said in an email, citing a 2012 state Court of Appeals decision.
Prosecutors have asked that Goosby, who declined to appear for his initial court appearances, be held in custody in lieu of $10 million bail — an extraordinarily high amount based on the extreme danger they said he represents to the community, according to charging papers. He's scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
Police determined Goosby is wanted in Indiana on a domestic battery charge and has felony convictions in Cook County, Ill., for possession of controlled substances and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon or vehicle, according to the charges. Prosecutors are still working to confirm his out-of-state criminal history and are expected to add a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm once that's completed.
It's unknown when Goosby arrived in Seattle. He had a Washington identification card on him when he was arrested.
Four minutes before the 11:01 a.m. shooting, video footage from a hotel at Fourth Avenue and Virginia Street showed a man — later identified as Goosby — walking north along Fourth, charging papers say. He appeared to be walking slower than other pedestrians and occasionally stopped to look around, according to the charges.
The Kwons' white Tesla was also seen heading north before stopping at Lenora Street. Sung Kwon was driving, and his wife was in the front passenger seat.
Video footage showed that Goosby broke into a run toward the car with a gun in his outstretched hand and fired into the vehicle, say the charges. He then immediately ran west on Lenora, according to the charges.
"It was evident from this video that there was no interaction between the suspect and the victims' vehicle prior to the shooting," a Seattle police detective wrote in charging documents.
Police quickly arrested Goosby nearby: As officers approached him, he put his hands up in surrender and said he was the shooter, the charges allege.
Two eyewitnesses independently identified Goosby as the shooter, and other witnesses directed an officer to a gun that Goosby had tossed under a car parked on Lenora, the charges say.
The stolen 9 mm handgun was locked in the slide back position, indicating it had been fired until empty, according to the charges. Six 9 mm shell casings were found on the ground by the driver's side of the Kwons' car, the charges say.
Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz said the weapon is being tested to see whether it had been used in any other shootings.
Goosby told detectives during an interview at Seattle police headquarters that he was being harassed by people spreading rumors about him, the charges say. He spoke to the walls and ceiling as if there were people inside them and claimed the occupants of another car yelled to him that "the people in the white car were out to get him," according to the charges.
"No second car could be seen pulling up in the way described by him," the charges say.
Goosby told detectives he has a history of mental health care treatment, and his charges say he appeared to be "in some form of crisis," though detectives couldn't tell whether it was "genuine or knowingly performed."
Diaz said during a Friday news conference introducing a new task force to address gun violence that officers knew Goosby from earlier contacts and were "very well aware of the subject's mental health issues."
The task force will be composed of about 50 officers who will focus their efforts on four areas where violence is widespread: Aurora Avenue, downtown, the Central District and the city's South End.
The initiative was announced amid an alarming uptick in gun violence in the lead-up to summer, including additional homicides June 9 in Rainier Valley and Friday morning along Aurora Avenue North. Seattle police are also investigating a Ballard shooting that injured three people early this Friday.
The most recent fatality marked the 29th homicide investigated by Seattle police so far this year, according to a Seattle Times database compiled with preliminary information from police, prosecutors and the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
SPD investigated 55 killings in 2022, up from 41 the previous year. Fifty-four people were killed in Seattle homicides in 2020, 20 more than in 2019.
