Summary: The family of a woman killed by an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record is suing the city of San Francisco and Immigration Department for her death.
A grieving family is taken their anger out on the city of San Francisco. Kate Steinle was shot and killed on a busy San Francisco pier by an illegal immigrant nearly a year ago. Her family is blaming the city and immigration officials for her death with a wrongful death suit.
The gunman, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, was a known illegal immigrant. He had just been released by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department for a marijuana sales charge when he picked up a Bureau of Land Management ranger’s gun and fired it.
Read Judge: Immigration Status Can be Researched by Police in Arizona.
Steinle’s parents claim the lack of communication between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Sheriff’s Department is the reason for their daughter’s death. The lawsuit states that the sheriff’s department should have notified immigrations that they were releasing Lopez-Sanchez. They also blame the Immigration Department for not detaining or deporting him. They also blame the Bureau of Land Management for her death by unintentionally providing the murder weapon.
The Bureau of Land Management reported the gun stolen, but two weeks later it was used for the murder on Pier 14. Lopez-Sanchez had finished serving a four-year federal prison sentence for illegal re-entry into the country and had been transferred to city jail for a marijuana sales charge. The district attorney dropped the charges and ignored an ICE request to keep him behind bars.
See Paul Walker’s Daughter Brings Wrongful Death Suit Against Porsche to read about another wrongful death lawsuit.
The “sanctuary policy” in San Francisco prohibits city employees from working with federal immigration officials for deportation cases. The law was created in 1989 but revised last week.
Do you think the “sanctuary policy” is a good law? Tell us in the comments below.
To learn more about immigration issues, read Debate Over Obama’s Immigration Policies Head to Supreme Court.
Photo: mercurynews.com