Kate Steinle killer’s rambling account: He fired at ‘sea animal,’ or stepped on the gun

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, right, is led into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, right, is led into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. Photo: Michael Macor, San Francisco Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, San Francisco Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Kate Steinle killer’s rambling account: He fired at ‘sea animal,’ or stepped on the gun 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

Under police questioning hours after Kate Steinle was fatally shot on San Francisco’s Pier 14, the accused killer at one point said he had aimed at a “sea animal.”

At another point, he said the gun had been under a rag that lay on the ground near the waterfront, that it fired when he stepped on it, and that he quickly tossed the weapon into the bay so it would stop “shooting on its own.”

The varying confessions offered by Jose Ines Garcia Zarate — captured on video and played Wednesday for jurors at the 45-year-old man’s murder trial — may clarify what happened along the Embarcadero on the evening of July 1, 2015. Then again, they may not.

Garcia Zarate, a homeless undocumented immigrant with a history of drug crimes and deportations, repeatedly changed his story and seemed not to understand basic concepts. His interrogators implored him to “tell us the truth.”

He told investigators he was born in 1863, that he was a citizen of Colombia rather than Mexico, and that he was 5 to 6 feet away from Steinle on the pier, despite evidence that at least 90 feet separated the two at the time of the shooting.

The prosecution believes that Garcia Zarate pulled the trigger of the pistol — which had been stolen four days earlier from the nearby parked car of an off-duty federal ranger — and fired toward Steinle, an unexplained but intentional act showing the malice needed for a second-degree murder conviction.

But the defense, citing evidence that the bullet skipped off the concrete ground, has said the gun accidentally discharged after Garcia Zarate found it in a T-shirt or cloth under his seat on the pier and unwrapped it.

The case gained wide attention not only because of the randomness of Steinle’s death, as she strolled on Pier 14 with her father, but also because of how it figured into the national debate over the enforcement of immigration laws and the anti-immigrant sentiment embraced by President Trump.

Garcia Zarate had been on track for a sixth deportation when federal authorities brought him to San Francisco to face an old warrant in a marijuana case. When city prosecutors dismissed the case, the Sheriff’s Department, relying on the city’s sanctuary policies for immigrants, released Garcia Zarate despite a federal request to hold him for removal.

In the video played Wednesday in Superior Court by Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia, the defendant sat huddled in the corner of an interrogation room at the Hall of Justice, declining food or drink. When police homicide investigators asked him if he needed anything, he said he was cold. It was past midnight, in the aftermath of the shooting.

Garcia played the footage after calling Lt. Anthony Ravano, the lead investigator in the case, to the witness stand.

Through a Spanish interpreter, Garcia Zarate said he had been walking near AT&T Park that evening, southeast of Pier 14, eating crackers. He said he had, prior to that, been sleeping after “coming in from work,” collecting recyclable bottles and cans from garbage bins.

“We want to know if he was on the pier,” Ravano asked the interpreter, a Spanish-speaking city officer.

“No, I was farther away,” said Garcia Zarate, who made some responses in Spanish and others in English. “I was sitting next to a planter.”

Ravano testified that he became more aggressive in his questioning because “it was my belief that the defendant was lying to us.”

He said he deceived Garcia Zarate — a tactic that is allowed in interrogations — by telling him police had already recovered the gun from the bay, had DNA and gunshot-residue evidence tying him to the shooting, and had found witnesses who saw him shoot.

In fact, a dive team would fish the pistol from the bay the day after the killing. No one witnessed the shooting, but Ravano, in the interrogation, had photos of Garcia Zarate taken by tourists proving he had been on the pier.

“This is you. We know this is you. People say this is you,” Ravano said in the video.

Garcia Zarate defended himself, saying it was a coincidence that the man in the photo was wearing the same shirt as him. He pointed out there were no crackers in the photo, even though he had been eating crackers.

“I want to know why you shot the girl and threw the gun in the water,” said Sgt. Chris Canning, who was also in the room.

Garcia Zarate stayed silent.

“This girl,” Ravano said, gesturing to a photo of Steinle. “You fired the shot. Why?”

Still he remained silent.

“What’s the matter?” Canning asked. “Are you sad?”

Eventually, Garcia Zarate admitted throwing the gun in the bay because he wanted it to stop shooting, suggesting the discharge was accidental.

Later, Ravano asked of the fatal shot, “What were you aiming at?”

“Nothing,” Garcia Zarate responded.

“What were you aiming at?” Ravano repeated.

“I think it was a sea animal,” Garcia Zarate said. “A sea lion.”

He later said it was “a black fish,” and when Ravano asked how long he had the gun, he said it was “only there” at the pier. He then changed his story.

“When I was walking along, there was a rag,” Garcia Zarate said. “I stepped on it and it fired and I threw it.”

“Why did you throw it?” Ravano asked.

“I was trying to stop it from shooting on its own,” Garcia Zarate responded.

Canning pulled his seat close to the suspect and put a hand on his shoulder, bringing his face close to Garcia Zarate’s face.

“The truth is very important,” he said. “Lying will just give you more trouble. As difficult as the truth can be, the truth is always the best. So tell us the truth. You didn’t step on the gun, did you?”

“Yes,” Garcia Zarate said.

“You pulled the trigger. Is that the truth?” Canning asked.

“Sí,” Garcia Zarate said.

But he continued to answer in the affirmative, even when Ravano and Canning asked if he shot Steinle from 5 feet away.

The investigators repeatedly tried to get Garcia Zarate to describe a motive, with Ravano at one point asking whether the shooting could have been an accident. All Garcia Zarate would say was that the gun was too big for his hand, and he had to throw it.

The interrogation ran from 1:50 a.m. to 5:45 a.m., Ravano testified. Garcia Zarate, who was arrested on the Embarcadero soon after the shooting, had sat handcuffed in a patrol car since about 7:30 p.m., and had arrived at the Hall of Justice about midnight — which his attorney says likely contributed to his scattered statements.

“How do you feel?” one of the investigators asked Garcia Zarate at one point, seemingly trying to prod him into expressing remorse over Steinle’s death.

“I just want to stay attentive and focused and I just want to sign the papers that I did it,” he said in Spanish.

Defense attorney Matt Gonzalez, of the city public defender’s office, pointed out that amid Garcia Zarate’s alleged confessions, he continually returned to the version in which the gun accidentally discharged shortly after he found it on the pier.

“The police were able to get Mr. Garcia Zarate to abandon what he said and adopt what they were saying,” Gonzalez said, “but as soon as they thereafter asked him his question again, he would revert back to his position.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @VivianHo