Thread: Gun used in San Francisco killing belonged to federal agent, source says

Gun used in San Francisco killing belonged to federal agent, source says

By Sara Sidner, Michael Pearson and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Updated 9:21 PM ET, Tue July 7, 2015
| Video Source: CNN

San Francisco (CNN)The shooting death of a San Francisco woman had already fueled a fresh round of fierce debate over U.S. immigration policies.

Now a new detail in the investigation adds another dimension to the discussion.

The gun used in the killing of Kate Steinle belonged to a federal agent, a source with knowledge of the investigation said.

The undocumented immigrant who's accused in the killing earlier told CNN affiliate KGO-TV that he found the gun wrapped inside a T-shirt.

Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who has a felony record and has been deported to Mexico five times, pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons charges. His bail was set at $5 million.

The plea comes days after Lopez-Sanchez told CNN affiliate KGO-TV that the gun accidentally went off when he shot Steinle last week at Pier 14, a popular walking spot on the waterfront.


Kate Steinle died last Wednesday after being shot while walking at a San Francisco pier.

"I want the courts to punish me as is deserved and for this to end as soon as possible," he said in Spanish during the interview.

The controversial case has drawn the attention of politicians campaigning for the nation's top job, casting a spotlight on U.S. immigration laws and what role local authorities should play in enforcing them.

The key question: Did San Francisco policies set the stage for the shooting, putting a criminal on the street instead of into the hands of federal authorities who could have deported him again?

Suspect released by city authorities



5-time deportee confesses to shooting woman on pier 01:52

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Lopez-Sanchez told KGO he repeatedly returned to the United States after he was deported because he could find work and make more money than in his native Mexico. He said he has worked on ranches in Arizona and helped stock stores in Portland, Oregon. Asked whether he came to San Francisco because there were more opportunities and because officials there would not deport him, he said yes.

He appeared disoriented in parts of the interview, which was conducted in English and Spanish, giving contradictory answers to reporters about what had happened and how he felt. Lopez-Sanchez said he could not recall details of the shooting because he'd taken sleeping medication, but repeated several times that the shooting had been an accident and that the weapon had gone off on its own.

In March, Lopez-Sanchez was turned over to San Francisco authorities and ultimately released after completing a federal prison sentence.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said San Francisco wanted him on a drug warrant, so the agency handed him over with a request to let it know if he was to be released.

Despite that request, San Francisco authorities let him go in April after the drug charges were dropped.

Freya Horne, chief legal counsel to the San Francisco County sheriff, said city officials believe such requests violate Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said his department requires a warrant or court order to transfer custody to federal authorities.

Critics who say the city erred in releasing Lopez-Sanchez, he said, are "completely wrong."

"As sheriff, I adhere to the laws that govern our land. And San Francisco's not alone. In fact, well over 300 municipalities have similar laws like San Francisco," he said. "Because of what has not been reconciled on the federal level, local governments and state governments are devising new laws."

According to CNN affiliate KRON, San Francisco's policy on undocumented immigrants says that police "shall not detain an individual on the basis of a civil immigration detainer after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody."

What role did sanctuary policy play?

Critics of such policies say they allow dangerous criminals to remain living in the United States.

"This woman would be alive today if they did not have this stupid sanctuary law in that crazy city of San Francisco," CNN law enforcement analyst Harry Houck said.



Trump: No one wants to talk immigration 00:10

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But Ana Maria Salazar, a former deputy secretary of state and policy adviser in the Clinton administration, said such policies don't make for more violence.

"All that data shows that migrants who have documents or who are undocumented who come to the United States have lower crime rates," she said. "You cannot say that it was this policy per se that resulted in the death of this woman."

The killing is also playing out in the presidential campaign.Republican contender Donald Trump has blamed immigration policy for Steinle's death. Another Republican, Jeb Bush, agreed, saying such policies encourage crime.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said San Francisco should have listened to the Department of Homeland Security and made a mistake when it didn't send Lopez-Sanchez packing.

"I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on. ... If it were a first-time traffic citation, if it were something minor, a misdemeanor, that's entirely different," she said. "This man had already been deported five times.

And he should have been deported at the request of the federal government."

In a statement Monday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris cautioned against using the case as a springboard for shaping immigration policy.

"A young, innocent woman, Kathryn Steinle, has been killed, and her murderer must be brought to justice. My office stands ready to support the prosecution to ensure he faces swift accountability and consequences," she said. "On the issue of immigration, our policy should not be informed by our collective outrage about one man's conduct."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/us/san-francisco-killing/

Gun used in San Francisco pier shooting belonged to federal agent

WKRN web staff

Published: July 7, 2015, 8:42 pm Updated: July 7, 2015, 8:48 pm

Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A law enforcement official says the gun used in the seemingly random slaying of a woman on a San Francisco pier belonged to a federal agent.

The official who was briefed on the matter says a police check of the weapon’s serial number shows it belonged to a federal agent. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official declined to elaborate further...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/us/san-francisco-killing/

Gun allegedly used by San Francisco shooting suspect belonged to federal agent, source says

Published July 07, 2015 FoxNews.com

July 7, 2015: Francisco Sanchez, right, is lead into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, left, and Assistant District Attorney Diana Garciaor, center, for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. (AP)

The gun used by a Mexican illegal immigrant when he allegedly shot dead a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier belonged to a federal agent, a source confirmed to Fox News Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how Francisco Sanchez, 45, would have obtained the weapon. However, the San Francisco Chronicle reported sources told the paper the gun had been stolen during a car burglary in June.

Earlier Tuesday, Sanchez pled not guilty to first-degree murder in last week's shooting of Kathryn Steinle, 32, while she was walking with her father and a family friend at Pier 14. Police said witnesses heard no argument or dispute before the shooting, suggesting it was a random attack.

Sanchez had previously told KGO-TV Sunday in a mix of Spanish and English that he found a gun wrapped inside a shirt while he was sitting on a bench at the pier and smoking a cigarette.

"So I picked it up and ... it started to fire on its own," Sanchez said, adding that he heard three shots go off.

A source familiar with the investigation told the San Francisco Chronicle that Sanchez said he was at the popular pier to shoot at sea lions, and discarded the firearm after realizing he had shot Steinle.

The shooting has drawn national attention and criticism of the city's sanctuary ordinance after federal officials revealed that Sanchez has seven felony convictions and was deported five times to his native Mexico.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had turned Sanchez over to authorities in San Francisco on March 26 on an outstanding drug warrant.

The Sheriff's Department released Sanchez on April 15 after the San Francisco district attorney's office declined to prosecute him for what authorities said was a decade-old marijuana possession case.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the agency had issued a detainer for Sanchez, requesting notification of his release and that he stays in custody until immigration authorities could pick him up. The detainer was not honored, she said.

Freya Horne, counsel for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, said Friday that federal detention requests are not sufficient to hold someone. Under the city's sanctuary ordinance, people in the country illegally aren't handed over to immigration officials unless there's a warrant for their arrest.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/07...federal-agent/

Reports: Federal agent's gun used in S.F. pier shooting

Michael Winter and Matthew Diebel, USA TODAY
12:41 a.m. EDT July 8, 2015

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a woman at a San Francisco sightseeing pier, was in this country illegally and had been deported five times. The city promotes itself as a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants. USA TODAY


(Photo: Michael Macor, AP)

SAN FRANCISCO — An undocumented Mexican felon deported five times but released from a city jail in April was ordered held Tuesday on $5 million bail after he pleaded not guilty to killing a young woman on San Francisco's scenic Embarcadero waterfront.

​Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez​ is charged with murder for allegedly shooting 32-year-old Kathryn "Kate" Steinle in the back on July 1 as she was walking with her father. He replied "not guilty" in English and Spanish, regardless of the questions the judge was asking him, according to news reports.

His lawyer, Matt Gonzalez, the city's No. 2 public defender and a former member of the Board of Supervisors, said "very likely this was an accidental shooting."

But in arguing against bail, Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia called the killing "an act of random violence, shooting an innocent victim in the back."

Citing sources,the San Francisco Chronicle, KGO-TV and KNTV-TV reported Tuesday night that the gun used in the shooting was stolen from a federal agent but that it was not clear how Lopez-Sanchez got it.

Sources told the Chronicle that the weapon, a .40-caliber pistol, was the agent's personal firearm and had been stolen in a downtown auto burglary not long before the shooting.

The case has divided law enforcement agencies, with federal immigration authorities lashing out at local police for having ignored a request to hold Lopez-Sanchez so that he could be deported. The slaying also has inflamed the politics of immigration and worked its way into the 2016 presidential campaign.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...gned/29811735/

The stories on this gun involved in the Steinle shooting are becoming smelly. Who leaves, especially a federal officer,, a gun in a car that is vulnerable to robbery. At very least it should be in the trunk if the car is unattended. Accidental shooting, certainly is not, unintended manslaughter possibly. If not qualified you do not pick up any unattended gun, if you do you do not point it anywhere but down for any reason. Manslaughter one as it is now,, but probably changing, seems appropriate. His lawyer does not seem to be more intelligent than the accused. The man is 45 years old, what the hell does his second grade education have to do with the shooting? Not a damned thing!

More about the federal agent needs to be forthcoming today, too. At this point we do not know that he did not leave it on the pier in the T-shirt.

8 guns stolen from 6 cars over Fourth of July weekend

Author: Kristen Cosby, General assignment reporter, kcosby@wjxt.com

Published On: Jul 06 2015 11:23:39 AM EDT Updated On: Jul 07 2015 08:43:17 AM EDT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -An FBI agent living in the gated Bartram Park apartment complex Arium is just one of the victims in a recent rash of unlocked car break-ins that saw eight guns stolen from six different cars.

According to police, the thefts happened over the Fourth of July weekend in the Mandarin, Bartram Park, Baymeadows and San Jose areas of town.

Melissa Bujeda with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said investigators have seen an increase in the number of guns stolen from unlocked cars in the last few months.

"Keep yourself from being a victim. Bring your gun in with you and lock your car doors," Bujeda said.


Among the victims was an FBI agent who reported an M4 Carbine rifle (pictured), a semi-automatic shotgun, body armor and a weapon gear bag with training equipment were stolen Saturday from his government-issued vehicle.

He said he left the vehicle locked in the Bartram Park area and that the gear was stowed away, but a police report said there were no signs of forced entry, broken glass or pry marks on the SUV, and the agent told police all of his vehicle keys were accounted for.

Other victims reported pistols were stolen from a locked car on Old Kings Road, from an unlocked SUV on Baskerville Road and from an unlocked SUV on Elizabeth Ann Court.

A loaded 9mm handgun was reported stolen from the center console of a car in the parking lot of Pure Night Club, and a loaded Glock pistol was stolen from the glove compartment of an unlocked truck at a home on Flanders Road.

JSO tweeted about the thefts, imploring residents not to leave guns in unlocked vehicles.

“People are not necessarily doing smash-and-grabs so much in vehicles, because they know if they check enough cars, they'll find some unlocked,” News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said. “In fact, about 50 percent of cars that are stolen, or had items stolen out of cars, are unlocked.”

Smith said it's a mistake to think just hiding items inside a vehicle is enough.

“People know where to look for hidden items,” Smith said. “We've seen this several times this summer where people have items stolen from cars. You don't want to leave anything in plain view. In fact, take everything out of the car that is of value when you leave your car.”

http://www.news4jax.com/news/police-...-cars/34014132