Girl killed by errant LA police bullet ID’d

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has identified the 14-year-old girl who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police Thursday when officers fired on an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall and struck the girl as she was in a clothing store dressing room.

Police also fatally shot the suspect at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley, police said.

The Los Angeles County coroner identified the girl as Valentina Orellana-Peralta. The suspect’s name has not yet been released.

Witnesses told KCBS-TV that the man began acting erratically, threatening to throw items from the upper floor, and he attacked a woman with a bicycle lock shortly before noon as the store was crowded with holiday shoppers.

Officers answered a report of an assault and others of shots being fired, police said. Investigators have not found a gun at the scene.

The suspect was shot and died at the store but one of the bullets went through drywall behind the man and killed the girl, who was in a changing room with her mother, police said.

Officers found the teenager dead after seeing a hole in “a solid wall that you can’t see behind,” Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said.

Investigators didn’t immediately know whether she was in the dressing room before the violence began or ran in there to hide, he said.

Another police shooting occurred Friday. Los Angeles officers have shot at least 37 people — 17 fatally — in 2021, according to the Los Angeles Times.