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Activists demand charges against LAPD officer who fatally shot 14-year-old in North Hollywood

Activists on Sunday demanded justice for the 14-year-old girl killed when a Los Angeles Police Department officer fired a rifle inside a North Hollywood clothing store a day before Christmas Eve 2021.

About two dozen demonstrators, waving signs and chanting outside LAPD headquarters, asked District Attorney George Gascón to file a murder charge against Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr., who fired the bullet that killed Valentina Orellana-Peralta as she hid unseen in a dressing room inside the Burlington store where police were responding to reports of a man attacking shoppers.

“We’ve seen the video,” said Keyanna Celina, a South L.A.-based organizer. “(Jones) was eager to get to the front. He was eager to use his rifle, even as his fellow officers told him to slow down.”

An attorney for Jones identified him as the officer seen in video LAPD released a few days after the shooting. A group of officers were already inside the store on Victory Boulevard on Dec. 23, looking for 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez, who was seen whipping people with a bike lock.

When Jones arrived armed with a rifle, he quickly pushed forward with the other officers after they saw a bloodied victim lying on the ground.

Jones was the first officer to get to the victim lying in an aisle. He then spotted Lopez standing at the other end of the aisle and fired three times with the rifle, fatally hitting both Lopez and Orellana-Peralta, who was behind a wall just behind him cowering in a dressing room stall with her mother.

Jones has been placed on administrative leave while LAPD investigates the shooting. Through his attorney, Jones insisted he was following his training when he responded to the woman witnesses said was injured by Lopez and fired his rifle.

Celina, who protested other deaths at the hands of local law enforcement in 2020, said Jones’ actions showed police in L.A. County were still too quick to resort to deadly force when facing suspects. She compared the killing of Orellana-Peralta to the deadly shooting of Mely Corado, an employee at the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s who died in 2018 when an LAPD officer exchanging gunfire with an attempted murder suspect shot her.

The officer who fired his gun in that incident was cleared of wrongdoing by both the Police Commission and then-D.A. Jackie Lacey.

“We wouldn’t be here right now if LAPD took justice seriously,” Celina said. “If LAPD held their officers accountable, perhaps Officer Jones would have learned to exercise some constraint.”

Gascón’s office is not currently investigating the shooting, and it’s unclear if state prosecutors are weighing filing criminal charges against Jones.

The review of the shooting is being handled by California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. A.B. 1506, which Bonta co-sponsored as a California state assemblyman, requires his office to investigate any killings of unarmed civilians by law enforcement officers.

Bonta’s office has not given an estimate for when its investigation will be completed.

Besides the state review, LAPD will also conduct an administrative review of the shooting to determine whether Jones acted within the department’s use-of-force guidelines when he fired his weapon.

Chief Michel Moore is expected to present a preliminary report about the shooting to the Police Commission on Tuesday.

This week’s meeting will be the first opportunity for commission members to speak publicly about the shooting after its last two meetings were cancelled during the holiday period.

The shooting, which led to an outpouring of grief from local community members, also has garnered international attention.

Orellana-Peralta’s parents are both from Chile. She had immigrated to the United States with her mother just a few months ago before she was killed.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden discussed the shooting of Orellana-Peralta in a call with Chile’s president-elect, Gabriel Boric, offering “his deep condolences to the people of Chile,” according to a White House statement.

Orellana-Peralta’s father, Juan Pablo Peralta, watched Sunday’s demonstration, streaming live on Facebook as he watched protesters speak about his daughter’s death.

“To Valentina’s family, we just wanted to say we love you,” said Najee Ali, a local activist who organized the protest. “We’re here for you.”


Source: Orange County Register

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