California won’t prosecute LAPD officer who shot teenage girl in store’s dressing room

This story was originally published by CalMatters, nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

The California Justice Department announced today that it has found no cause to file charges against a Los Angeles police officer who, while aiming at a suspect, shot and killed a 14-year-old girl hiding in a department store fitting room.

Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was picking out a quinceanera dress with her mother just before Christmas in 2021. She was shot and killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the floor.

The suspect, Daniel Abisai Elena Lopez, 24, was also killed in the shooting.

Los Angeles Police Department Officer William Jones will not face charges under the Justice Department’s two-year-old program to investigate fatal police shootings of unarmed people.

The Justice Department program has closed eight police shooting cases since July 2021. It has not recommended charges against officers in any of them. There are 46 cases still open, the oldest one dating to August 2021.

“The evidence shows that Officer Jones likely believed he was acting in self-defense or defense of others,” the Justice Department concluded in its analysis. “This killing appears to have been unintended and unforeseeable.”

Multiple officers told Jones to “slow down” as he advanced through the department store, according to the Justice Department and body-worn camera footage provided by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Los Angeles officer Jordan Head had a 40-millimeter bean bag gun, but before he could aim it at the suspect, Jones fired his AR-15 three times.

Head “did not discharge the 40-millimeter launcher because, before he could aim, rounds were fired, and the suspect fell to the ground and was no longer an immediate threat,” according to the Justice Department analysis of the shooting.

Officer Michael Mazur, who assumed command of the scene on arrival, told Jones to “slow down” multiple times, and at some point later told Head “It’s f—– up. We tried to slow it down.”

Mazur later explained his comment as referring to “an emotional release of (a) very violent crime scene.”

The Dec. 23, 2021, shooting began with a 911 call about a man striking people with a metal bike lock at a Burlington Coat Factory store. Store surveillance footage showed Lopez bringing his bicycle into the store and assaulting at least three women with the U-shaped lock.

He left the store and returned 90 seconds later, where he found a woman pushing a shopping cart. The footage from body cameras worn by the officers shows him striking her multiple times as she attempts to crawl away; then he drags her toward the dressing rooms.

At least 10 Los Angeles Police officers can be seen on the footage walking toward Lopez. According to body camera footage, Jones saw the woman lying on the floor, her face covered in blood. Another officer can be heard yelling for Jones to “slow down” and “hold up, hold up Jones.”

“She’s bleeding,” Jones said, then looked up, saw Lopez and fired three times.

“My heart goes out especially to the family of Valentina Orellana Peralta,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta, “who tragically lost her life and whose only involvement in this incident was by being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”