BURBANK (CNS) – A jury Thursday ruled in favor of the city of Los Angeles in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teen girl who was inadvertently shot by a Los Angeles police officer in a North Hollywood clothing and home accessories store in 2021.
The 14-year-old girl, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was killed Dec. 23, 2021, while shopping with her mother for Christmas dresses at the Burlington store at 12121 Victory Blvd. The girl was in a second-floor dressing room when a bullet fired by Officer William Dorsey Jones passed through a wall and struck her.
The plaintiffs were Valentina’s father and mother, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas and Soledad Peralta.
Police had gone into the store in search of a suspect who assaulted multiple people with a metal bicycle lock. That suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez, was also killed in the shooting. Police said at the time that a bullet Jones fired ricocheted off the floor, passed through dressing room wall and struck Valentina.
In 2024, the state Attorney General’s Office announced it would not pursue any criminal charges against Dorsey, concluding that the evidence did not show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officer involved acted without the intent defend himself and others from what he reasonably believed to be imminent death or serious bodily injury.
The AG’s Office did recommend that the LAPD consider making changes to “improve lines of communication in response to `immediate action and rapid deployment’ scenarios.”
At a news conference with their attorneys days after the shooting, Valentina’s parents said their daughter came to Los Angeles from Chile about six months earlier and had dreams of becoming an engineer, an American citizen and going to see a Los Angeles Lakers game with her father.
“She wanted to be here in the United States because this was the land of opportunity, and she was excited about that,” then-family attorney Erica Contreras said, translating for Valentina’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas.
“The only thing that he has left for him now is to seek justice for his daughter. He will not rest until justice for his daughter is served,” Contreras added.
Valentina attended High Tech Los Angeles Charter School, where she had just passed her math and physics exams.
The shooting prompted a series of protests decrying police shootings, and activists called for the arrest and prosecution of the officer involved. City Councilman Paul Krekorian at the time called the teen’s death an “unspeakably horrendous tragedy.”
The city Police Commission ruled in 2022 that the officer violated department policy in the shooting. The panel determined that the first shot he fired was within policy, but the second and third were not. Then-Chief Michel Moore and determined that Jones “inaccurately assessed” the threat posed by the suspect, saying he should have been able to ascertain that he was not dealing with an active shooter.
Following Thursday’s verdict, attorney Nicholas Rowley, who represented the family, called it “the most devastating loss of my career.”
“I don’t lose very often, but the times that I have I can understand it. I can’t understand this one. I don’t get it,” Rowley said on a video posted on Instagram.
He noted that his firm has only received the case about a month before the trial. He said the original attorneys in the lawsuit had not designated Moore as a witness in the case, so the former chief was never called to testify about his determination of the shots being unjustified.
During the trial, Rowley argued that Jones charged into the store ahead of other officers and failed to heed orders to slow down. He said the fitting rooms were clearly visible on body-worn camera footage and should have been a warning to officers that people might be in the line of fire.
He said the officer, “without taking the time, without slowing down, without listening fires that military assault rifle in a department store where there are people the day before Christmas Eve, recklessly kills a 14-year-old girl.”
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto issued a statement saying the city “shares in the grief” suffered by the teen’s family, while standing by the actions of the officer.
“Society calls upon our police officers to risk their own safety to protect others and run towards danger when others run away,” Feldstein Soto said. “Officer Jones answered that call in pursuit of a violent man threatening bystanders and beating a woman inside the store. We stand by him, knowing that he has carried the burden of Valentina’s death with him for many years.
“We thank the jury for their professionalism and for setting their sympathies aside to follow the law and reach the correct conclusion, as difficult a task as that may have been. This event was a horrible tragedy and every parent’s and every law enforcement officer’s worst nightmare.”
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