DA clears Fullerton officer of fatal shooting of 17-year-old girl

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has cleared a Fullerton officer of shooting and killing a teenage girl on the 91 Freeway who was pointing what turned out to be a replica firearm.

Officer Scott Flynn’s actions were “objectively necessary, reasonable and justified under the circumstances” when he shot the 17-year-old on July 5, 2019, a prosecutor wrote in a public letter outlining the results of the investigation released on Tuesday.

“Although the incident is deeply saddening, resulting in the death of a minor with mental illness, Officer Flynn did not commit a crime,” Deputy District Attorney Avery Harrison wrote. “To the contrary, he carried out his duties as a peace office in a reasonable and justified manner.”

The teenager – previously identified by her family as Hannah Linn Williams but only referenced in the DA letter as “Jane Doe” – went missing with a rental car hours before she was killed.

Family members initially described the shooting as unjustified. But after body-worn camera footage of the shooting was released on July 15, 2019, S. Lee Merritt, an attorney representing the family, said that while he couldn’t exonerate the officer, he also “can’t condemn him.”

Merritt later filed a claim with the city alleging the officer did not follow department policy when he approached the vehicle Williams was driving. The status of that claim was not clear.

According to the letter by the District Attorney’s Office, Flynn was on duty and driving an injured police dog to a veterinary clinic in Yorba Linda when he saw an SUV driven by Williams speed past him at more than 100 mph in heavy traffic on the eastbound 91.

The SUV slowed abruptly, forcing the officer to brake and change lanes to avoid a collision, the letter says. The driver of the SUV then made an abrupt right turn, colliding with the front end of the black-and-white police car and leading the officer to believe he was being intentionally attacked, according to the letter.

The previously released video footage from Flynn’s body-worn camera begins with Flynn exiting his vehicle and walking toward the SUV, which by then was parked facing the wrong direction on a freeway on-ramp.

As Flynn, in uniform, walked around the back of the vehicle, the video shows him coming face to face with Williams holding what would later turn out to be a replica firearm – pointed at the officer.

Flynn immediately opened fire, the video shows, and Williams drops to the ground.

“When Officer Flynn fired his weapon, he justly and reasonably believed Minor Doe (Williams) was going to kill him,” the prosecutor wrote. “Based on the totality of all the circumstances, it was necessary for Officer Flynn to react by firing his weapon in self-defense and defense of others.”

One witness, a retired police officer, told DA investigators that Williams was in a “shooting stance,” and said the replica firearm “looked real from where I was standing.” A second witness told another Fullerton officer that “your guy … he was staring down the barrel of a gun. He did what he needed to do.”

Williams’ family told police that she had attempted to run away on several previous occasions, in which she “had tried to hurt herself.” About 90 minutes after the shooting, before the family was aware of her death, Williams’ father called 911 to report her missing with the rental car, telling a dispatcher that he was worried because she had attempted suicide in the past.

Williams had several previous encounters with police.

In August 2018, she was found brandishing a large hunting knife on a city street after running away from home, telling officers that she had a plan “to kill someone,” according to the DA’s letter. Later that same month, she reportedly threatened to torture and kill her mother and step-brother.

Two months before her death, Williams got into a physical struggle with an officer after running away from a mental-health treatment facility and grabbed the officer’s gun before he was able to wrestle it away from her, according to the report.

The report doesn’t say which city or cities these events took place in.