A homeless man has been accused of stabbing five people inside a California church, according to Fox News.
Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was deported three times and never turned over to federal immigration officials before the attack, despite multiple arrests and convictions for violent crimes.
Two people died, one at the scene, the other died later at the hospital.
“Regrettably, politics continues to prevail over public safety, the detainers were ignored, and De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was released to the street.”
“On three prior occasions, Lopez had been deported and then ultimately returned to the United States.”
Lopez-Garcia has been charged with two murder counts, three counts of attempted murder, battery on a spouse or cohabitant and violating a protective order.
Grace Baptist Church in San Jose frequently provided shelter and meals to homeless people in the area.
“Here we have catastrophic proof of the abject failure of California’s sanctuary policies. The only person this policy protected was a criminal; permitting him to reoffend over and over again.”
“Had those immigration detainers been honored, or had ICE been notified on any of the other multiple occasions he was arrested and released from local jails, we would have taken him into custody.”
Mayor Sam Liccardo said, “This defendant should not have been out on the street. In those very rare circumstances when an undocumented offender has a record of violent or serious prior convictions, the county should be acting in accordance with the (California) Values Act in notifying ICE that a person will be released out into the community.”
Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was deported in 2013 and re-entered the U.S. illegally.
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Four of the stabbing victims were homeless and another was a city employee and volunteer working at the church. The names of the victims will not be released, the police chief said.
Lopez-Garcia’s criminal history 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 pending misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Santa Clara County that stemmed from a June arrest. He was granted supervised release, which was revoked after failing to appear in court.
The release was over the objection of the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office. At the time of his June arrest, Lopez-Garcia, a Mexican citizen, was on probation for a felony domestic violence conviction in a nearby county, officials said.
An immigration detainer was sent to the Santa Clara County jail to hold Lopez-Garcia so Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could take him into custody upon his release. Notification to ICE would have been allowed under California’s sanctuary policy, Garcia said, but the request was not honored and he was released.
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