Victim’s parents file suit

The parents of teenager Ashley MacDonald, shot and killed by Huntington Beach police last year, have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers who shot her, the city and Orange County.

Orange County authorities have ruled the shooting was justified, but the lawsuit alleges police used excessive force on MacDonald and illegally searched her home after she died. Her parents, Lisa Marie Guy and Kenneth MacDonald, are asking for more than $40 million each in damages. Disputing authorities’ version of events, the lawsuit claims officers kept shooting MacDonald several times after the first couple of bullets knocked her to the ground.

City Atty. Jennifer McGrath said her office had not yet received the lawsuit, though they agreed to accept it. She said the city was standing behind its officers and would defend them for their actions on the job.

“This was investigated by outside resources, specifically the Orange County Sheriff and then the district attorney’s office,” McGrath said. “Both organizations found them justified [in the shooting], and our own internal review confirmed that same thing. The city will absolutely be defending that case on behalf of the police officers.”

The lawsuit also alleges that police illegally held Guy against her will, away from her apartment and the scene of the crime, as well as taking blood samples under false pretenses, so they could look for evidence to protect them from lawsuits. It further accuses the city and county of failing to screen and train officers so they would not use excessive force or commit illegal searches.

The Orange County Coroner reported MacDonald was shot 15 times in the front and side of her stomach, and that there were methamphetamines in her blood at the time of death.

Witnesses said to authorities at the time that MacDonald screamed, “I’m on drugs, just shoot me!”

Orange County prosecutors and Orange County sheriff’s investigators found Officers Shawn Randell and Read Parker justified in their shooting. The lawsuit disputes that finding, saying they should not have approached an obviously mentally disturbed woman until backup with nonlethal weapons had arrived; it also names the county as part of a conspiracy to violate the rights of the MacDonalds.

The District Attorney’s office declined to comment on the case.