The family of Kate Steinle, the woman who was allegedly shot and killed by an undocumented immigrant on a San Francisco pier last summer, has filed a lawsuit against two federal agencies and a San Francisco sheriff for not preventing her death.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a federal court in San Francisco, seeks to hold the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the City and County of San Francisco and Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department for providing "the means and opportunity for a repeat drug felon to secure a gun and kill" the 31-year-old, the complaint reads.
The alleged shooter, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, is also named in the lawsuit.
The case ignited a firestorm at the time because of the suspect's immigration history and San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city -- notifying ICE about suspected undocumented immigrants only in the case of violent crimes.
"Kate's death was both foreseeable and preventable had the law enforcement agencies, officials and/or officers involved simply followed the laws...which they swore to uphold," the complaint said.
Steinle's parents, James and Elizabeth Steinle, are seeking unspecified damages for wrongful death and deprivation of federal civil rights.
"The Steinle Family hopes that their actions today will serve to highlight the lax enforcement of gun safety regulations among the law enforcement agencies involved and bureaucratic confusion so that this will not happen to others," said Frank Pitre of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, the law firm representing the Steinle family... (To read the entire article, please click HERE)
