Continuing a deeply infuriating trend, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department reports that another law enforcement officer's gun was stolen out of a rental car.
ABC 7 says that according to Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, the gun was reported missing at about 6:30 p.m. that evening. Hennessy went on to say, "Preliminary information indicates the firearm was stored in violation of our policy. Our department policy mandates that a firearm stored in a vehicle be stored in a metal or composite lockbox that is affixed to the interior of the vehicle and out of public view."
When the Chronicle asked if the deputy would be brought up on criminal charges for losing their gun, Hennessy only said, "The San Francisco Police Department has a report, and they will forward it to the district attorney for a charging decision."
As you may already know, this is far from the first incident of a gun being stolen from law enforcement officials. Most recently, a stolen police gun was used in the murder of Abel Enrique Esquivel, Jr., who was shot near the 26th Street and South Van Ness in August. A few days after that shooting, police arrested three suspects, two of whom were previously wanted for "several robberies that occurred in the Mission District between August 13th and August 15th." A GoFundMe campaign for Esquivel Jr.'s family stated that he was killed in one of those robberies.
Later, the story took a strange turn, as it was revealed that two of the three arrested suspects were formerly wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. 18-year-old Erick Garcia-Pineda was apparently wearing an ICE-issued tracking ankle bracelet and 24-year-old Jesus Perez-Araujo was the target of an ICE detainer request, which was ultimately denied because of the city's sanctuary city policy. Since then, the right-wing media (including Fox News) has latched onto Esquivel Jr.'s murder case, holding it up as an example of "what can go wrong" with such a policy.
The Examiner of course connects the stolen gun (this time taken from a U.S. Bureau of Land Management agent), that was allegedly used by undocumented immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate to kill Kate Steinle. Zarate is scheduled to stand trial for the murder soon. But even in that case, Steinle's family filed a lawsuit against the BLM for their negligence in handling their firearms.
The gun stolen on Sunday has yet to be recovered, and one can really only worry about where it might be and what it might be used for in the near future.
Update: KTVU reports that the deputy whose gun was stolen out of a parked rental car on Sunday evening has been fired. Apparently the deputy (whose name has not been released) was still under probationary status, and had been with the department for less than a year.
Moreover, ABC 7 spoke with the Board of Supervisors about their frustration over the rash of stolen guns. "I am fed up and angry about the number of car break-ins in San Francisco," said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. "If a police officer, if a sheriff cannot secure their car and their vehicle in San Francisco, then nobody can." Supervisors Ronen and Norman Yee have apparently also introduced legislation instructing the police to form a "property crimes unit" to combat further car break-ins.
Related: Submachine Gun Stolen From FBI Agent's Car While It Was Parked Somewhere In The East Bay