MUKILTEO — The mother of Jacob Long, a Kamiak High School graduate killed in a mass shooting two summers ago, has filed a wrongful death suit against her son’s convicted murderer.
The suit also names the adoptive parents of Allen Ivanov, who is serving a life sentence for the triple slaying.
Autumn Snider filed the lawsuit June 29 in Snohomish County Superior Court.
The complaint focuses on Ivanov’s mental state, and what his parents may have known about it, before the shooting on July 30, 2016. It alleges he had a long history of behavioral problems that grew worse after his breakup with one of the shooting victims.
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“Allen Ivanov was incapable of living on his own because of his mental and psychological illness, and his immaturity,” the suit reads.
Snider is acting as the personal representative for her son’s estate. She is seeking compensation for damages caused by Long’s murder under Washington’s wrongful death statutes. No dollar amount is specified.
Ivanov was armed with a semi-automatic rifle when he arrived at a Mukilteo house where a group of friends was having a party. Ivanov, a Kamiak graduate who had attended school with many of the partygoers, opened fire, killing Long, Anna Bui and Jordan Ebner. They were all 19. An 18-year-old Kamiak student also was shot, but survived.
The wounded teen’s father, Paul Kramer, has lobbied for stricter gun-control measures in an effort to avoid future mass shootings. Kramer on Friday traveled to Olympia to help deliver signed petitions for Initiative 1639, a measure that would boost the legal age for buying a semiautomatic assault rifle to 21 and apply the same background check requirements on those buyers as for handgun purchases. If there are enough valid signatures, it will be eligible for the November ballot.
In the Mukilteo case, Ivanov wrote a note beforehand explaining that he was upset about his recent breakup with Bui and intended to shoot her. He pleaded guilty that December to aggravated first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Now 21, he is serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
At the time of the shooting, Ivanov was living with his parents, Anna and Dimitri Ivanov.
The suit alleges they knew he purchased the AR-15-type weapon about a week before the killings and should have been been aware that he posed a threat to himself or others, given his mental health history. The complaint says, “he exhibited increasingly irrational and disturbing behavior.” It asserts the Ivanovs had a duty to the community to control access to a dangerous weapon by someone living in their house.
No response to the lawsuit had been filed in court by Ivanov or his parents as of Friday.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.