Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

A Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a 14-year-old girl inside a clothing store in 2021 will not face charges, the California attorney general announced on Wednesday.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shopping with her mother at a north Hollywood Burlington Coat Factory on 23 December 2021 when the LAPD entered to apprehend a man suspected of attacking customers in the store.

When officer William Dorsey Jones Jr fired three rounds at the man, Valentina was in a nearby dressing room with her mother praying and was killed by Jones’s gunfire.

The killing just before Christmas sparked national outrage, and the California justice department has been investigating it for years, following state law requiring inquiries into all fatal police shootings of unarmed victims.


The California department of justice said on Wednesday that there was “insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution” of the officer.

The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, released a report on the investigation, which recommended that the LAPD “consider updating their communication training bulletin and any related training to account for the type of situation presented during this event”.

The lack of charges comes despite an LA police commission ruling in 2022 that Jones had violated policy during the shooting, a rare rebuke from the civilian oversight group.

The commission said Jones’s second and third shots were not justified. Michel Moore, the police chief at the time, concluded that Jones should not have fired any of the shots and said it did not appear deadly force was “objectively reasonable or necessary”.

Body-camera footage of the shooting immediately raised concerns when it was released in 2021.

The video showed that as soon as Jones saw Daniel Elena Lopez, the 24-year-old who had assaulted customers, Jones fired three rounds in rapid succession.

It did not appear that Jones shouted commands at Elena Lopez or attempt to de-escalate before firing. Elena Lopez was also killed….

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ellana-peralta-killing?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other