Jury Clears LAPD Officer in Fatal Shooting of Teen Inside Store

A Los Angeles police officer was not liable for the 2021 death of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta when a bullet he fired while rushing to confront a suspect went through the wall of a North Hollywood store changing room where she was hiding, a jury decided Thursday.

The Orellana-Peralta family filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court contending that the officer, William Jones, should have slowed down and deferred to other officers at the scene who had already determined that the suspect wasn't armed with a gun, as was first believed.

Assistant City Atty. Christian Bojorquez argued in his closing statements to the jury that Jones went into the encounter believing that Daniel Elena-Lopez, who had already assaulted several people inside the Burlington coat store, was carrying a firearm.

The information was later amended — Elena-Lopez turned out to be wielding only a bicycle lock — but attorneys said Jones didn't hear those radio broadcasts due to the chaotic nature of the incident.

After hearing testimony from Jones and other officers who were present and viewing scores of body camera videos, the jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon. They came back Thursday and sided with Jones in a 9-3 split.

Video released by the Los Angeles Police Department showed that when Jones arrived at the scene, toting a high-powered rifle, he charged to the front of a phalanx of officers advancing toward the store's home goods section, then opened fire almost immediately upon encountering Elena-Lopez.

One of the rounds that Jones fired "skipped off" a floor tile, a state attorney general's report said, and sailed into a fitting room where Valentina was hiding with her mother. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jurors watched body camera video that showed how the other officers on scene had formulated a plan to try to stop Elena-Lopez by firing a 40-millimeter "less-lethal" round at the man, who had taken off his pants and was holding a Superman poster.

The lead officer at the scene, Michael Mazur, ordered the officers into a diamond formation, placing an officer holding a shotgun at the front. Another officer holding a device capable of firing hard-foam rounds was placed to one side, with the expectation that he could help subdue Elena-Lopez. A third officer had his handgun drawn, while Mazur brought up the back of the formation.

Jones, who arrived at the scene with his partner a few minutes behind the others, was seen running to the front of the diamond formation without being ordered to do so. The plaintiff's attorneys said that by their count, the other officers can be heard telling Jones to "slow down!" at least 22 times before he opened fire.

Over the nearly monthlong trial, attorneys for both sides offered contrasting views of Jones.

Bojorquez said Jones was a brave officer who had made a tragic mistake while rushing to the aid of victims. He argued that the jury was required to judge Jones based only on the information he had in the moment, and not with the benefit of hindsight.

To slow down in such situations could have risked the lives of others, the attorney said.

Bojorquez said Jones should be praised for "trying to help people, putting himself in a position of peril. He appeared to get choked up when he added that Jones was "just trying to do the right thing for society."

When it was his turn to take the witness stand last month, Jones testified that he believed he was rushing into an active shooter situation. He told jurors that when he first spotted Elena-Lopez standing in the aisle, he thought the suspect was holding a gun.

The shooting drew widespread outrage and grief, bringing demands for Jones to be criminally charged.

Although an internal LAPD review panel was split on whether Jones' decision to open fire was justified, then-Chief Michel Moore ultimately ruled in 2022 that the shots violated department policy and that the officer should have taken more time to assess the situation. In a rare split with the chief, the Police Commission concluded that only Jones' second and third shots were out of policy.

Valentina was a bystander in the store, which was teeming with shoppers buying last-minute Christmas gifts. She had arrived from her native Chile about six months prior, her family said, with dreams of becoming an engineer and a U.S. citizen. According to her family's lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court two years ago, the girl's mother "watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms."

The trial kicked off April 8 in a cramped second-story courtroom in Burbank.

Out of earshot of the jury, lawyers for the two sides debated whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to show jurors computer-generated images of the girl's mother cradling her daughter in her arms. The city's attorneys argued it was "inflammatory" and prejudicial at this stage in the trial. District Judge Frank Tavelman ultimately sided with the city.

In his opening arguments, Haytham Faraj, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Valentina and her mother had hidden in a changing room on the second floor amid the commotion of the police response.

"They believed that would make them safe. And they would've been safe, if the LAPD officers responding would have followed the rules and policies that are in place for precisely this type of situation," Faraj said.

While playing radio transmissions from that day, he asked jurors to pay close attention to the information coming over police radio. At one point, officers are approached by a man with a mask who reported seeing a suspect inside with a bike lock — the key detail that Jones had missed.

Throughout the nearly monthlong trial, the family's legal team sought to depict Jones as an out-of-control officer, whose recklessness and disregard for police practices had brought about the girl's death.

During his closing arguments Monday, Faraj argued that the officer fired three shots in quick succession, without taking time to assess whether Elena-Lopez posed an imminent threat to customers or the police.

Only weeks before, the officer had undergone mass shooter training, Faraj said.

"It wasn't a mass shooter event until he showed up," he said.

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