los angeles — Trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Police Department over the officer-involved shooting of a 14-year-old girl in a clothing store.
Valentina Orellana Peralta She was shopping for Christmas clothes with her mother at a Burlington store in the San Fernando Valley’s North Hollywood neighborhood on Dec. 23, 2021, when she was struck by a bullet that went through a dressing room wall.
It was the police Answering calls Calling for help after a man carrying a bicycle lock attacked two women in the building. As armed officers walked into the store, Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired his gun three times, killing the man and Orellana Peralta.
The lawsuit filed by the girl’s parents alleges wrongful death, negligence and infliction of emotional distress by negligence.
Her mother, Soledad Peralta, “felt her daughter’s body trembling and watched her daughter die while still helpless in her arms,” the lawsuit said.
It alleges that the LAPD failed to adequately train and supervise responding officers and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur.”
Nick Rowley, who represents the family, said: “Valentina had her entire life ahead of her, taken in an instant by reckless decisions made by the very people who were sworn to protect her.” “We intend to hold the LAPD fully responsible for taking the life of an innocent young woman.”
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, which represents the LAPD, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Los Angeles Police Commission, a civilian oversight board, ruled in 2022 that Jones was justified in shooting once but that the two subsequent shots were justified. They were out of politics. Then-Police Chief Michel Moore previously found in his own review that the three shots were unprovoked.
Jones told the LAPD’s Use of Force Review Board that he believed someone inside the store was shooting at people and mistook the bike lock the man was carrying for a gun. He said he believed there was a wall behind the man supported by an exterior brick wall when in fact the area contained the women’s locker rooms.
Rowley recently obtained a $30 million settlement from the city of San Diego for the killing of 16-year-old Conoa Wilson, one of the largest settlements in a police killing case in U.S. history. I have overstepped $27 million settlement The city of Minneapolis has agreed to plead in the lawsuit related to the killing of George Floyd.