Kathryn Steinle’s parents sue over daughter’s SF slaying

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The parents of a woman who was shot to death on a San Francisco pier last year sued former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, the city and federal officials on Friday, saying the gunman would have been kept in custody, disarmed and deported if they’d done their jobs.

The federal court suit by Kathryn Steinle’s parents said Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican immigrant who has admitted firing the fatal shot, was freed from jail only because of blunders by both Mirkarimi and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Lopez-Sanchez, deported five times in the past, had just spent 46 months in federal prison for illegal re-entry when federal officials turned him over to San Francisco in March 2015 to face an old marijuana charge. City prosecutors dropped the charge, but Mirkarimi’s office released Lopez-Sanchez in April 2015, disregarding federal agents’ request to return him. The sheriff, relying on his interpretation of San Francisco’s sanctuary-city law, had prohibited his deputies from cooperating with immigration officials’ orders to hold immigrants for possible deportation.

On the evening of July 1, Steinle, 32, was walking with her father along Pier 14 when she was shot and killed. Lopez-Sanchez, charged with murder, has maintained the shooting was an accident, citing evidence that the bullet bounced off the pavement before striking Steinle.

Read more: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Kathryrn-Steinle-s-parents-sue-over-7949584.php?t=1e9202d41f1210a92f&cmpid=twitter-premium

[Darb]

1. Hmmmm.

I would wager they are getting advice from people with bad intent.

[yeoman6987]

2. I think the family has a case. You don't?

I think the city was derelict to allow this guy back into the United States. Families sue cities all the time for deaths that should have been avoided. I am surprised you don't support this lawsuit. I am for immigration reform and helping immigrants but when one has criminal charges then the city should not approve of this.

[840high]

3. I do. They have a strong case.

[yeoman6987]

4. Cool. Thanks.

[Darb]

5. Did they convict him of murdering her?

I must have missed that. Maybe he shouldn't have been released, but if he didn't murder her, then the point is moot no? Or not no?

It just seem too perfect for me. Perfect in the sense of rightwingnuttery-fueling perfection.

[christx30]

7. He's admitted to picking up a gun (which he shouldn't have touched),

and "accidently" firing the fatal shot. But he shouldn't have been there. He should have gotten out of prison, turned over to Federal immigration authorities, and kicked out of the US. But the sheriff wanted to protect him from deportation, violating federal law.
I hope the parents take this guy to the cleaners.

[Darb]

8. Uh, ok, got it.

Me thinks.............never mind.

[Dems to Win]

6. When people are deported, they need to STAY DEPORTED!

This case makes clear that the US does need some serious changes to its immigration system. It rightfully makes people crazy frustrated when they read about it.

[Darb]

9. We should build a yuuuge, mcbig, gigantes WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the ticket.

[840high]

10. Had this been a member of

your family - you wouldn't be trying to be cute.

[Yupster]

14. Problem is the settlement will be

with taxpayer dollars, not their own.

[christx30]

11. What's wrong with expecting local authorities

to cooperate with federal authorities?
The Feds said they were going to deport this guy because he's illegally entered the US 5 times, plus he's a 7 time felon.
The sheriff said they were going to prosecute him for a pot charge. The Feds made the mistake of turning him over. The city dropped the charges and released him. Then he goes out and kills the 32 year old.
Some sactuary laws I can understand. If you're the victim of a violent crime, you should be able to report it without fear of deportation. But protecting a 7 time felon is not what those laws are supposed to do.

Let me paint a picture for you. A guy with a domestic violence conviction gets ahold of a gun. The local podunk sheriff lets him go. He doesn't agree with federal laws against felons having weapons, "especially if it's just domestic violence. Like that's some huge crime", in his words). Two days later the felon gets drunk and shoots his ex-wife to death. The murder could have been avoided if the sheriff had followed federal law.

[Darb]

17. Can you wait until he is proven guilty for fuck's sake?

Thanks in advance. You are very adamant about the sheriff complying with the Feds, but you seem to have forgotten innocent until PROVEN guilty.

The case stinks to me, too perfect.

[christx30]

18. The only thing that needs to be proven

in a court of law is the level of guilt for the murderer. He's admitted picking up the gun and firing it. One story he told was that he was shooting at seal pups. Whether the shot was accidental or not is all that is up for contention. We do know from the murderer's 7 felony convictions that the dude really loves his drugs (and sneaking into countries he's been kicked out of). So no telling what was going on with him.
The sheriff is on record with his contempt for immigration laws. He refused to comply with the detainer request the ins issued because of the sanctuary city law (since when does a local city ordinance overrule federal law?) and released him.
And as far as the shooting itself? Three shots were fired. That's three seperate trigger pulls, in a heavily populated area. It's stupid and irresponsible and he should face severe penalties for doing something so dumb. No different than if I took a gun and fired 3 shots into the food court of a mall.

[christx30]

21. Where is the anti-immigrant part of my post?

And it doesn't matter if he killed her intentionally. He was a 7 time convicted felon. It's illegal for him to even touch a weapon. It is, at a minimum, manslaughter.
And as far as the idiot sheriff, can you deny that Kathryn Steinle would be alive if the shooter was on a bus on the way back to Mexico, where he belongs? (he's not a US citizen. He has no Visa to be in the country. He's a Mexican national. He belongs in Mexico) She's dead because the idiot sheriff defied federal law. Bottom line.
If there was a right wing sheriff that refused to enforce federal weapons laws that he didn't agree with, you'd be furious, and calling for his head. Especially if someone died as a result of that refusal. Hell. What if a predominately white Texas community decided to go back to Jim Crow days? Blacks couldn't sit at lunch counters. Refused to let them vote for city officials? They would be rightly sued for violations of the Civil Rights act of 1964, and I'd be giddy at seeing the city officials sued into homelessness.
Do you think Kim Davis was in the right for standing up to federal law on marriage equality that she thought was wrong? Or did she deserve to go to jail?
Either Kim Davis and Mirkarimi are both right, or they are both wrong. You can't have it both ways. Because, really, the only difference is that you agree with Mirkarimi, and you disagree with Davis.
Even the union representing SF deputies is saying that Mirkarimi's order is to blame for Steinle's death.
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/S-F-deputies-union-ties-pier-killing-to-6389935.php

The union representing San Francisco sheriff’s deputies filed a formal complaint against Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, linking the Pier 14 killing of Kathryn Steinle to a March order that barred them from communicating with federal immigration agents, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle.

The murder arrest of a man whom deputies had freed from jail despite a felony record and a history of deportations showed that Mirkarimi’s policy “recklessly compromises the safety of sworn personnel, citizens, and those who merely come to visit the San Francisco area,” the deputies wrote in the grievance.

[meaculpa2011]

22. If I was shooting at pigeons in Times Square...

with a gun that I found in a trash can and accidentally killed someone standing by a 3rd floor window it is depraved indifference murder.

[EL34x4]

12. Joke all you want, Steinle's murder turned Trump into a serious presidential candidate.

Coming right on the heels of his infamous "Mexico sends us rapists" comments (comments that would've torpedoed any other candidacy) Steinle's murder underscored everything Trump was saying.

[Angel Martin]

13. the other thing that helps Trump more than anything

is anti Trump rioters who wave Mexican flags and yell in spanish

Any time in this campaign when he wants to change the subject and spike the "law and order issue", all he has to do is hold a rally in an area where there are lots of radicals who want to violently protest him

[EL34x4]

15. If Trump isn't paying those people, he should be.

Only reason he's spending time in California is the news footage of mayhem keeps his supporters energized.

[Darb]

16. Uh, he didn't murder her. In this country, it's innocent until

proven guilty. He has not been found guilty. The gun is a lost BLM agent gun? This is a fishy as Pike Place. Your comments bring that to the fore. It is toooo perfect.

[christx30]

20. Do you think there is a conspiracy

against Kathryn Steinle or Francisco Lopez-Sanchez? For what purpose?
An illegal alien with 7 felonies is freed from jail by someone that's a fan of sanctuary cities. He finds a gun while out and about. He fires 3 shots from that weapon, at seal pups he says. Steinle is hit by one of those rounds and killed.
So what's the conspiracy? To show how bad sanctuary cities are? That's been apparent for a long time. Sanctuary city laws are unconstitutional. The idiot sheriff should have been indicted for obstruction of justice for trying to protect the shooter from deportation.