Via Noe Valley SF and the Chron we hear tell of the case of the unsolved murder Charles McAleer-Bonilla outside his home at 28th and Sanchez on April 8, which now appears solved — but not before the S.F.'s crime lab's slowness led to the killer going on a rampage, shooting a cop in Concord, and taking a toddler hostage in Sacramento.

Suspected killer Anthony Alvarez was shot dead in a standoff in Sacramento on June 11, three days after the crime lab completed its DNA evidence testing from the April 8 murder. On June 13, they got a hit in their database linking it to Alvarez, who was already dead, but not before he had committed a string of bank robberies, shot a Concord police officer, and headed to Sacramento where he held a toddler hostage for three days.

Now, perhaps it's wrong to blame the cops for the actions of a crazed criminal, but given that they didn't even start testing the evidence until May 18 (almost six weeks after the unsolved murder), and took another three weeks to finish, we should all feel a touch of outrage, no?