Black Arrested for 2010 Murder of White Tourist

San Francisco CBS Local
January 5, 2014

Mechthild Schršer, in S.F. to celebrate her 50th birthday and 25th anniversary, was killed by a stray bullet in a gunfight outside a comedy club near her hotel
Mechthild Schršer, in S.F. to celebrate her 50th birthday and 25th anniversary, was killed by a stray bullet, in a gunfight outside a comedy club near her hotel.

A law enforcement task force led by the U.S. Marshals Northern District of California has arrested a suspect in the 2010 murder of a German tourist.

A tipster saw the mugshot of 21-year-old Devante Laws, on a new “most wanted” website and called in to law enforcement, leading to yesterday’s arrest.

“Investigators received a tip, set up surveillance, and noticed somebody that looked just like Mr. Laws,” said Frank Conroy, Supervisory Deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service, Northern California Division. “They began to follow that individual, approached him at a gas station and placed him into custody.”

Laws is in the San Francisco County jail, charged with accessory to murder, and other weapons charges.

Seven men are already in custody with various charges associated with the homicide of Mechthild Schroer, 50, who was in San Francisco with her family to celebrate her anniversary. She was fatally shot in the crossfire between two groups outside a Union Square nightclub in August of 2010.

Laws was named in a 2011 grand jury indictment, but had eluded law enforcement until Thursday’s arrest.

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