A Los Angeles police officer who opened fire in a clothing store in 2021 while confronting a disgruntled customer has been found not liable for the death of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, a teenager who was fatally struck by a bullet that bounced off the ground and hit the wall of her dressing room.
A Los Angeles county jury reached its decision on Thursday, capping the wrongful death trial that began early last month.
On 23 December 2021, in the midst of Christmas shopping, the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) received multiple 911 calls about a man using a bike lock to smash things and attack customers in the North Hollywood Burlington store, according to audio released by law enforcement. A store sales associate, in her call, said the man was armed.
Officers observed the suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, beating an employee with the bicycle lock, according to a 2024 report from the California Department of Justice. Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr fired a rifle three times in the direction of Elena-Lopez, who fell to the ground.
After shots were fired, officers heard screams from a fitting room behind the man.
Orellana-Peralta, 14, and her mother had been hiding in the space. The teenager had a gunshot wound to her torso, according to the report. First responders pronounced her dead at the scene.
Orellana-Peralta’s family filed a lawsuit against Jones in 2022.
During the trial, Jones testified he initially thought the bike lock was a gun. “You have fractions of a second to react. This is – in my mind – a life-or-death situation. I’ve got to save this lady’s life while protecting my own life,” he said on the stand.
The family’s attorneys cast Jones as negligent.
“Officers can’t shoot someone because they possibly have a weapon,” said lawyer Haytham Faraj during the trial. “Otherwise, they’d be shooting everyone.”
Orellana-Peralta’s death drew outrage from police reform activists who called for Jones’s termination. A year prior, debate had raged over the police’s roleafter the killing of George Floyd. Ultimately, California attorney general Rob Bonta did not pursue criminal charges against Jones.
“I can’t understand this one. I don’t get it,” Nick Rowley, another attorney for the family said, after the verdict in an Instagram story. He criticized a previous legal team for mishandling the case, suggesting that the jury should have heard evidence that former LAPD police chief Michel Moore deemed Jones’s use of deadly force to be unjustified.
