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Mexican immigrant charged with murder in S.F. shooting

By Amy R. Connolly
Francisco Sanchez, 45, was charged in connection to the shooting death of a 32-year-old woman while she was walking with her father along San Francisco's waterfront Embarcadero district. Sanchez, a Mexican national, has been deported from the United States five times. Photo courtesy San Francisco Police Department
Francisco Sanchez, 45, was charged in connection to the shooting death of a 32-year-old woman while she was walking with her father along San Francisco's waterfront Embarcadero district. Sanchez, a Mexican national, has been deported from the United States five times. Photo courtesy San Francisco Police Department

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 (UPI) -- A Mexican immigrant who allegedly shot and killed a woman along the San Francisco waterfront has been charged with murder.

Francisco Sanchez, 45, is expected to face a judge Tuesday in the death of Kathryn Steinle, 32, who was walking along on a pier with her father Wednesday. Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant who has been deported five times and a repeat drug offender, was on probation at the time of the shooting.

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Sanchez told KGO-TV he accidentally shot the woman who was strolling along the waterfront pier with her father. Sanchez said he took some sleeping pills he found in the trash and wandered to the pier. There he found a gun and it fired. He was arrested about an hour later.

Officials said Sanchez has a long criminal record and has been deported from the United States five times, the most recent in 2009. He said he returned to San Francisco because of its lax deportation policies.

Details of Sanchez's immigration status and the shooting became a lightning rod after Republican nomination hopeful Donald Trump used the case to bolster his comments last month about Mexican immigrants.

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"This senseless and totally preventable act of violence committed by an illegal immigrant is yet another example of why we must secure our border immediately," Trump said.

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