Dawn Lerner is a fictional character from the American television series The Walking Dead portrayed by Christine Woods.

In the episode "Slabtown", officer Dawn Lerner and doctor Steven Edwards introduce themselves to Beth when she wakes up in Grady Memorial Hospital.

Dawn explains that her officers found Beth unconscious on the side of a road, surrounded by "rotters", and they saved her life.

Dr. Edwards tells Beth to give Gavin a dose of Clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic, which kills him.

Beth tells Dawn that the two deaths were the result of the hospital's corrupt regime, and that nobody is coming to rescue them.

When O'Donnell leaves, Dawn chastises Beth for forcing her hand, but gives her the key to the drug locker so she can save Carol.

Caught off guard, Dawn reflexively fires her gun straight into Beth's head, killing her instantly.

Despite her own shock and pleas for mercy, a distraught Daryl immediately pulls out his own gun and shoots Dawn in the head, killing her as well.

Kelsea Stahler of Bustle felt that killing Dawn in the episode "Coda" wasted "a perfectly good season 5 villain", which represented a "missed opportunity" to have a female character be the "big bad" and to have the narrative for the rest of the season be based on a conflict between two women (Dawn and Beth).

[2] Rob Bricken of io9, in addition to calling the plot one of the "worst of season 5" and the story "more laughable than moving", also criticized the deaths of Dawn and Beth as a "wasted opportunity".