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As Senator Kamala Harris makes her rounds on the campaign trail vying for the 2020 presidency, seeing her smiling and waving at constituents doesn’t sit right with Renata Espinoza.
Espinoza is the wife of Isaac Espinoza, a San Francisco police officer killed in the line of duty during a time when Harris served as the city’s newly elected district attorney in 2004.
Harris’ stance on the death penalty upsets Espinoza, who believes she flip flops on the issue. While Harris personally opposes capital punishment her record as California attorney general, shows that she has worked to keep it alive.
Playing both sides, of sorts, have people upset. Espinoza is one of those people.
The widow finally spoke out, 15 years after her husband’s death to speak out about Harris because of her run for President, CNN reports.
“I want people to know who she is,” Espinoza said, “how she was back then and how her actions affected us. I want people to know everything about her, even in the past, before they vote for her. And I want them to hear Isaac’s story.”
Harris said her husband was gunned down after he and his partner saw a suspect walking and tugging on what appeared to be a gun. When they approached the man on April 10, Espinoza identified himself as an officer, according to court testimony.
The man, 21-year-old David Hill, was standing about a dozen feet away and pulled out an AK-47 assault rifle and fired shots Espinoza’s way.
“I had just talked to Isaac maybe about 30 to 40 minutes before,” recalled Renata Espinoza.
“He had told me to stay up because he was coming home.” Her daughter was 3 at the time.
Espinoza soon learned that her husband would not be coming home. She was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital by a fellow officer.
“Is he alive?” she asked.
“He’s fine, he’s alive,” he reassured her.
“Can I see him? Can I see him?” Espinoza pleaded.
Espinoza’s captain handed the grieving wife Isaac’s star.
“I remember I walked into this room and he still had blood here,” said Espinoza, pointing to her hip.
“He was laying there with his eyes closed and I saw the blood here. And I walk over to him I just said, ‘wake up.'”
“Can you just pray over him?” she said to her father, who is a pastor. “So he can wake up.”
Within three days after Espinoza’s death, a suspect was in custody.
Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association joined Harris at a news conference.
“In San Francisco, it is the will, I believe, of a majority of people that the most severe crimes be met with the most severe consequences,” Harris told reporters and camera crews. “And that life without the possibility of parole is a severe consequence.”
That decision was upsetting for Espinoza and for Delagnes.
“I’m standing there and I’m going, ‘Oh my God,'” recalled Delagnes. “The kid’s not even in the ground yet. You’re thinking to yourself, OK, is she sorry that this kid died or is this just a political opportunity? Is this just an opportunity for her to double down on the fact she’s not going to pursue the death penalty?”
The police union was calling for the death penalty. But Debbie Mesloh, who worked as a longtime Harris adviser and communications director at the time said San Francisco juries “rarely, if ever, handed down the death penalty and the suspect was just 21,” she told CNN.
“We were working in a full attempt to be honest and provide clarity on what was a difficult and emotionally charged situation,” said Mesloh. “As communications director, I recommended we provide details about the case as soon as possible.”
Espinoza was shocked by the news.
“She did not call me,” recounted Espinoza about Harris. “I don’t understand why she went on camera to say that without talking to the family. It’s like, you can’t even wait till he’s buried?”
Espinoza feels like justice was taken from her family.
“I felt like she had just taken something from us,” said Espinoza. “She had just taken justice from us. From Isaac. She was only thinking of herself. I couldn’t understand why. I was in disbelief that she had gone on and already made her decision to not seek the death penalty for my husband.”