This still doesn't make sense.
He was behind her and he had obviously pulled the gun. If it was still in his pocket, there would be some mention of a bullet hole in his clothes.
So why was the gun pulled? Perhaps to commit a robbery?
If so, then it is felony murder. And it doesn't matter if the gun went off accidentally. If you pull a gun during the commission of a crime, you are responsible for the safety of your victims.
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The rule of felony murder is a legal
doctrine in some
common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of
murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills
(regardless of accidentally or without specific intent to kill) in the commission of a dangerous or enumerated
felony, he/she is guilty of murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. In short, deaths that occur in the commission of a dangerous felony or enumerated felony (enumerated = stated in statute, e.g. rape, etc) is murder. The enumerated felonies yield first degree/special circumstances murder. The non-enumerated, inherently dangerous felonies yield second degree murder.
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My emphasis above.
So, I ask again, why had he pulled the gun on the SF pier?