UPDATE:

Ashley MacDonald liked her rock music and wearing black but MacDonald’s mother and friends described her as a talented teenager who had a lot of friends and possessed a great sense of humor.

Eighteen-year-old MacDonald was shot and killed at Sun View Park, near Bella Terra mall, by Huntington Beach Police Officers early Aug. 25.

MacDonald had left her home following a fight with her mother, friends said.

“It was the usual mother-daughter fight, which is completely normal,” said Vinka Kilburn, long-time friend of MacDonald and her mother Lisa Marie Guy.

MacDonald was a shy and very naïve girl, Guy, a single mother, said. She loved the Harry Potter series, specially Hermione Granger, Potter’s best friend and also a brilliant student at Hogwarts. MacDonald repeatedly drew Granger as well as other Harry Potter characters.

“She taught herself to speak German,” Kilburn said. MacDonald was enrolled in Coast Adult School.

Authorities said police officers had been asked to use “less than lethal force” such as a pepper ball gun or a bean-bag gun when they confronted MacDonald in the par.

MacDonald was shot at least a couple of times in the upper body but an autopsy will determine the number, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Amormino said.

Guy and other friends said she was carrying a pocket or a carpet-cutter-like knife. Guy had a small slash on her right wrist from the fight.

Police officers shot her after asking her repeatedly to drop the knife, Amormino said.

MacDonald, instead of dropping the knife, continued advancing toward the officers in a threatening manner when the officers shot her, he said.

Friends and neighbors on Sher and Amazon streets are outraged about the shooting.

“They could have chased her around the field instead of shooting her,” friend Gordon Jones said.

“How many police officers does it take to take down an 18-year-old child?,” Kilburn asked.

MacDonald was about 5’4” tall and weighed about 120 pounds, according to friends.

They plan to continue protesting outside the Huntington Beach Police Department building near City Hall, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s office, said Vicki Saylor. Saylor’s daughter, Amanda, was MacDonald’s best friend.

“It was totally unjustifiable,” Saylor said. “They didn’t give her a chance.”

Services will be held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Dilday Brothers, 17911 Beach Blvd. Visitation hours are between 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

MacDonald will be buried at the Good Shepherd Cemetery, 8301 Talbert Ave. after funeral services on Wednesday.