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The Los Angeles police department has released body camera footage and surveillance video of an incident in which an officer shot and killed a 14-year-old girl inside a department store while shooting others.
That recording from Thursday morning’s incident show that as soon as police encountered a man suspected of assault inside the shop, an officer fired three bullets at him from a distance. One of the officers’ bullets hit the girl as it bounced off the floor and into the changing room where she was with her mother, police said Monday.
The 14-year-old victim has identified as Valentina Orellana-Peralta, according to the LA county medical examiner’s office, who set death to homicide from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Orellana-Peralta died at the scene at the Burlington Coat Factory store in North Hollywood.
The officer who opened fire was given paid leave, and has not been identified. The man who was shot by police upon arrival was Daniel Elena Lopez, 24, who also died on the spot, officials said.
Lawyers representing the Orellana-Peralta family said in a statement Monday that the girl was in the dressing room with her mother, trying on a Christmas dress, and that she died in her mother’s arms.
Police received multiple 911 calls for help, according to audio released on Monday. One woman, who appears to work at the store, told police that there were “hostile customers”, who were “attacking” people, and that she directed people to evacuate the shop. The caller said the man had a bicycle lock which he used to attack and threaten people, but told dispatchers he was not carrying a knife or gun. Other panicked callers said they believed the man might have a gun.
Footage released from inside the store showed that Elena Lopez did not have a gun. Officials said they only found bicycle keys.
Video shows Elena Lopez roaming around the shop on her bicycle and crashing into several customers, including people as they begin to evacuate. At one point, he hit the air when no one was around. Just before the police arrived, he started repeatedly assaulting a woman ending up on the ground, the video shows.
Finally, about a dozen officers entered the shop. An officer with an assault rifle initially ordered other officers to “slow down” and “distance” and “back off” before they got close to Elena Lopez. The officer said he would take the lead.
But the officer’s body camera footage showed that as soon as he reached the aisle of the store where Elena Lopez stood and saw the man for the first time, he fired three bullets in quick succession at him. The footage does not capture the officer making any orders, and does not show Elena Lopez advancing toward the officer. Elena Lopez was at the other end of the store aisle from the clerk and apparently turned away from her. The bloodied victim lay on the ground next to the officer as he fired his gun.
“This chaotic incident that resulted in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating to everyone involved. I am deeply sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know no words can ease the unimaginable pain for the family.” said Michel Moore, head of the LAPD, said in a statement.
Both the California attorney general’s office and the California Department of Justice will investigate the shooting.
The footage, released Monday afternoon, has raised concerns about the use of lethal force and why officers opened fire on Elena Lopez without making an order and while Elena Lopez was away from victims and officers.
“There’s nothing in the video that justifies opening fire like police officers do with assault rifles,” said John Hamasaki, a criminal defense attorney who is a member of the San Francisco police commission and regularly reviews footage of police killings. “I was shocked to see the video… Lethal force is the last option on the table.”
Hamasaki noted that police are trained to try and control the situation first with orders, which does not appear to be the case in this case. He also noted that police had focused on de-escalation for years, but there appeared to be little attempt to communicate with the man to defuse the situation prior to the killings.
The death of a 14-year-old observer has sparked outrage across the US. Domingo García, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a statement: “It is indefensible that a trained Los Angeles police officer could open fire in a crowded store at the top of a Christmas shopping mall without first knowing for certain whether the suspect was armed.”
The case is also compared to the LAPD murders in 2018, when an officer opened fire on a suspect inside a Trader Joe’s store and in the process killed a store manager.
LAPD killings have risen sharply this year — the department fatally shot 18 people in 2021, compared to seven in 2020, according to the report. LA Times. On Sunday, the department announced that an officer had shot dead another man allegedly holding a knife.
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Sources 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/27/los-angeles-police-burlington-killing-video The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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