A mother whose 14-year-old daughter was accidentally killed by a Los Angeles police bullet says her daughter died in her arms.
Valentina Orellana-Peralta was with her mother in a clothing store on December 23 when a police officer opened fire on a suspect. The bullet pierced a wall and hit her.
Soledad Peralta wept as she described asking the police to help her daughter, but they “just left her lying there.”
In a statement read by a lawyer, Peralta recounted how she and her daughter heard the commotion and screams outside the dressing room as they tried on dresses for a birthday party at the North Hollywood department store. They sat together, hugged and prayed.
She said she felt something hit her daughter, knocking them both to the ground. Valentina’s body then “went limp” and she “tried to wake her up by shaking her, but she didn’t wake up”.
Valentina died in his arms, Peralta said. She screamed for help, but no one came.
“When the police finally showed up, they took me out of the dressing room and left my daughter lying there. I wanted them to help her, but they just left her lying there alone.”
Peralta said that watching a son or daughter die in her arms is one of the “deepest pains any human being can imagine.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore promised a “complete and transparent investigation” of what he called a “chaotic incident.”
Police were called after reports that a man was acting erratically inside the store and attacking customers with a heavy bicycle lock. He was also shot dead.
Emergency calls included reports that the suspect had a weapon but no firearms were found.
Police body camera footage shows police officers approaching the man with guns drawn as he beats a woman.
Valentina’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana, said the officers involved were negligent.
“I’m not going to rest until the last day, until all these criminals are in prison,” he said.
Her family claims that the 14-year-old girl, a Chilean immigrant, loved skateboarding and hoped to one day become an American citizen.
Orellana showed reporters a skateboard he had bought for his daughter as a Christmas present. He said that now “I would have to take him to the grave so she can skate with the angels.”
“It’s like my whole heart has been ripped out of my body,” he added. “I can’t describe the pain I felt opening her Christmas presents.”
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