SAN FRANCISCO—A judge has ruled that San Francisco can't be held responsible for the deaths of a man and his two sons allegedly shot by a suspected illegal immigrant who was not reported to immigration authorities despite his criminal history as a juvenile.

Judge Charlotte Woolard on Monday threw out the suit filed by the family of Tony Bologna and his sons, 20-year-old Michael and 16-year-old Matthew, saying that cities cannot generally be held liable for protecting people against crimes.The family's lawyer, Matthew Davis, said he would appeal.


Bologna and his sons were shot to death on a San Francisco street in June 2008. Police believe they were mistaken for gang members by Edwin Ramos, a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador and an alleged member of the MS-13 gang.Ramos has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. If convicted, he would face life in prison without parole.


He previously was arrested for assault in October 2003 and attempted purse-snatching in 2004 and was sent to juvenile shelters. Court documents don't reveal if police or juvenile courts knew that Ramos had entered the country illegally.Under the juvenile authorities' interpretation of the city's sanctuary city policy, they would not have turned him over to immigration authorities.

Bologna's widow and daughter argued the city was responsible for the shootings because it failed to turn Ramos over to federal immigration authorities after the earlier brushes with the law.


The murders sparked a change in the city's sanctuary policy. In 2008, Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city employees to report suspected underage illegal immigrants to the federal government after a felony arrest.


Supervisors then passed an ordinance that requires the youth to be found guilty before being reported, but the mayor has refused to implement it, saying it violates federal law.