Authorities have identified the teenage girl who died of a gunshot wound inside a Los Angeles county sheriff’s station as 17-year-old Johanna González, according to the county medical examiner, who has classified her death as a suicide.
Deputies were called to a home in the City of Industry, a small city 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, on 25 March for a teen allegedly having a mental health crisis. By the time they arrived, González, who was being fostered by her aunt and uncle, had already left.
The sheriff’s department says that when the teen got to the City of Industry station, she lunged at an officer’s gun, grabbed it and shot herself. However, Delaney Miller, an attorney representing the family, casts doubt on González’s ability to “take a properly holstered gun away from a trained law enforcement officer”, according to ABC7 news in Los Angeles.
“Knowing her size and physical capabilities, I find it incredibly hard to believe that she would be able to disarm a deputy who had their weapon properly holstered,” said Miller, who is also the foster parent of one of González’s siblings, to ABC7.
Miller added that they will be requesting all of the evidence the sheriff’s department has and will conduct their own independent investigation.
A GoFundMe campaign has been established to pay for the teen’s funeral, and has garnered more than $2,700 as of Thursday. González was originally from La Puente, just outside the City of Industry. Her father is deceased and her mother is in El Salvador, according to ABC7.
“She and [my] daughter were very close. She was a sweet girl,” Miller said. “I wish her strength because this is something none of us saw coming in any way.”
• In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
