Trump slams ‘disgraceful’ verdict as illegal immigrant is acquitted of murder in San Francisco
Jose Zarate admitted firing the shot that ricocheted and killed Kathryn Steinle, but says gun discharged accidentally
US President Donald Trump blasted a California jury that acquitted a Mexican immigrant who was in the US illegally in the shooting death of a woman in San Francisco two years ago after local officials let the man go while he was awaiting deportation.
“A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration,” Trump said in a post on Twitter Thursday night.
The San Francisco jury Thursday found 45-year-old Jose Garcia Zarate not guilty of murder and manslaughter in the July 2015 killing of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle as she walked down a pier with her father. Zarate had been in a San Francisco jail on charges of selling marijuana but was released three months before the incident and allowed to remain free under sanctuary city laws.
Steinle was struck in the back by the bullet after it ricocheted off the concrete walkway of the pier. Zarate did not deny the shooting but said he found the gun and it discharged accidentally, an account that apparently persuaded the jury.
Trump has said that Steinle’s death, just two weeks after he launched his presidential campaign, is emblematic of the problems in the US immigration system, particularly the continued existence of sanctuary cities where local officials refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials. He has repeatedly warned about violent Latino gangs flourishing in sanctuary cities, and used the crime as part of his efforts to justify a crackdown on undocumented immigrants and win support for a wall he wants built along the US boarder with Mexico.