San Francisco Officials Remove Pier 14 Steinle Memorial

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS S) — At the request of her family, a city work crew has removed a memorial erected on the spot on a San Francisco pier where Kate Steinle was fatally shot.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee confirmed the memorial’s removal on Saturday to the San Francisco Examiner.

An alt-right group had claimed credit for erecting the memorial around a bench built on the pier in Steinle’s memory.

Officials told the Examiner that the memorial violated city policy. San Francisco typically removes memorials within 10 days of the victim’s funeral service. Steinle’s funeral took place in 2015.

“The Steinle family placed a request with the Mayor’s Office for the bench to remain as it was intended — a simple memorial in recognition of Kate and her spirit,” said Lee’s spokeswoman, Deirdre Hussey.

A group, called Identity Evropa, decorated the memorial with flowers, candles, and messages that read “Build the wall” and that Steinle’s death “will be avenged” after a jury acquitted an undocumented immigrant of her killing.

The group posted about the memorial through its Twitter account late Thursday night and Friday morning, calling for a boycott of San Francisco and saying the acquittal was “an indictment of not only San Francisco but our country overall.”

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate – a man who had previously been deported five times – was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter with the verdict handed down by the jury Thursday afternoon. He was only found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.