No Charges For Officer Who Killed Teen Bystander In Department Store

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Los Angeles Police Department officer whose stray gunfire killed an assault suspect and a teenage bystander crouching nearby in the dressing room of a North Hollywood department store will not face charges, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.

The Christmastime police shooting inside Burlington Coat Factory on Dec. 23, 2021, took the lives of assault suspect Daniel Elena Lopez, 24, and 14-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta who had been dress shopping and huddled with her mom in a nearby dressing room when Lopez went on a bloody rampage inside the store. Her accidental death prompted community activists to call for the criminal prosecution of LAPD Officer William Jones, who fired the fatal shots.

"This case was a particularly challenging one to process as this involved the loss of two lives,” said Bonta. “Any loss of life is a tragedy, and my heart goes out especially to the family of Valentina Orellana Peralta, who tragically lost her life and whose only involvement in this incident was by being at the wrong place at the wrong time ... DOJ conducted a thorough investigation into this incident and concluded that the evidence does not show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officer involved acted without the intent to defend himself and others from what he reasonably believed to be imminent death or serious bodily injury. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution of the officer. As such, no further action will be taken in this case."

The LAPD released officer body camera and store surveillance footage. Armed officers can be seen swarming the scene where a man was beating a woman with a metal bike lock, and at least one officer can be heard urging the team to slow down in the seconds before the gunshots rang out.

In bodycam video, armed officers entered the store and approached the suspect. One held a rifle and pushed to the front of the pack as the officers went through the store in formation.

Other officers repeatedly said “slow down” and “slow it down” as the officer with the rifle moves forward.

“She’s bleeding!” an officer shouted as they encountered the victim crawling on the blood-stained floor. The suspect was on the other side of the aisle.

“Hold up! Hold up!” another officer screamed just before three shots rang out.

Unbeknownst to the officers, Orellana-Peralta and her mother were huddled in a changing room on the other side of the wall behind the chaotic scene. The girl had been trying on Christmas dresses two days before the holiday when the shooting occurred. The teen died within moments in her mother's arms.

According to he attorney general's office, the officers were responding a to a report of an active shooter at Burlington Coat Factory when they found the blood-soaked victim and attacker.

According to audio of the 911 calls the officers were responding to, witnesses had reported a man assaulting people, and possibly firing shots, inside the store. In one call, a store employee tells a dispatcher a suspect is in the store attacking people with a bike lock. In another, a woman reports the sound of shots being fired in the store, saying there's "a guy with a gun."

Another caller reports that her mother was hiding inside the store because of a man making threats. She added: "I don't know if he has a gun, I don't know what he has, but they're hiding."

While the video released by the LAPD shows the suspect with the cable lock in his right hand, there is no indication he is armed with a gun, and it is unclear if he advanced on any officers before the shots rang out.

"Officers found a victim covered in blood and Mr. Elena Lopez was next to her with an object in his hand and another object which he used as a shield," according to the attorney general's office findings. "An officer fatally shot Mr. Elena Lopez and one of the rounds struck the floor and changed direction, entering the wall of a fitting room, and striking and killing 14-year-old bystander Valentina Orellana Peralta."