First, a Random Killing; Then News Crews Robbed on Air

A young woman was shot to death, apparently at random, while walking with her father and a friend along a popular pedestrian pier on the San Francisco waterfront. When reporting on it, two TV news crews were robbed—just as one report was going live. It all began when a 32-year-old woman identified as Kathryn Steinle was shot yesterday evening at Pier 14 and died at a hospital. Her mother, 69-year-old Liz Sullivan, tells the San Francisco Chronicle, "She just kept saying, 'Dad, help me, help me.'" The slaying was particularly shocking because it happened in broad daylight in a place where tourists gather to take in the views, joggers exercise, and families push strollers at all hours.

Police, who say the killing appears to be random, arrested Francisco Sanchez about an hour after the shooting. Two television news crews reporting on the killing were later mugged at the scene, with a masked gunman pistol-whipping a camera operator. The robber took cameras from KNTV and KTVU before he jumped into a black BMW and fled. The robbery unfolded as KTVU reporter Cara Liu was beginning her live report just after 6am. You can see a video snippet of the chaos here. (More murder stories.)