Los Angeles officer who shot and killed teen girl in dressing room won’t face charges

The California Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a teenage girl with a stray bullet will not be charged in the case.

Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired his rifle three times into the Burlington Coat Factory department store while pursuing a man who attacked two women in December 2021.

Valentina Orellana Peralta, 14, was shot dead as she hid in a changing room with her mother, the bullet penetrating the wall. The suspect was also killed.

In lieu of filing criminal charges against Jones, the state Department of Justice said in a report Wednesday that the Los Angeles Police Department “will consider updating its communications training bulletin and related training in light of the circumstances that arose during this incident.” We should.”

“This case was particularly difficult to handle because two lives were lost,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. statement. “Any loss of life is a tragedy and our hearts go out to the family of Valentina Orellana Peralta. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Days after the shooting, Peralta’s family called for justice from the Los Angeles Police Department.

“It feels like the whole heart was ripped out of his body,” the boy’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas, said in a statement. “We want justice for her daughter. Valentina’s life mattered.”

In 2022, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Civilian Review Board determined that Jones was justified in using deadly force against the suspect, but that firing his rifle multiple times was not. He also made a judgment.

The Hill has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment.