Jury selection began Wednesday in the shooting death of a 14-year-old girl who was struck by an Los Angeles police officer’s gunfire inside a North Hollywood Burlington store in 2021.
Valentina Orellana Peralta was in a dressing room, trying on clothes for Christmas, at the time of the shooting. She was struck by a police bullet that passed through the walls.
An LAPD officer, later identified as William Jones, opened fire inside the retailer to arrest an assault suspect. One of his bullets ricocheted off the floor and struck the 14-year-old.
After California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that his office would not pursue criminal charges against Officer Jones, Soledad Peralta and Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas, Valentina’s parents, filed a civil lawsuit against the LAPD.
When Bonta announced the decision, calling the deadly shooting an incident of being at “the wrong place at the wrong time,” the girl’s family was “crushed,” according to the family spokesperson.
“This avoids all oversight, all accountability that needs to be had,” Sennett Devermont, family spokesperson, said in 2024.
Activists were asking if there was a way for officers to de-escalate without opening fire, while the LAPD released shocking video that showed the suspect beating a woman before officers shot him. Angie Crouch reports Dec. 27, 2021.
The trial is expected to continue for several days at the Burbank Courthouse.
The body-camera footage from Dec.23, 2021 showed the assault suspect attacking a woman on the second floor of the Burlington store, repeating beating her with a cable bike lock. The suspect was later shot by officers and died at the scene.
The trial began as the city of Los Angeles faces an overspending gap of more than $208 million, partly due to legal settlements.
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