Gun in fatal San Francisco pier shooting belonged to federal agent

SAN FRANCISCO — The gun used to fatally shoot a woman on a San Francisco pier belonged to a federal agent, sources confirmed Tuesday.

Kathryn Steinle, 32, was shot Wednesday while strolling with her father.

Juan Francisco LopezSanchez, 52, pleaded not guilty earlier Tuesday to a murder charge and was being held on $5 million bail. In an interview with KGO-TV, which first reported the gun’s connection to the federal agent, Lopez-Sanchez said he had found the weapon wrapped in a T-shirt on the ground near a bench, and that it had accidentally fired when he touched it.

But he also said he had taken strong sleeping pills and his memory was murky.

No additional details about the gun were available Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, leading Democrats joined mounting criticism of the city’s policy of refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials when they request help in detaining a suspect thought to be in the country illegally.

San Francisco is among a number of counties and a handful of states that do not honor many requests by immigration authorities to hold inmates beyond their release date in order to hand them over for deportation. In this case, a request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they be notified of Lopez-Sanchez’s release date was disregarded.

“I strongly believe that an undocumented individual, convicted of multiple felo- nies and with a detainer request from ICE, should not have been released,” Sen Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

Her sentiments were echoed by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton who told CNN that San Francisco was in the wrong.

“The city made a mistake not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported,” Clinton said.

The mayor’s office said it has reached out to Department of Homeland Security officials to determine if it can cooperate with federal immigration officials while still maintaining the sanctuary policy.