SEATTLE — King County prosecutors have charged a Shoreline teen with premeditated first-degree murder, accusing him of gunning down his sister’s boyfriend in “an act of pure vigilantism.”
Quy Ngoc Vu, 17, was arrested Jan. 30 in the shooting death of Robert D. Anderson, 20, the night before, charging papers say. He’s accused of tracking down and fatally shooting Anderson to avenge the man’s alleged assault of his sister, according to the charges.
“The defendant was warned at a minimum by his mother, two police officers and a friend not to seek out Mr. Anderson and that the police were actively looking for him,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Terence Carlstrom wrote in charging papers.
“He either willfully chose to ignore them, or he lacked sufficient volitional control to calm himself enough to avoid acting out violently. Either way, his actions were cold, premeditated and lethally violent.”
Under state law, 16- and 17-year-olds accused of committing certain serious violent offenses, including murder, can be automatically charged as adults.
Vu’s sister called 911 shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 and reported Anderson had repeatedly strangled her during an argument, causing her to lose consciousness, according to the charges against Vu. Anderson left the apartment before King County sheriff’s deputies arrived.
While Vu’s sister was giving a statement to the deputies, her mother and brother arrived at her apartment. Vu demanded to know where Anderson was, the charges say, and drove off in his sister’s Jeep Cherokee.
A deputy overheard Vu’s mother tell someone over the phone that she implored her son “not to do anything stupid and to let the police handle it,” according to the charges. Vu’s sister was taken to a hospital for treatment of her injuries.
Investigators initially thought Anderson had driven off in the Jeep, which deputies pulled over just after 7:30 p.m. Vu was behind the wheel.
When he told deputies he was out looking for Anderson, they replied that police were actively looking for Anderson, warned him against getting involved and encouraged him to go to the hospital to be with his sister, the charges said.
Vu’s friend, who was in the passenger seat, told one deputy that he was trying to get Vu “to calm down,” according to the charges. Deputies released them from the scene.
About an hour later, a man called 911 and reported hearing gunshots north of his house, which is near the sister’s apartment building. Deputies searched the area but didn’t find anything notable.
A second man called 911 at 10:15 p.m. and reported finding a wounded man on the ground outside an entrance to Vu’s sister’s apartment complex, say the charges.
Deputies recognized the man as Anderson. He had been shot in the head and died at the scene.
Video footage from the complex’s cameras showed Anderson standing in a corner of the parking lot for about 40 minutes before the shooting. The footage then shows someone in a Jeep Cherokee pull in, stop 10 to 12 feet away from him and repeatedly fire from the driver’s window, the charges say.
The next morning, Vu’s mother turned over a small Glock-like ghost gun — firearms without serial numbers — to detectives and told them her son had admitted to killing Anderson in order “to protect the family,” charging papers say.
Results from preliminary testing of the gun and four shell casings from the scene link the weapon to the shots that killed Anderson, say the charges.
Vu was booked into juvenile detention, and at his first court appearance the judge set bail at $250,000, court records show.
The Northwest Community Bail Fund on Friday posted a $25,000 bond, 10% of the bail amount, and Vu was ordered to surrender his passport and remain on electronic home detention until a Monday hearing, when prosecutors requested his bail be increased to $2 million, according to court records.
After he was released from secure detention over the weekend, a different judge set bail at $1 million on Monday and Vu was returned to detention, said Casey McNerthney, a prosecutors’ spokesperson, citing information provided by the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention.
Vu is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 15.
