The car driven by Miss Williams. From the OC Register.

Matthew Leslie

On July 5, the eighth anniversary of Kelly Thomas being beaten braindead by officers of the Fullerton Police Department, another of the department’s officers shot a seventeen year old teenager to death on the 91 freeway in neighboring Anaheim. There are terrible similarities between the aftermaths of each killing, including frustration on the part of the deceased’s family and the public over a lack of basic information being released by law enforcement agencies involved.

The Anaheim Police Department, who is investigating the shooting, declined to identify the dead teen, citing her age, but the initial press release from APD referred to her as a “suspect,” despite not specifying anywhere what crime she was suspected of committing. (Fullerton Police are conducting an internal investigation. Bob Dunn, recently appointed Chief of the FPD, spent seventeen years with the Anaheim Police Department).

The teen has since been identified by her family as Hannah Williams. According to news accounts, her baffled family are demanding answers about her death, describing her as a happy young person who enrolled in online college classes and worked as a lifeguard at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Media reports from the OC Register and LA Times referred to eyewitnesses who gave conflicting accounts of the teenager either raising what appeared to be a gun while exiting her vehicle or holding a cell phone.  Four days after the shooting the OC District Attorney’s office released a statement focusing primarily on a replica gun reportedly found at the scene. The press release went so far as to show side by side an image of the realistic looking gun next to an image of a Baretta handgun to emphasize the similarity between the two, but declined to specify where exactly the replica gun was found.

CBS news reported that the “The gun was found in the vehicle next to Williams, according to the Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer,” a confusing statement given the reports of eyewitnesses. The decision to emphasize the assumed danger faced by the officer was grossly reminiscent of the Fullerton Police Department’s efforts to portray Kelly Thomas as a dangerous criminal by releasing an old mugshot of him shortly after his brutal beating.

One of the critical reforms adopted by the FPD following the killing of Kelly Thomas was the wearing of body cameras by officers. Dashboard cameras were already standard. Like the Kelly Thomas case, authorities are refusing to release any recordings of the “encounter,” as it has been described in press releases, or even to confirm whether or not any such recordings exist.

One marked difference between the two cases is the timing of statements by the involved officers. At least following the Kelly Thomas case, reports were written by officers shortly after the beating, albeit after the controversial practice of allowing the officers to view footage of it–a decision made by Dan Hughes, later appointed Chief of FPD. Shockingly, the unidentified FPD officer who shot Miss Williams has reportedly not yet given an official statement about it.

The family, who complain that news media are being given more information about their daughter’s killing than they are, and the general public shouldn’t be in the dark about basic facts of this tragic death. It is almost impossible to imagine that authorities would not have released body footage already if an officer had been shot by a “civilian.” And, if the officer did not have his/her body cam activated, or the dash cam was not operable or had been somehow damaged in what is reported to have been a collision between the vehicles, why is that information not available? How long are we expected to wait for these answers? There are good reasons for efforts to establish a Fullerton Police Commission.

Release the tape.