West Valley Police Shoot and Kill an Unarmed Woman in November... Still Not Talking.

November 2, 2012 Danielle Willard was shot and killed in an incident involving two undercover Detectives with the West Valley City Police.   The following day Danielle's roommate, Krystal Harrison and her mother Melissa Kennedy both confirmed that Danielle had struggled for quite some time with an addiction to heroin.  Krystal stated that Danielle had just experienced a relapse in her addiction and believed that drugs may have played a role in her encounter with the undercover detectives that took her life. 
I took a moment and looked through Danielle's Facebook page.  I found a young woman who enjoyed the beauty of the world around her and photographing it.  She was loved by family and friends, she was creative and stunningly beautiful.  Danielle was from Vancouver, Washington and had graduated High School in Gresham, Oregon.  She liked a variety of things, including Spiderman, tattoos and piercings, and the book "Just for Today Meditations".   As an outsider looking in, to me she looked like a fairly normal young woman, until she was murdered.

 Danielle's mother met with West Valley City police soon after the shooting and was informed that her daughter's body had one gun shot to the head and what appeared to be a bullet grazing on her chin. That was all the information she was given during the first few days following her daughter's death. Since then there has been very little more information given.  It has been confirmed that Danielle was unarmed, that there were two undercover officers involved and one of them fired the shots, one of the two officers was injured but not by gunfire, and that Danielle's vehicle had collided with another vehicle in the Lexington Park Apartments.  Since the November 2nd shooting Melissa has been told that forensic specialists had been called in to recreate the scene and they expect to have the results of that investigation in the next month.

In an effort to honor Danielle's life, and to push for justice and answers, her parents and a group of Utah residents met in front West Valley City Hall tonight. Many of those gathered were strangers to Danielle and her family, but very concerned that such an incident could occur in any community.  It is absurd at this time to consider- an unarmed woman who looked to be no more than 100 lbs was shot to her death in her vehicle by an undercover police officer and that more than a month later there is almost no explanation as to what happened, why she was killed, NO EXPLANATION!