Teen died in her mother’s arms after LAPD fired into dressing room, family says

Family members of a teenager killed by a police officer at a store last week are considering a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and demanding justice for the 14-year-old girl who ended up as “collateral damage,” according to an attorney representing them.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas, had planned to come to the United States to be with Valentina for Christmas, he said in Spanish at a news conference outside LAPD headquarters Tuesday.

“His only solace is to bury his daughter now,” a translator said.

The translator also relayed remarks from Valentina’s mother, Soledad Peralta, who was in the dressing room with the girl.

“When something impacted my daughter, it threw us on the floor and she died in my arms, and there was nothing I could do,” Peralta said through the translator. “To see a son or daughter die in your arms is one of the most profound pains any human being can imagine. . . . Now our sweet angel has left forever. Please give us strength, Valentina.”

Attorney Ben Crump and the law firm Panish, Shea, Boyle and Ravipudi are representing the family of Valentina, who was trying on quinceañera dresses at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood neighborhood when she was shot on Thursday.

Los Angeles police officers had responded to reports of an assault at the store, where they found a man they said had attacked customers with a bike lock. One officer fired a rifle at him three times, video shows. At least one bullet crossed through a wall of the dressing room, killing Valentina.

After the shooting, the authorities found a hole in a wall, and behind it, found Valentina in the dressing room. She was pronounced dead at the scene, the department said in a statement. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound in the chest, according to the coroner’s office.

Valentina dreamed of being an engineer and working in robotics, Crump said Tuesday, and she got good grades. She got good grades, although English not being her first language. Her family emigrated from Chile, Crump said, to “get away from violence” and “have a better life in America.”

Rahul Ravipudi is representing Valentina’s mother. “Today is not about what’s going to happen next,” Ravipudi said at Tuesday’s news conference. “Today is about what the family is going through.”

The LAPD released footage on Monday showing a man assaulting customers with a “heavy-duty cable lock” before police arrived. That man, identified as 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez, also was killed by police.

Crump said Orellana Larenas was excited to attend a Los Angeles Lakers game with his daughter. He read a statement from the father, who was “in deep shock and disbelief.”

“It is like my whole heart has been ripped out of my body. . . . My daughter was special,” the statement said. “She had dreams, and tragically those dreams have been overshadowed by this nightmare that has prevented me from sleeping at night.”

Ravipudi said his firm has sent a request for all evidence in the case “so the LAPD can’t drive the narrative of what they did.”

“They want you to know that Valentina was beautiful, intelligent and had the whole world ahead of her,” Crump said, referring to her family members. “Her most important dream, as all her family members have articulated, was to become an American citizen. Tragically, that will never happen.”

Crump, in the statement from Orellana Larenas, said: “If it was your baby girl, wouldn’t you demand justice, too?”