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Wrongful death trial over teen girl's shooting
A wrongful death trial is underway against the cop who shot Valentina Orellana-Peralta. The teen girl was shot to death while hiding inside a dressing room wall at a Burlington department store in North Hollywood.
LOS ANGELES - Closing arguments are underway in the trial over the deadly 2021 shooting of Valentina Orellana-Peralta. Orellana-Peralta was hiding in a North Hollywood Burlington store fitting room during a violent incident when the 14-year-old girl was hit by a stray bullet from a Los Angeles police officer.
On Dec. 23, 2021, Orellana-Peralta was in the second-floor dressing room of the Burlington store on Victory Boulevard, trying on Christmas dresses with her mother, when Los Angeles police responded to a call of a man accused of attacking multiple people with a bike lock. As the encounter between the man armed with a bike lock, later identified as Daniel Lopez, 24, and police intensified, one of the officers — identified as William Dorsey Jones Jr. — fired his rifle. That was when the stray bullet hit and killed the 14-year-old girl. Lopez also died in the incident.
More than four years after the girl's death, LAPD is being sued for wrongful death.
"It's a wrongful death case, but it's also a negligent infliction of emotional distress and PTSD case," said Nick Rowley, the attorney representing Valentina's grieving family. "Valentina's mother was holding her when she was shot with the AR-15. She had her daughter die in her arms in the most unimaginable way."
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- No charges against LAPD officer whose bullet fatally struck teen in Burlington store
- LAPD wrongful death trial begins over 14-year-old's fatal Burlington dressing room shooting
The closing arguments in the wrongful death trial also comes two years after the Justice Department decided to not file criminal charges against the LAPD officer whose bullet ultimately killed Orellana-Peralta.
FOX 11's Christina Gonzalez reports the closing arguments could wrap as early as Tuesday, May 5.