Teenager with knife shot, killed by police

A 19-year-old, described as a loner and accused of slashing her mother at their Huntington Beach home, threatened officers in a park, police said.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Those who knew her said she dressed all in black, listened to heavy metal and didn't have many friends. Fights with her mother were common.

Ashley MacDonald's life was often unhappy, and acquaintances could only shake their heads Friday when news of the 19-year-old's death coursed through her Huntington Beach neighborhood.

Police said Ashley slashed her mother with a knife Friday morning and a short time later sprung with the weapon at police officers, who shot and killed her.

"They repeatedly asked her to drop the knife," Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. "She lunged toward the officers and that's when they shot at her."

Mike Buckley, who lives down the street from MacDonald's residence and knew her for eight years, called her a "loner" who attended continuation high school and spent her time reading books and listening to hard rock.

"Just one of those troubled teens who never got out of being sad," Buckley said. "She just doesn't get along with her mom."

Buckley and others said MacDonald, who was 5 feet 4 inches tall and 120 pounds, had once been a "cutter," someone who makes superficial cuts to their own body.

At about 7:30 a.m. Friday, MacDonald turned a knife on her mother during an argument, cutting her on the wrist, authorities said.

Leaving her bleeding mother behind, MacDonald ran from the Huntington Highlander apartment the two shared and down to Sun View Park next door, knife in hand.

A passerby called police after seeing the despondent teen wandering down the street holding the bloody knife just after 7:40 a.m. Two officers confronted MacDonald near the yellow and blue jungle gym in the middle of the park and asked her to lay down the knife.
 

Patrick Carignan, who lives across the street from the park, was watching "Star Trek" in his living room when he heard shouts of "Drop the knife, drop the knife!"

He dashed outside just as officers opened fire, striking MacDonald at least twice in the upper torso. "She should have dropped the knife," Carignan said, shaking his head. "Something's wrong with you when you don't drop a knife at that close of range."

As part of an autopsy, blood tests will be conducted to determine if MacDonald was under the influence of drugs. "She was acting very strange," Amormino said.

Hearing the gunshots down the street, MacDonald's mother, who authorities would not identify, ran to the park, leaving a trail of blood about 100 yards long. She found her daughter lying on the lawn, near a playground padded with wood chips.

Paramedics took the gravely wounded teen to Huntington Beach Hospital, where she died Friday afternoon.

Some neighbors expressed doubts about the need for the shooting. "Policemen should have been able to disarm her of that knife without shooting her dead," resident Roger Bixby, who heard but did not see the shooting, said.

Amormino said that "someone armed with a knife is a very dangerous person and the officers have a right to defend themselves." The Orange County Sheriff's Department is investigating the shooting. The city contracts with the sheriff to investigate all of its officer-involved shootings.

Ashley's mother, who suffered superficial wounds to her wrists, broke into hysterics when authorities told her Ashley had succumbed. An ambulance was summoned, and took Ashley's mother away to the same hospital where her daughter died.

"My daughter!" Ashley's mother screamed before being taken away. "She was mine, and they killed her."

Neighbor Nancy Jauod and her daughter Aspen, 15, heard the shooting, and said they were shaken by the turmoil in their normally quiet neighborhood, with its green park and elementary school.

"It's very traumatic to see that," Nancy Jauod said. "It is such a shame. She is so young. Being a mother, and my daughter's just 15, it's like, 'Oh, my God.' "