San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said Tuesday that Francisco Sanchez, the only suspect in the July 1 slaying of lifelong California resident Kate Steinle at a waterfront tourist attraction, would not have been released from custody after his sixth felony arrest had U.S. immigration officials issued an arrest warrant.
Ross Mirkarimi’s comments came just days after top U.S. officials accused San Francisco of ignoring the recommendations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in releasing Sanchez, who had already been deported numerous times but had repeatedly managed to return.
“ICE knew that he had been deported five times,” Mirkarimi said in an interview with a San Francisco TV station, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
“You would have thought he met a threshold that he required a court order or a warrant,” Mirkarimi said. “They did not do that.”
Steinle, 32, was shot in the back in a seemingly unprovoked attack as she walked with her father along Pier 14, a popular walking pier that juts out from the city’s waterfront between the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge.
Steinle had lived in San Francisco for the past seven years after growing up in the East Bay city of Pleasanton.
Sanchez, 45, was formally charged with murder on Monday, even though he reportedly told investigators that he found the gun and it went off accidentally, the newspaper said.
Murder generally requires a clear intent.
The suspect pleaded innocent on Tuesday.
Sanchez was found a half-mile away from Pier 14 by San Francisco police who had cell phone pictures of the suspect taken at the time of the shooting.
The killing has set off national outrage because San Francisco prides itself on being a so-called “sanctuary” city that does not help immigration officials to locate undocumented residents unless legally compelled to.
ICE reportedly had asked that Sanchez be held after he was released from federal custody in April but had not made a formal request, the newspaper said.
“Most of the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of the San Francisco sheriff, because his department had custody of him and made the choice to let him go without notifying ICE,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, told the newspaper.
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, blamed Steinle’s murder on local sanctuary policies.
“The tragic murder of Kate Steinle once again underscores the need to end these reckless policies,” Goodlatte said.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called for a federal investigation, contending the city’s sanctuary policy was not meant to protect “repeat, serious and violent felons.”
San Francisco has its own sheriff’s department in addition to a police department because it is a county as well being a city.
