Fullerton police plan to release briefing – including camera footage – of police shooting of 17-year-old girl

The Fullerton Police Department plans to release body-worn camera footage, photos and a description of what occurred in the officer-involved shooting death of 17-year-old girl Hannah Williams on the 91 Freeway in Anaheim last week, authorities said.

In a statement released Thursday morning, July 11, the Department said it will release its community briefing in a video.

Recent legislation gives agencies 45 days to provide a video or audio recording of a critical incident. Fullerton police plan to release it within roughly a week, Police Lt. Jon Radus said, though he did not give a specific date.

News of the video comes on the heels of press conferences held by the Anaheim family and their attorneys earlier this week demanding to know exactly what prompted the shooting.

The incident happened just after 7 p.m. on July 5 on the eastbound 91 Freeway in Anaheim, just east of the Kraemer Boulevard on-ramp. Williams was shot and later died at a hospital.

Earlier this week prosecutors announced that a replica firearm “identical” to a Beretta handgun was found next to the teen. The officer spotted the girl traveling “at a high rate of speed” on the 91 near Glassell Street, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The police vehicle and Williams’ car got into a “fender bender,” her family’s attorney said Thursday at a press conference.

Fullerton police made their announcement about releasing the footage about an hour before the family’s scheduled press conference.

The family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt, said they appreciate the footage will be released but think it should have been shown to them sooner.

“Should it have happened over the weekend? Should the family have had access to it first? Yes,” Merritt said, adding the family feels like they’ve been kept in the dark by investigators. “Most of the information this family and my office has learned…we’ve learned from media.”

Fullerton police are investigating whether the officer followed the department’s policies leading up to the use of deadly force, Radus said in a statement. Merritt also pointed out that the family believes the name of the officer should have already been released.

“This officer needs to be thoroughly investigated the same way any other criminal suspect would be investigated,” Merritt said. “A 17-year-old girl is dead with no explanation.”

Said Radus, “There is a balance that must be struck between the release of information and the need to keep the public informed,” he said. “This is a balance that we respect, and must maintain, in order to complete thorough, thoughtful, and diligent investigations.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Williams’ older sister Nyla Williams talked about her sister.

“She just stared working as a lifeguard … she liked saving people and being there for people,” Williams, 19, said. “She talked about being in the military … I just knew that whatever she was going to do she just wanted to help people.”

The teen, who was going to be a senior at Magnolia High School,  had recently started a job as a lifeguard at Knott’s Berry Farm. The day she died was her day off from work.

“She was in a particular joyous mood,” Merritt said about how the family described her that day.

She had made pancakes. She pulled pranks on her cousin and had plans to go sightseeing in Hollywood with relatives who came in from Texas.

Family members believed she went out to run an unspecified errand and didn’t return. Early the next morning, officers delivered the news of her death.

The family thinks any erratic driving on the teen’s end was from her inexperience. She had only recently applied for a learner’s permit, they said.  They believe she may have gotten on a wrong road and was forced to take the freeway, which she’d never driven on.

“We just need to know what happened that night,” the teen’s sister said.

District Attorney’s Office officials have reached out to the Williams family attorney to schedule a meeting with District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who has been out of town.

The Anaheim Police Department is investigating Williams’ actions leading up to the shooting, while the District Attorney’s Office is investigating the officer’s actions.