A jury ruled in favor of the city of Los Angeles on Thursday, May 7, in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenage girl accidentally shot by a Los Angeles police officer in a North Hollywood clothing and home accessories store in 2021.
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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. 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 to 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.”
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At the 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,” attorney Erica Contreras said, translating for Valentina’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas.
Valentina attended High Tech Los Angeles Charter School.
The shooting prompted protests decrying police shootings, and activists called for the arrest and prosecution of the officer. City Councilman Paul Krekorian at the time called the teen’s death an “unspeakably horrendous tragedy.”
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