Inset: Valentina Orellana-Peralta (Panish, Shea, Ravipudi LLP). Background: A still image from the body-worn camera footage of the shooting that took Valentina”s life (LAPD).
This week, a Los Angeles police officer provided testimony during the second day of a wrongful death trial involving the tragic loss of a 14-year-old girl, who was accidentally killed by LAPD gunfire while shopping for Christmas dresses.
The incident occurred in December 2021 when Valentina Orellana-Peralta was fatally struck by a bullet that pierced the wall of a dressing room at a Burlington store in North Hollywood, a part of the San Fernando Valley.
At that time, officers were targeting Daniel Elena-Lopez, a 24-year-old man suspected of assaulting another shopper. During the confrontation, gunfire ensued.
“While searching for any additional suspects or victims, officers found the young girl and realized she had been hit by gunfire,” stated the police in a press release, which was issued alongside body-cam footage of the incident. “She was declared dead at the scene. Preliminary findings suggest she was accidentally struck by a bullet fired by an officer at the suspect.”
The suspect, who allegedly prompted the police response, was reportedly wielding a bike lock as a weapon against shoppers, according to LAPD accounts. The victim’s family has highlighted the disparity in force between the police response and the suspect’s actions.
“You don’t bring an AR-15 to a bike lock confrontation,” asserted Nick Rowley, the attorney representing the family, as he addressed the media this week, as reported by Los Angeles station KABC.
The trial began on Wednesday. On Thursday, LAPD Officer William Doresy Jones Jr., who fired three rounds from his rifle that day, including the bullet that took the teenager’s life, took the stand.
“Based on the totality of everything, the information I gathered at the scene, I believed it could arise to the situation where deadly force may have to be used,” he testified, KABC reported.
Jones has previously said he thought there was an active shooter in the store. The girl’s family drew a distinction from such testimony.
“There was a senior officer on deck that said we have a suspect with shorts on the second floor with a bike lock,” attorney Haythan Faraj countered. “That was the information his own superior gave him. He chose to ignore that. He chose to ignore other cues, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in.”
External investigations have yielded dueling results.
The Los Angeles Police Commission previously ruled that only one of Jones’ three shots was justified. Meanwhile, former LAPD Chief Michel Moore found that all three of Jones’ shots were unjustified.
The officer previously told the Use of Force Review Board he “mistook the bike lock the man was wielding for a gun.”
Jones also previously said he believed the wall behind Elena-Lopez was brick leading to the exterior of the building, rather than a dressing room partition which would have necessarily been relatively thin.
The family is seeking $100 million in damages on theories of wrongful death, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The original petition details the final moments of the girl’s life and the effect that traumatic experience had on her mother.
Soledad Peralta “felt her daughter’s body go limp and watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms,” the filing reads.
The lawsuit generally alleges the LAPD failed to adequately train and supervise the officers in question and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur.”
“Valentina had her entire life in front of her, and it was taken in an instant due to reckless decisions made by the very people who were sworn to protect her,” Rowley said. “We intend to hold LAPD fully accountable for taking an innocent young woman’s life.”
