Kamala Harris Failed to Prosecute Illegal MS-13 Gang Member Months Before He Murdered Bologna Family

A known MS-13 Gang member, living illegally in the United States, was arrested but went unprosecuted by then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris’ office months before he murdered a California family.

On June 22, 2008, 48-year-old Tony Bologna and his three sons — 20-year-old Michael, 18-year-old Andrew, and 16-year-old Matthew — were driving home from a family barbeque in San Francisco, California, when illegal alien MS-13 gang member Edwin Ramos, driving alongside them, randomly opened fire.

Ramos killed Anthony, Michael, and Matthew in the shooting. Prosecutors said Ramos shot the Bolognas because he misidentified them as rival gang members who were involved in a gang murder that day.

The murder case rose to prominence as Harris, who is now Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, was San Francisco District Attorney. Despite a plea by Angel Mom Danielle Bologna to seek the death penalty against Ramos, Harris refused and instead sought a life sentence.

Ramos, three months before the Bologna murders, had a run-in with San Francisco police officers. According to the San Francisco Gate, police had warned Harris’ office that Ramos was a known MS-13 Gang member with multiple run-ins with the law.

Despite his record, Harris’ office did not prosecute Ramos, the San Francisco Gate reported in 2008:

In March, three months before the killings, Ramos was arrested in San Francisco after police pulled him over because his car had illegally tinted windows and no front license plate. An alleged gang member in the car tried to discard a gun, but police recovered it and later concluded that it had been used in a double killing, authorities said. [Emphasis added]

The police report of the incident cited “numerous documented contacts” that officers had with Ramos and the man who allegedly discarded the gun, and said both were active members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang. [Emphasis added]

San Francisco prosecutors, however, declined to file charges against Ramos, saying they couldn’t prove that he knew his companion had the gun. [Emphasis added]

Harris’ office claimed they needed another criminal charge Against Ramos in order to prosecute him, another report by the San Francisco Gate stated:

Police sent the case to prosecutors in District Attorney Kamala Harris’ office, who declined to file charges. They told investigators that there was no evidence that Ramos had known that Lopez had a gun, according to Harris’ office. [Emphasis added]

The gang charge had to have another crime associated with it for prosecutors to bring Ramos to trial, police and prosecutors said. [Emphasis added]

An account of Ramos’ arrest in March 2008 was published in the Los Angeles Times in July 2008. The report notes that after Harris’ office failed to press any charges against Ramos, he was released a couple of days later:

Ramos was also arrested March 30 on a weapons violation, along with an alleged gang member riding in his car. After he spent several days in jail, authorities decided to file charges against the other man but not him, and Ramos was released, said Eileen Hirst, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. [Emphasis added]

Deportation proceedings against Ramos could have been initiated but were not because of an apparent mix-up between the federal Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Agency and the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail. [Emphasis added]

[…]

But ICE spokesman Tim Counts said the jail contacted federal immigration officials only once — at 3:44 a.m. April 2, two hours after Ramos had been released. [Emphasis added]

After the Bologna murders, Angel Mom Danielle Bologna pleaded with Harris to seek the death penalty against Ramos. Harris refused and instead sought a life sentence without parole.

Ramos was convicted in 2012 for the Bologna murders and appealed his conviction. A California appellate court upheld his conviction in 2014.

As Biden’s running mate, Harris supports a national sanctuary policy that would shield arrested illegal aliens from being turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for deportation proceedings.

Instead, the Biden-Harris plan advocates an amnesty for all 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. modeled on the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which has lenient eligibility requirements.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.