Sometimes things happen in America that makes even the most patriotic among us shake our heads in disbelief and bow them in shame.

This is one of those times.

As reported by Breitbart News’ senior editor-at-large Joel Pollack, Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, the illegal immigrant who shot and killed San Francisco native Kate Steinle, 32, in 2015 but was acquitted of murder charges last year is suing the federal government.

Why? Zarate is seeking documents “pertaining to vindictive prosecution and collusion” with the state government in its prosecution against him.

The shooter is now the victim. Only in the “sanctuary state” of California could something like this happen.

You may recall that in November a San Francisco jury found this man not guilty of murdering Steinle. Jurors admitted that yeah, he had the gun that fired the bullet that killed Steinle on a pier as she walked along with her father, but heck, you know, it might have been an accident, so…instant acquittal.

Now, this is the most liberal city in the most liberal state in the country, so rather than punish the shooter for killing another human being, the jury instead decided to punish the shooter for having the gun in the first place.

Zarate had been deported multiple times. He was a felon; he had seven previous felony convictions. Yet, there he was, roaming the streets of the sanctuary city of San Fran, free to steal a federal agent’s gun from his car and use it to murder an American citizen.

Mind you, this occurred after Donald J. Trump — who campaigned almost exclusively at times on his dedication to the enforcement of all immigration laws and the construction of a border wall — became president. And this miscarriage of justice also occurred after long-time border control advocate and former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions became Trump’s attorney general.

So it should not have been a surprise that the Justice Department immediately issued a warrant for Zarate’s arrest for violating the terms of his 2015 federal prison release. The government also charged him with additional federal crimes, like “being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and for being an illegally present alien in possession” of a gun. (Related: Illegal alien released by sanctuary city Portland goes on to rape woman; insane Left rejoices.)

Sounds reasonable at the very least. But not to our hero.

Courthouse News reports that he is alleging “that federal agencies colluded with the San Francisco police, district attorney’s office and sheriff’s office” and that he’s now being subjected to double jeopardy, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s protection against being “subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”

“This case was highly publicized, both locally and nationally,” J. Toney Serra wrote in the motion, the legal news site reported. “Almost immediately after the death of Ms. Steinle, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump began to use Mr. Garcia-Zarate as the symbol of the dangers of illegal immigrants and the need for a wall between the United States and Mexico.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but lots of people running for elected office use current events as a means of promoting their agenda. Plus, at the time Trump wasn’t ‘the government’ and thus he had no control over any government actions. What’s more, what he was saying didn’t seem to influence jurors in San Francisco at all, since Zarate got off for the worst charge.

As to the collusion charge, multiple jurisdictions “collude” all the time to solve crimes, often with the assistance of federal agencies. This is no secret and it’s also not a violation of any statutes.

To the Fifth Amendment claim, suspects are regularly charged with similar crimes on the state and federal level; that’s not “double jeopardy” because Zarate isn’t being tried for the same crime in the same jurisdiction.

But no matter. What’s really offensive is that this killer and his ambulance-chasing lawyer both believe that his rights were somehow violated as the Steinle family still grieves over the loss of their loved one.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

CourthouseNews.com

Breitbart.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

Newstarget.com