Harris slams Hallinan on city's gun violence / D.A. candidate points to bus shooting victim

San Francisco district attorney candidate Kamala Harris on Tuesday seized on the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy on a Muni bus to claim that incumbent Terence Hallinan isn't doing enough to combat gun violence.

Hallinan countered by saying Harris is exploiting a tragedy for political gain and claimed that she doesn't have her facts straight.

Joined by community activists from Bayview-Hunters Point and the Mission District outside San Francisco's Hall of Justice, Harris said the district attorney should be leading the fight against what she calls a crisis of gun violence in the city.

"The district attorney should be one of the loudest voices of outrage that we have 24 cases this year alone involving people being killed who are under 25," she said.

Hallinan, who seeks re-election to a third term Dec. 9, responded that his office is the "most aggressive county in the state on prosecution of gun crimes," and said Harris was looking to take advantage of the case of DeShawn Dawson.

"She says anything that's convenient to her at the moment," Hallinan said.

"She comes out swinging, but she doesn't have her facts right."

Dawson was shot in the face Thursday on a No. 29 Muni bus as he rode from Balboa High School to his after-school job as a tutor. He died two days later.

Hallinan has charged a 16-year-old boy from Burton High with murder in the death of Dawson, described as an innocent bystander. Prosecutors plan to ask a Juvenile Court judge next week to send the case to adult court -- a move that could result in a much longer prison sentence.

Harris said she agreed with Hallinan's decision to ask a judge to have the defendant tried as an adult.

But she sharply criticized what she said was Hallinan's poor record on gun violence that affects San Francisco children.

Harris produced state statistics showing that San Francisco County has a high rate of concealed weapons charges compared to the largest counties in California.

Hallinan responded that the data only show that local authorities are catching a lot of the city's gun-toting criminals. He also noted that San Francisco County is far more urban than other large counties.

Harris said she would more aggressively prosecute people who furnish guns to minors; would launch a program in high schools and middle schools showing pupils the results of gun violence; and would establish a task force with school and community leaders to track kids who appear to be headed down the wrong path.

She also said she would reduce the city's backlog of murder cases awaiting trial -- a number that Harris put at 50 -- by among other things seeking to have one courtroom devoted to handling the proceedings. She said that if cases were resolved quicker, young people would see the consequences of violent crime.

But Jim Hammer, who heads the homicide unit in the district attorney's office, said Harris' criticism is "so wrong, it raises questions" about her credibility.

He said the district attorney's office under Hallinan has been relentlessly trying to clear the backlog -- he said the number of cases was closer to 40 -- and had gone so far as to ask judges to remove defense attorneys who request excessive continuances.