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San Francisco Police Deny Claims They Failed To Investigate Gun Theft Used In Pier 14 Killing

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — San Francisco police refute the report that claims they did not assign an investigator to probe the theft of a gun from a federal agent's car until after a woman on Pier 14 was shot and killed with the weapon.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Police Chief Greg Suhr said the June 27 break-in of a car belonging to a U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger had not been assigned to an inspector by the time 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was killed along the waterfront on July 1.

However, police spokesman Carlos Manfredi told KPIX and KCBS that they did do a thorough initial investigation.

After talking to witnesses and checking the scene for surveillance video, Manfredi said they decided not to send a Crime Scene Investigation unit or assign the case to the investigator.

Earlier this week, Suhr issued a routine department-wide bulletin reminding officers of the policy for identifying "cases that require an immediate investigation," which Manfredi insists had nothing to do with the Pier 14 case.

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Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez has been charged with Steinle's murder.

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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