24-year-old Si A. Phu is now charged with first-degree murder in the deadly shooting of his 14-year-old niece Christy Phu, a freshman at Chief Sealth International High School, where friends and family gathered to honor her with a vigil Wednesday night. We’ve just obtained the court documents, which also include a charge of second-degree unlawful firearm possession – as a convicted felon, he wasn’t legally allowed to have a gun. The charging papers say the felony was a domestic-violence “cyberstalking” case from Snohomish County earlier this year, alleging that case and this one “illustrate a pattern of erratic, dangerous, and threatening behavior by the defendant when he does not get his way.”
The charging documents expand on what was outlined in the probable-cause paperwork earlier this week, alleging Si Phu shot and killed Christy because she refused to give him a pair of shoes. Investigators now say she reportedly did give him a pair of shoes, but they were not the ones he wanted. The dispute over the shoes is reported to have lasted over three hours of text messaging and in-person confrontation just before the deadly shooting, and included threats to kill Christy and her cousin, with whom she shared the Columbia City bedroom where she was shot. After the shooting, Si Phu is reported to have fled the house, where he had gone to watch football with family members; two days later, police spotted him in the Skyway area and arrested him. He claimed, they say, that the clash began with Christy trying to “rob” him. He said he then decided to “rob” her and “it all went bad.” He is reported to have told police that he feels “guilty” because “she didn’t deserve it” and he “only meant to hit her.”
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