[ad_1]
Homeless man accused of fatally stabbing two people in a California church over the weekend has been deported three times and was never turned over to federal immigration officials before the attack, despite multiple arrests and convictions for violent crimes, authorities said on Wednesday.
Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia, 32, allegedly stabbed five people inside Grace Baptist Church in San Jose on Sunday. A man died at the scene and a woman later died in a hospital, San Jose Police Chief Edgardo Garcia said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Lack of cooperation between local police and federal immigration officers due to California’s sanctuary policies was criticized by a senior federal official who said the attack could have been avoided.
“Unfortunately, politics continue to prevail over public safety, detainees have been ignored and De Jesus Lopez-Garcia has been released onto the streets,” said David Jennings, director of the San ICE removal operations field office. Francisco.
Lopez-Garcia is charged with two counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, bodily harm to a spouse or partner and violating a protection order.
“On three occasions, Lopez had been deported and then returned to the United States,” said Garcia, the police chief.
SANCTUARY OF CALIFORNIA CITY POLICIES POLICY SUBJECT AFTER DEPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED FOR MURDER
Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia, 32, had already been sent off three times. Detention requests by immigration officials have been ignored despite his extensive criminal record, officials said Wednesday.
(San Jose Police Department)
The church frequently provided shelter and meals to homeless people in the area, officials said. Lopez-Garcia had used his services in the past and sometimes worked with church staff to set up services, officials said.
Four of the stabbing victims were homeless and another was a city worker and church volunteer. The names of the victims will not be released, the police chief said.
Lopez-Garcia’s criminal record includes convictions for disturbing the peace, giving false information to police, resisting arrest and assault with a deadly weapon, which resulted in a two-year prison sentence.
At the time of the stabbing, he had a domestic violence misdemeanor charge in Santa Clara County that stemmed from an arrest in June. He was granted supervised release, which was revoked after failing to appear in court.
The release was on the objection of the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office. At the time of his arrest in June, Lopez-Garcia, a Mexican citizen, was on probation for a domestic violence conviction in a nearby county, officials said.
An immigration inmate has been sent to the Santa Clara County Jail to detain Lopez-Garcia so that Immigration and Customs Officers (ICE) can take him into custody upon his release. The ICE notification would have been permitted under California sanctuary policy, Garcia said, but the request was not honored and he was released.
County sanctuary policy prohibits local law enforcement agencies from contacting the ICE about the impending release of inmates who lived in the United States without legal permission.
“Here we have catastrophic proof of the abject failure of California’s sanctuary policies. The only person protected by this policy was a criminal; allowing him to reoffend over and over again, “said Jennings, the ICE field director.” If these immigration detainees had been honored, or if ICE had been warned on any of the other multiple occasions he had been arrested and released from local jails, we took him into custody.
Mayor Sam Liccardo said “multiple system failures” have allowed Lopez-Garcia to continue to reoffend.
“This defendant should not have been on the street,” he said. “In those very rare circumstances where an undocumented offender has a history of violent or serious convictions, the county must act under the (California) Values Act by notifying the ICE that a person will be released into the community. “
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The politics of the Santa Clara Sanctuary came under scrutiny last year following the murder of Bambi Larson in March 2019 in San Jose. Authorities said Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, who has a long criminal history with numerous arrests and gang connections, tracked down the 59-year-old before stabbing her to death.
He was deported in 2013 and returned to the United States illegally, authorities said. Several ICE inmates requesting notification of his release from county jails were ignored.
[ad_2]
Source link