SHORELINE, Wash. — A Shoreline teen is facing murder charges after allegedly hunting down and killing his sister's boyfriend following an alleged domestic violence incident.
Quy Ngoc Vu, 17, is accused of shooting and killing Robert Anderson, 20, on Jan. 29. Vu, who is charged as an adult, also faces a count of unlawful possession of a firearm for allegedly using a "ghost gun" with no serial number to kill Anderson, court documents say.
Police say Vu's sister called 911 around 6:19 p.m. to report that her boyfriend, Anderson, had strangled her. She told police that she had lost consciousness during the assault and was having trouble talking due to the residual pain.
After officers arrived and began interviewing her, Vu arrived at the location along with his mother. Vu was "demanding" information from deputies about the location of the suspect, according to court documents, and was told police were out looking for Anderson.
After Vu left the apartment, a responding deputy says he overheard Vu's mother telling someone on the phone “I told him not to do anything stupid and to let the police handle it.”
Deputies initially believed Anderson had taken a vehicle belonging to Vu's sister after he allegedly assaulted her, and other deputies identified the vehicle and pulled it over for a traffic stop just over an hour after the first 911 call.
Vu and an unidentified man were in the vehicle, and Vu reportedly told the deputies who pulled him over that he was out looking for Anderson. Both deputies who were involved in the traffic stop reported to detectives that they advised Vu not to continue looking for Anderson and to allow law enforcement to handle it.
About an hour after the traffic stop, a 911 call was made for gunshots heard near The Quinn Apartments on Ballinger Way Northeast in Shoreline. A subsequent call at 10:15 p.m. came from a man who had found another man lying down in a pool of blood near the west entrance of the apartment complex.
The victim, later identified as Anderson, was pronounced dead at the scene. In reviewing surveillance footage from the complex, a vehicle matching the description of the one Vu had been driving earlier in the day could be seen with a muzzle flashing from the driver's side window before Anderson drops to the ground. The vehicle then sped into the parking lot and made a U-turn before fleeing the scene. A nearby Ring camera had audio of what appeared to be six rapid gunshots.
The mother of the suspect later told police that Vu had returned to the apartment they share and allegedly told her that he had used a gun to "protect the family." Vu had turned the gun over to his mother, and she in turn contacted Shoreline police.
Preliminary results from ballistics testing showed the gun brought in by Vu's mother matched the shell casings recovered at the scene of the fatal shooting. The gun was a 9mm pistol with no serial number, court documents said.
Bail was initially set at $250,000 before prosecutors requested it be raised to $2 million. The increase came due to many of the critical facts in the case not coming to light until after Vu's first appearance in court.
Vu's arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 15 in Seattle.
