Interview: Suspect in SF pier attack admits he shot woman

Police said witnesses heard no argument or dispute before the shooting, suggesting it was a random attack.

As you likely recall, 32-year-old San Francisco resident Kate Steinle was walking along the Embarcadero with her father when she abruptly collapsed, the victim of a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.

The bullet struck Steinle in the back and pierced her aorta, according to The Oakland Tribune. Within an hour, police arrested Sanchez on a nearby street corner.

Sanchez has been previously deported five occasions to his residence country of Mexico and his criminal history incorporates seven prior felony convictions, four of which involve narcotics charges, according to USA Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The federal agency turned Sanchez over to the sheriff’s department, which had a drug warrant for him.

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.

Further, ICE also confirmed that Sanchez had been deported five times prior, but since San Francisco’s sanctuary ordinance, his federal detainer was simply ignored. The ICE detainer request was denied, and on April 15, 2015 Lopez-Sanchez was released.

Video shows several people trying to help the young woman.

“She said, ‘Dad, help me, help me”, Sullivan said when reached by phone.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris who supported San Francisco being a sanctuary city is running for US Senate. They say they only want to focus on her life and legacy.

“I don’t think I’ve totally grasped it”, Sullivan said.

Local officials checked and found none.

Sullivan described her daughter as a “sweet, beautiful, independent, strong-willed woman” who enjoyed traveling and doing charity work, including hosting a fundraising dinner for patients with multiple sclerosis.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

The killings on June 22, 2008, gained national attention after The Chronicle reported that city juvenile-justice officials, relying on San Francisco’s sanctuary-city policy, had twice shielded Ramos, a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador, from possible deportation after he committed a gang-related assault and an attempted robbery as a minor. He was on probation in Texas at the time of the shooting. And as news of his circumstances broke, that pro-immigrant policy – shared by many other cities – became embroiled in controversy once again. SFSD verified that Mr. Lopez-Sanchez completed his federal prison sentence and was lawfully released from federal prison March 26, 2015. Sanchez is now being held in the San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of committing murder.

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, whose department released Sanchez, shares their views and boasted about his no-immigration holds policy.