The Killer D.A.: Chesa Boudin’s Decarceration Disaster
5th January 2021
Her name was Hanako Abe. Raised in Fukushima, Japan, she lived through the devastating 2011 tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster and emigrated to America to attend university. After graduation in 2018, she settled in San Francisco and worked in commercial real estate. She posted a smiling selfie on Instagram Thursday, announcing her excitement for a new year she would not live to see. Shortly after 4 PM Thursday, she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while walking in the SOMA district of San Francisco, just 27 years old. Another woman, Elizabeth Platt, 60, was killed alongside Abe.
The driver, Troy McAlister, was intoxicated and driving a car he stole in Daly City two days earlier, from a woman he met on a dating app. Paroled in April after serving time for armed robbery, McAlister had been arrested several times since his release for various crimes including car theft, most recently on December 20. (He may in fact have been fleeing his latest burglary when he struck the women last Thursday, according to police). But none of these recent arrests resulted in any new charges brought by District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office.