The sanctuary city debate is back on the front burner today after a San Francisco jury found illegal alien Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty of the 2015 murder of Kate Steinle as she walked the pier with her father.
Instead, the jury convicted Zarate merely of unlawful possession of a firearm after buying the defense’s argument that the shooting was an accident.
The outrage in the aftermath of the decision is well-placed.
Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation at the time of the shooting.
Had San Francisco been in compliance with federal law and handed him over like they were supposed to, this never would have happened.
Welcome to the new war.
Here’s more from CBS…
A jury on Thursday found a Mexican man not guilty of murder in the killing of a woman on a San Francisco pier that set off a national immigration debate two years ago.
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation when Kate Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on the pier. Garcia Zarate did not deny shooting Steinle but said it was an accident.
A prosecutor said in her closing arguments Nov. 20 that Zarate was “playing his own secret version of Russian roulette” when he shot and killed Steinle in July 2015. San Francisco Deputy District Attorney Diana Garcia derided as implausible the defense argument that he accidentally shot a weapon he didn’t know was a firearm.
On Thursday, Steinle’s parent gave what they called their last interview to local newspaper San Francisco Chronicle.
“We’re just shocked — saddened and shocked … that’s about it,” Steinle’s father Jim said of the verdict. “There’s no other way you can coin it. Justice was rendered, but it was not served.”
Steinle’s brother Brad said he was “not surprised,” considering the “epic failure” that led Garcia Zarate to be released on the streets, and end up with a loaded handgun on the pier that day.
