The gun used to kill Kate Steinle was stolen from a Bureau of Land Management Ranger's car, according to news reports. The gun was apparently left loose in the vehicle, and that may have been a local law violation in itself. So errors started early in the Steinle case.
Thursday we heard that the jury in the murder case found the defendant, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, not guilty of murder or manslaughter but guilty only of possessing a firearm by a felon. So he won't go free just yet.
Let's put aside the issue of sanctuary cities and the screw ups that preceded the killing and stipulate that the shooting was not intentional but a negligent discharge. News reporters are notoriously neglectful in identifying firearms they write about. But we did learn that the gun was a .40 caliber Sig Sauer. But so far I have not been able to find a report of the model number.
Old school Sigs were DA/SA with a visible hammer, a firm trigger pull and no manual trigger. It's possible to fire one negligently, but it's not as easy as with a striker-fire Glock. Glocks are very popular among handgun buyers, and it wasn't long before other manufacturers began making theirs with the striker-firing mechanism and no manual safety. Sure enough, Sig followed the pack and made one too.
So -- just speculating here -- the .40 caliber Sig involved in the shooting was the striker-fired version. Reports said the gun had a "hair trigger." A hair trigger on a striker-fired pistol is an accident waiting to happen, but more than likely, the trigger pull was standard, it was just easy to pull.
So going along with Mr. Zarate's version of the story, he finds the gun, picks it up, and BAM. Down goes an innocent bystander. It's entirely possible, and it is conceivable that that was enough to generate reasonable doubt among the jurors.
Anyway, it's been a while since I've preached about manual safeties on this blog. So maybe it's time to restart. If the gun that shot Kate Steinle had a manual safety she might still be alive, and it might have been a while longer before Mr. Zarate used it on someone.
Sources:
Kate Steinle Murder Trial: 'Freakish Ricochet' From 'Hair-Trigger' Gun Caused Accidental Death: Defense
Undocumented immigrant acquitted in Kate Steinle death
Court Filing IDs Fed Whose Stolen Gun Was Used in Kathryn Steinle Killing
Kate Steinle’s accused killer found not guilty of murder, to be deported
S.F. police didn’t investigate gun theft before pier killing.
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1:37 PM 12/1/2017
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