SAN FRANCISCO (KRON, BCN) — San Francisco police Friday have confirmed the gun recovered from San Francisco Bay near Pier 14 is the same gun used in the homicide of Kate Steinle.
Police used a ballistic comparison to confirm that the bullet that hit Steinle was from the gun recovered from the Bay last Thursday.RELATED: ICE responds to San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s finger-pointing over Pier 14 fatal shooting
Sources first told KRON 4 the Sig Sauer pistol was recovered by a police dive team in the bay last Thursday. The source described the weapon as being an expensive, high-end, common police gun.
Forty-five-year-old Francisco Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, has pleaded not guilty to Steinle’s murder. He has been booked into San Francisco County Jail for homicide.RELATED: Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi addresses criticism over previous release of alleged Pier 14 shooter
KRON 4 had also learned Tuesday that the gun used to kill a 32-year-old woman on San Francisco’s Pier 14 belonged to a federal agent, a law enforcement official briefed on the matter told Associated Press on Tuesday.
The gun was issued to a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement ranger “was on official government travel when his vehicle was broken into and the theft occurred,” according to Dana Wilson, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management.
She said the ranger immediately reported the theft to the San Francisco Police Department.
San Francisco police are continuing to investigate who broke into the ranger’s vehicle and how Lopez-Sanchez might have acquired the firearm.
Lopez-Sanchez’s release from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department’s custody, despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer in April, has spurred national debate on immigration laws and the role local authorities should play in enforcing such laws.
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s decision to allow the undocumented immigrant with a history of convicted felonies loose on the city’s streets has come under scrutiny and it remains unclear how many other undocumented immigrants with felonies, either violent or non-violent, have been released into the city.
While San Francisco has a “sanctuary city” policy that prohibits law enforcement officials from detaining an individual on the basis of an immigration detainer when they would otherwise be eligible for release from custody, Mirkarimi has not honored any ICE detainer requests so far this year.
Mirkarimi defended his actions Friday, saying federal authorities seeking Lopez-Sanchez’s deportation should have obtained a court order, so as not to violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.