EVERETT — A settlement has been reached in a wrongful death lawsuit involving the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Anna Bui during a Mukilteo house party in 2016.
The lawsuit, filed by Bui’s family in Snohomish County Superior Court nearly two years ago, alleged the defendants could have taken steps to prevent Allen Ivanov from carrying out the shooting, which also ended the lives of Jordan Ebner and Jake Long, both 19. Then-19-year-old Will Kramer was wounded in the gunfire but survived.
Ivanov had dated Bui, but she ended the relationship.
Ivanov, 23, is serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
The civil complaint originally named Ivanov, his parents, the owners of the house and Cabela’s as defendants. Both the owners of the house and Cabela’s, which sold Ivanov the rifle he used to carry out the murders, were dropped from the case early on.
Now the case has been dismissed entirely. Erica Buckley, the attorney for Bui’s family, said she could not disclose the amount or the terms of the settlement.
The plaintiffs had alleged Ivanov’s parents ignored signs their son presented a danger to himself and to others, and negligently left him alone with a newly purchased gun the day of the shooting.
Attorney Hanni Pichel sought last summer to get the judge to drop Ivanov’s parents from the case, arguing there was no way they could have foreseen their son would carry out a shooting.
Judge Richard Okrent denied the request, concluding there were still a lot of questions to be answered.
At the June 7, 2019, hearing, Okrent said the couple knew their son was having psychological difficulties, knew he had been acting suicidal, knew he was having a hard time with his breakup, and knew he recently purchased a firearm — which he put in his car the day he drove to the party.
Whether that rises to the legal bar for what is “foreseeable” was a question for a later date, the judge said at the time.
“The case needs to go to trial,” Okrent said.
Now there will be no trial.
Ivanov’s parents settled a separate lawsuit last November, brought by Long’s mother, also for an unspecified amount of money.
By settling, the couple isn’t accepting liability for their son’s actions in either lawsuit.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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