Plea for answers in slay-by-cop of teen in store
The family of the 14-year-old girl shot dead by Los Angeles police through the wall of a department store dressing room last week detailed their agony Tuesday as they demanded accountability.
“To see a son or daughter die in your arms is one of the pains — the greatest pains and most profound pains — that any human being can imagine,” said Soledad Peralta, the mother of Valentina OrellanaPeralta, at a press conference. “Now, our sweet angel has left us forever. Please give us strength, Valentina.”
Her family stood outside LAPD headquarters, next to a large photo of Valentina wreathed in flowers, to call for justice. They were accompanied by Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney who represented the families of high-profile murder victims George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
Police had responded to reports of a man assaulting customers in the Burlington store crowded with holiday shoppers. The suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Elena-Lopez, was attacking customers with a bike lock when an officer opened fired and killed him.
One of the bullets ricocheted off the floor, pierced the dressing room wall and struck Valentina in the chest, police said.
Her death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Police Department posted an extensive video package online Monday of 911 calls, cops’ body camera footage, store surveillance video and radio transmissions in the wake of the shooting last Thursday.
But the volume of material from police provided no answers for the family of the teen skateboarder who had dreamed of becoming an engineer. Instead of opening holiday gifts, Valentina lay in a morgue. She will be buried Monday. “The pain of opening Christmas presents for her that were delivered for Christmas Day cannot be described,” said Valentina’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas.
The family had come to the U.S. to escape violence in their native Chile.
Peralta (inset) detailed Valentina’s last moments, recalling how she and her daughter heard screams from outside the dressing room. “We sat down on a seat, holding each other, praying, when something hit my daughter, Valentina, and threw us to the floor,” Peralta said. “And my daughter died in my arms. I couldn’t do anything.”