Kate Steinle Trial: Video Shows Suspect At Pier 14 Murder Scene

SAN FRANCISCO – Surveillance video footage shown in court today shows the man charged in the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle at San Francisco's Pier 14 throw something in the water and then leave the scene immediately after she is struck, according to prosecutors.

Jurors in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, who faces charges including second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the July 1, 2015 shooting, were shown surveillance footage of the shooting
taken from a fire station located about a quarter of a mile away.

The grainy, black-and-white footage shows a small figure dressed in black, identified by police as Garcia Zarate, sitting down on a chair on the Pier shortly after 6 p.m., according to police Officer Craig Dong, who
collected and analyzed the video.

A short time later, a group of people can be seen passing by, including one figure in white identified by Dong as Steinle.

Steinle, a 32-year-old Pleasanton native who lived in San Francisco's South Beach neighborhood, was walking on the pier with her father and another family member following a meal at the Ferry Building at the time
of the shooting, according to previous testimony.

In the video, Garcia Zarate remained seated until the figure in white can be seen falling down, at which point there is a splash in the water in front of him as he gets up and leaves the area, Dong said.

"I see Kate Steinle falling down and the man throws something in the water and he walks away almost immediately," Dong said, as prosecutor Diana Garcia played the video for jurors.

Additional surveillance video footage shows Garcia Zarate as he walks south down Embarcadero away from the scene.

He does not appear to run, in any of the footage, and stops at one point to look inside a garbage can before police pull up in the area of Embarcadero and Townsend street to detain him. Garcia Zarate can be seen
laying down on the ground after police arrive before the video ends.

Defense attorneys are not disputing that Garcia Zarate was holding the gun when Steinle was shot, but have argued the shooting was an accident that occurred after he found the gun, wrapped in a T-shirt or piece of cloth, underneath his seat on the pier. The bullet that struck Steinle ricocheted off the pier in front of Garcia Zarate before it struck her.

Matt Gonzalez, chief attorney for the public defender's office, said in opening statements that Garcia Zarate threw the gun in the water when it went off to make it stop and walked away without knowing that anyone had been hit.

Outside court today Gonzalez said the footage showed the "tremendous distance" between Garcia Zarate and Steinle at the time of the shooting.

In addition, he noted that the fire station camera footage shows a group of people huddled at the same seat where Garcia Zarate later sat, picking objects up and putting them down. He noted that police had never
examined this portion of the footage or checked for additional surveillance camera images of the people in that group.

Police had the footage but were so convinced of Garcia Zarate's guilt that they didn't investigate "the one piece of evidence that corroborates his claim that somebody else could have put it there," Gonzalez said.

Prosecutor Diana Garcia today also presented testimony from the police officer who arrested Garcia Zarate and from the diver who retrieved the gun from the water, as well as forensics evidence.

Police did not locate a cloth or t-shirt such as Gonzalez suggested might have been wrapped around the gun in the area of the shooting, and the diver, Officer Scott Hurley, said he did not find one in the water.

However he noted on cross-examination that he was not instructed to search for any cloth in the water.

Garcia Zarate's trial has drawn national attention because of its ties to controversy over Sanctuary City policies used by San Francisco and other cities that limit the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities.

San Francisco officials had released Garcia Zarate, a Mexican citizen with a history of deportations, from jail months before the shooting after a minor drug charge was dismissed without notifying federal immigration
authorities, as is the city's practice for most cases.

Testimony is expected to continue Thursday morning. Garcia Zarate remains in custody without bail during the trial.

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Witnesses Tuesday described Jose Ines Garcia Zarate staring at people and laughing at Pier 14 more than two years ago shortly before Kathryn Steinle was fatally shot and said they saw him leaving the scene immediately afterward, as testimony continued in his trial in San Francisco Superior Court on murder charges.

Garcia Zarate, 45, who is charged with second-degree murder in the July 1, 2015 shooting, was seen by East Coast resident Michelle Lo, who was visiting San Francisco with her sons and sister, sitting on a chair on the
pier shortly before the shooting.

Lo, speaking through a Cantonese interpreter, said she saw "a man dressed in black" looking at the people passing by, swiveling around and around. He was grinning, she said, and appeared to be laughing although she could not hear him.

"When we walked by he would just look at you, he would grin and he would spin in his chair," Lo said.

Lo said she saw who she thought was the same man in black leaving the area just after she heard a loud bang and saw a woman on the ground, but did not see his face.

Two other witnesses, Central Valley elementary school teacher Maria Moreno and her roommate, restaurant manager Aryn Carpenter, were staying in a hotel room directly across from the pier when they heard the
gunshot.

Moreno and Carpenter both said they looked outside and saw a body on the ground and groups of people on the pier. One woman was at the end of the pier talking on the phone and a man in black clothing was walking away.

"He had a scowl on his face," Moreno said, and was walking "briskly."

Carpenter, however, said she could not see the man's face and thought that he walked "casually" at first, then picked up the pace.

They took photos of the man from their hotel room and showed them to police a short time later. Later in the evening they identified Garcia Zarate as the same man after police picked him up within a mile from where
the shooting occurred.

All three witnesses initially told police Garcia Zarate appeared to be African-American or darker skinned, and commented in court today that he now appeared to have a lighter complexion.

Defense attorneys are not disputing that Garcia Zarate handled the gun that shot Steinle, but are instead arguing that the weapon, which had been stolen from an off-duty Bureau of Land Management agent's car a few days earlier, went off in his hands when he picked it up. The bullet that struck Steinle ricocheted off the ground first, lending some support to their theory that it was accidental.

Prosecutors, however, are arguing that Garcia Zarate deliberately fired at Steinle or others in the crowd, and may have simply not raised the gun barrel high enough.

Outside court, Matt Gonzalez, chief attorney for the public defender's office, said Lo had not told police Garcia Zarate was laughing or acting strangely when she was interviewed after the shooting.

He noted there were some inconsistencies in the witness statements, including the speed at which Garcia Zarate was seen leaving the area, and questioned the prosecution's depiction of him.

"They've gone so far as to suggest that he had the gun and purposefully tried what was described as a skip shot and planned his getaway so as not to be seen," he said. "And yet on the other hand you see this depiction of him that would be really at odds with his ability to develop this plan, so I'm not really sure what the prosecution is doing."

Testimony is set to continue Wednesday morning, with a forensic investigator for the police department expected to be the first to take the stand.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Kate Steinle Murder Trial: 'Freakish Ricochet' From 'Hair-Trigger' Gun Caused Accidental Death: Defense

Watch: Bay Area Trial Begins In Fatal Pier Shooting

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--Bay City News/Photo of Kate Steinle via GoFundMe