Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images/File
On December 23, 2021, 14-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was shopping for clothes with her mother when she was struck by a stray bullet fired by a Los Angeles police officer.
CNN
—
A Los Angeles Police Department officer will not face criminal charges in the 2021 fatal shooting of a man suspected of attacking a woman inside a department store, killing a 14-year-old girl, California prosecutors said Wednesday. Announced.
Police previously said Valentina Orellana Peralta and her mother were hugging and praying in a dressing room at the Burlington Coat Factory in North Hollywood, Calif., after a man began attacking customers inside the store on Dec. 23, 2021. .
When police arrived and fired at the suspect, the officer's bullet went through the wall, fatally wounding Valentina, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Police also shot and killed 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez.
The California Department of Justice released a report Wednesday detailing the results of its investigation into the shooting, concluding that the officer who killed the boy will not face criminal charges.
“Due to insufficient evidence, we conclude that no criminal charges will be filed. [the officer] committed a crime,” the California Department of Justice said in its investigation report.
Law enforcement expert Greg Meyer, who investigated the incident, concluded that there was “not enough time for this officer or any other officer to attempt de-escalation tactics in this situation,” according to the report. It is said that it was attached. Meyer said Valentina's shooting death was “a tragic but unforeseen accident,” according to the report.
CNN has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department and an attorney representing Valentina's family for comment.
“This case was particularly difficult to handle because two lives were lost,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Any loss of life is a tragedy and our hearts go out to the family of Valentina Orellana Peralta. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
At the time of the incident in December 2021, police were responding to multiple calls of a possible assault and shooting inside the Burlington Coat Factory.
Police released edited surveillance footage and police body camera footage showing the events leading up to the teen's murder.
The video shows the suspect, Daniel Elena Lopez, entering the department store on a bicycle wearing a tank top and shorts. He then rides his bike up the escalator.
Moments later, the man returned to the escalator wearing a colorful jacket and long pants and brandished a bike lock at customers, police said at the time. He has also been seen attacking multiple customers.
Multiple body camera videos released by police showed a woman lying on the floor covered in blood as officers arrived and tried to find the suspect a short distance away.
According to a newly released California Department of Justice report, Elena Lopez was at the end of the walkway, about 12 feet away from a bloodied woman, when the officer stepped into the walkway, holding a “black object” in her hand. “I had.
Body camera footage shows officers firing three shots at the suspect, who then falls to the ground. The officer fired a Colt AR-15 patrol rifle, according to a Department of Justice report.
According to coroner's records, the suspect's bullet went through the wall and struck Valentina in the chest, killing her.
The bullet hit the floor, changed direction and entered the wall of the fitting room, the report said.
Meyer, the law enforcement expert, said that depending on time and circumstances, “planning and evaluating factors such as the possibility of an unseen innocent person in the background, the ability of a rifle to penetrate a bullet, and evaluating the physical structure of walls. was impossible,” he concluded. She was behind the suspect,” the report states.
“The evidence does not show beyond a reasonable doubt that… [the officer] “He acted without the intent to protect himself or others from what he reasonably believed was imminent death or serious injury,” the Justice Department said in its report.
