Ruling: Police justified to shoot

Orange County prosecutors have ruled that the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Ashley MacDonald by two Huntington Beach police officers in August was justified.

After reviewing nearly 60 witness testimonies, recordings and transcripts of the accounts of the officers who shot MacDonald as well as visiting the scene of the shooting, prosecutors found that Shawn Randell and Read Parker acted properly, investigators said. They discussed their findings Jan. 18 at a news conference in the Orange County District Attorney’s office in Santa Ana. Relative newcomers to the police department Randell, 26, and Parker, 28, shot and killed MacDonald when she reportedly attacked one of the two officers with a knife after they ordered her to drop the weapon.

Jerry Steering, who represents MacDonald’s mother Lisa Guy, was shocked but not surprised at the investigation’s outcome.

The only time prosecutors file criminal charges against police officers is when they have a videotape, Steering said. “With no videotape, they were never going to prosecute the cops.”

Steering plans to sue the police officers and others who “falsely imprisoned the mom,” but is not seeking damages. “The best way to get money from the jury is not to ask for any,” he said. Steering had filed a claim against the county and city for $20 million, the precursor to filing a lawsuit. City and county officials have not decided whether to accept or reject the claim.

Early in the morning of Aug. 25, 2006, MacDonald came home after partying with friends and got into a dispute with her mother in their apartment, prosecutors said. MacDonald poked her mother Lisa Guy, in the stomach with a four-inch serrated blade, without injuring her. MacDonald then cut her mother on the arm twice, and then ran out of the house, wandering the streets near her home until the officers confronted her at Sun View Park, according to prosecutors.

Three witnesses to the shooting and the events preceding it told Orange County Sheriff’s investigators that MacDonald had chased one of the officers around his patrol car with a knife, county prosecutors said.

One witness reported seeing the teen stabbing a telephone pole right before officers arrived at the park. More than one witness, including officers Randell and Parker, claimed that MacDonald screamed at them that she was on drugs, said David Brent, chief of the District Attorney’s homicide unit.

Orange County coroners found high levels of methamphetamines in MacDonald’s blood. There was earlier speculation that MacDonald told her mother that she had been drugged and date-raped the night before the shooting, but the autopsy did not find any signs of sexual activity or another drug, investigators said.

One of the main reasons for releasing so many details was to correct misinformation reported previously about the case, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said.

MacDonald was shot 15 times, not 17, in Sun View Park, including five times in the side, not in the back, as had been reported earlier, prosecutors said.

MacDonald’s shooting set off protests outside the department’s headquarters and sparked a public outcry for more information.

The Huntington Beach Police Department initially refused to reveal the names of the two officers. Officials said they were concerned about the safety of the officers.

“We know it was a tragic incident for the family and friends of Ashley MacDonald, the police officers, members of the police department and the community,” said Huntington Beach Lt. Craig Junginger, a spokesman for the department.

The department will launch an internal investigation to see if the shooting was in accordance with its policies and procedures after it receives details from the Orange County Sheriff’s investigation in the next week. The internal investigation will be completed in 60 to 90 days after receiving the sheriff’s investi- gation report, Junginger said.

The Huntington Beach Police Department is the only one in the county that contracts with the sheriff’s department for investigations of officer-involved shootings.

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QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Were prosecutors correct in concluding that the police shooting of Ashley MacDonald was justified?

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