Fullerton police release video of officer shooting 17-year-old girl

A 17-year-old girl shot and killed by a Fullerton officer on the 91 Freeway was pointing what turned out to be a replica handgun, video of the fatal confrontation released Friday shows.

The Fullerton Police Department on Friday afternoon released the body-worn camera footage, as well as a 911 call the teen’s father made in which he reported that she had gone missing with a rental car while on medication.

An attorney for the family of Hannah Linn Williams acknowledged that the video showed her in a “shooting stance,” and said she had suffered from mental health issues. The family previously described the shooting as unjustified.

Fullerton Police Cpl. Scott Flynn, an on-duty, uniformed officer, had been driving a marked police SUV on the eastbound 91, taking his police dog to a veterinarian.

Caution – this video is graphic and there is strong language:

The officer spotted the 17-year-old traveling “at a high rate of speed” in an SUV at about 7 p.m. July 5, a Friday, near Glassell Street in Anaheim, according to Fullerton Police Lt. Jon Radus. Flynn attempted to pull over the SUV, which appeared to intentionally collide with the police vehicle, the lieutenant added.

The SUV made a u-turn into oncoming traffic, Radus said, then skidded to a stop. The body-worn camera footage released by police begins as the officer exits his vehicle and begins walking toward the SUV, which is parked facing the wrong direction on a freeway on-ramp.

The SUV initially blocks a clear view of the driver. But as Flynn walks around the back of the vehicle, the video shows, he comes face to face with Williams holding what would later turn out to be a replica firearm, pointed at the officer. Flynn immediately opens fire, and Williams drops to the ground.

Williams was handcuffed, the video shows. Williams tells the officer “please help me, please,” then repeats “I can’t breathe” several times. She was treated at the scene, before being taken to a hospital, where she died.

Ninety minutes later, unaware of what happened, her father called 911 to report her missing. He tells a dispatcher that she took their rental car several hours prior, and was on anti-depressants. He said the family tried to call her or track her cell phone, but couldn’t find her. The father also told the dispatcher that he didn’t think his daughter had any weapons on her.

“Are you afraid she is going to hurt herself?” the dispatcher asked.

“I am,” the father responded.

Earlier this week, the DA’s office released a photo of the replica handgun –which officials noted looked “identical” to a Beretta – that they say was found next to the girl.

Her supporters had maintained that she was unarmed, with a spokesman for the family saying “a fake gun is a fake gun.”

In the days since the shooting, some of the girl’s family members and their attorneys repeatedly demanded answers as to what exactly prompted the shooting.

The teen was working as a lifeguard at Knott’s Berry Farm and preparing to be a senior at Magnolia High School.

She was an inexperienced driver who had just applied for a learner’s permit, her family said, and she may have accidentally ended up on a freeway she had never driven on.

Her family’s attorney had called the contact between the vehicles a “fender bender.”

S. Lee Merritt, the attorney, on Friday said he, but not the family, watched the video.

Merritt said Williams had begun struggling with her mental health a year ago, but seemed to be having a good day before she left with the car.

“This officer had very little time to make that kind of (mental health) analysis,” Merritt said. “We appreciate that and the family acknowledges that. He came around the corner and he saw a person in a shooting stance and it’s difficult to make a split second decision in that manner. We can’t exonerate him at this point, but we certainly can’t condemn him.”

“We still have questions, but they can sleep better tonight knowing they have some answers,” the attorney added.

Merritt said Williams had a previous altercation with police after she went AWOL in April from Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where she was being treated for depression. He said she tried to evade sheriff’s deputies outside the facility, but was tackled and taken back.

Before that, in September 2018, Williams went missing and was found by police at an Anaheim bus stop, Merritt said. She was taken to the police station and released.

The family declined to speak during a brief news conference as they left a meeting late Friday at the DA’s office.

Merritt suggested that authorities institute policies to give family members information sooner.

“I just spoke to the district attorney, and he acknowledged there has to be a better procedure to inform families of what happened to their loved ones when information is known,” Merritt said. “They should not be left in the dark.”

DA Spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said the office is looking at their policies and “exploring options on how to release preliminary information to family members and the public while preserving the integrity of our investigation.”

Flynn is a seasoned officer who started with the La Palma Police Department in 2008 and left for Fullerton police in 2014.

The DA’s investigation is focusing on whether his actions were lawful.

The Anaheim Police Department is investigating the girl’s actions just before the shooting, while the Fullerton Police Department is determining whether the officer followed agency policies.