New film about Kate Steinle's murder warns voters about Trump's exploitation

Two months earlier, Steinle, a 32-year-old sales representative for a medical device company, was shot while walking with her father on Pier 14. The bullet was fired by José Ines García Zárate, an undocumented immigrant charged with murder. His trial would not take place until after Trump won the election, in part because he used the story to portray Mexicans entering the United States as dangerous criminals. The jury ultimately concluded that the shooting was not premeditated but was the result of a freak accident in which the defendant had bent down to examine a bundle of clothes lying on the floor, unaware that there was a firearm hidden inside and had accidentally fired it. The bullet ricocheted off the ground and hit Steinle in the back.

In “Ricochet,” a documentary now available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, filmmakers Chihiro Wimbush and the late San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi document the trial and argue that the misrepresentation of the murder helped Trump has to move into the White House.