2024-04-18 00:01:38
The California Prosecutor’s Office (EU) declined to file criminal charges against a police officer who accidentally killed a Chilean teenager by shooting a suspect at a store in Los Angeles in 2021, authorities reported this Wednesday.
The official William Dorsey Jones Jr . shot three times at Daniel Lopez, 24, who had brutally attacked two women at a clothing store in the North Hollywood area.
The officer’s shots killed López, but also Valentina Orellana Peralta14 years old, who was in a locker room with his mother, Soledad Peralta on December 23, 2021.
The death of the young Chilean woman, who had emigrated to the United States six months ago, sparked a wave of protests against the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for its use of excessive force and it was requested that the Agent Jones Jr. was criminally charged.
California prosecutor Rob Bonta today delivered the result of an investigation in which it was concluded that criminal charges against the agent “are not appropriate.”
Bonta said in a statement that this case was particularly difficult to prosecute. “Any loss of life is a tragedy, and my heart especially goes out to the family of Valentina, who tragically lost her life and whose only involvement in this incident was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Jones Jr. was one of the police officers who responded to a call about an incident at a clothing store in which Lopez attacked two female customers with a bicycle chain.
When the agent observed one of the victims with a bloody head and the man at the end of a hallway, he shot the suspect, who fell dead. But a stray bullet hit the Chilean girl.
Video from the officers’ body cameras revealed that the inside of the fitting room at the Burlington Coat Factory store was out of sight of officers and directly behind where Lopez was standing.
The Los Angeles Police Commission determined in 2022 that only the officer’s first shot was justified but not the other two.
The California District Attorney’s Office report urged the LAPD to recognize “the important lessons that can be learned from this incident and to make improvements in its response to similar cases.”
The family of the Chilean teenager sued the LAPD in July 2022, alleging negligence, demanding a jury trial and seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
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