The mother of a woman fatally shot by an ex-boyfriend who then killed himself in West Linn last year is suing the man who illegally sold the rifle involved and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office for failing to serve the shooter with a restraining order filed against him months beforehand.

A $10 million lawsuit filed Friday alleges their actions led to the wrongful death of Bethany Schuch in March 2018. The suit names Justin Coleman, his business where he was federally authorized to sell firearms, the county, Sheriff Craig Roberts and Deputy Anthony Mayer. The filing accuses them of negligence, among other claims.

Schuch, 35, was shot outside her mother’s West Linn home by David Cote. He killed her and himself with an SKS semi-automatic rifle that had been sold to him a month earlier by Coleman, 35.

Cote, 34, and Schuch broke up in October 2017 after about a year together, and she was granted a restraining order against Cote the next month, the lawsuit said. In her petition, she referred to Cote as mentally unstable, said that she feared he would hurt her, and mentioned he had access to guns and knew where she lived and worked.

The sheriff’s office said deputies never served Cote with a copy of the restraining order because staff couldn’t find him. According to the lawsuit, Deputy Mayer went to Cote’s family’s home to serve the warrant and made no other attempts to locate Cote after not finding him there.

The sheriff’s office sent Schuch a letter three days after the restraining order was issued, saying Cote hadn’t been served because he wasn’t at the address she provided, the lawsuit said. She provided Cote’s family’s address in her restraining order petition and also wrote, “Not sure where he lives now,” according to the suit.

“Bethany Schuch spent the final five months of her life living in constant fear that she would be hurt by David Cote,” the lawsuit said. “On top of that fear, she would live with the knowledge that there was no one, not even the Clackamas County Sheriff, that would step up and protect her from him.”

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

Coleman, a federally licensed firearms dealer at the time who operated a business out of his Salem home, didn’t perform a criminal background check on Cote as required by law and didn’t complete an ATF firearms transaction record form of the sale, the lawsuit said.

When he was sold the rifle, Cote had a 2013 conviction for stalking and menacing, as well as an active stalking order, all stemming from his encounters with another woman in Deschutes County. That should have disqualified Cote from being able to buy a gun, the lawsuit said.

Text messages between Coleman and Cote displayed in a police search warrant showed Coleman offered Cote “an SKS off the books” and them agreeing that Cote could have it for $260.

Coleman’s federal firearms license was revoked in May 2018. He was arrested in December 2018 in connection with the rifle sale and sentenced June 12 in Marion County to 60 days in jail for improperly transferring a firearm and delivery of a controlled substance.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

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