A civil trial is scheduled to commence Wednesday in a wrongful death case against the Los Angeles Police Department involving the shooting death of a teenage girl during a 2021 incident at a retail store.
Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta was browsing for holiday clothing with her mother inside a Burlington retail location in North Hollywood on December 23, 2021, when a police bullet penetrated the fitting room wall and fatally wounded her.
Law enforcement had responded to emergency calls about an individual attacking two women with a bicycle lock inside the building. During the response, Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. discharged his weapon three times, resulting in the deaths of both the attacker and Orellana-Peralta.
The civil action brought by the teenager’s parents claims wrongful death, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
According to the lawsuit, her mother Soledad Peralta “felt her daughter’s body go limp and watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms.”
The legal filing contends that the LAPD failed to properly train and oversee the responding officers and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur.”
Family attorney Nick Rowley stated: “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. We intend to hold LAPD fully accountable for taking an innocent young woman’s life.”
The Los Angeles city attorney’s office, which is defending the LAPD, has not yet provided a response to requests for comment.
In 2022, the Los Angeles Police Commission, which provides civilian oversight, determined that Jones was justified in his initial shot but violated department policy with his second and third shots. Former Police Chief Michel Moore had previously concluded in his separate review that all three shots violated policy.
During testimony before the LAPD’s Use of Force Review Board, Jones explained that he believed an active shooter was inside the store and confused the bicycle lock for a firearm. He also stated he assumed a solid exterior wall was behind the suspect, when the area actually contained women’s changing rooms.
Rowley previously obtained a $30 million settlement from San Diego for the death of 16-year-old Konoa Wilson, representing one of the largest police shooting settlements in United States history. That agreement exceeded the $27 million settlement Minneapolis paid in the George Floyd case.
