Jury sides with LAPD in lawsuit over shooting at Burlington coat store

Key Points:

• A Los Angeles jury ruled that police officer William Jones was not liable for the 2021 death of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was killed by a stray bullet fired by Jones during a chaotic store incident involving a suspect.
• The family’s lawsuit argued Jones should have slowed down and deferred to other officers who knew the suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, was unarmed, but Jones testified he believed he was confronting an active shooter with a firearm.
• Body camera footage and testimony showed Jones arrived late, ran to the front of the officers’ formation without orders, and fired immediately, with one bullet ricocheting into the fitting room where Valentina was hiding with her mother.
• The trial featured contrasting views of Jones as either a brave officer making a tragic mistake or reckless and disregarding police protocols; the LAPD chief had previously ruled Jones’ shots violated department policy, though the Police Commission partially disagreed.
• Valentina, a recent immigrant from Chile with dreams of becoming an engineer, was an innocent bystander, and her family’s attorneys highlighted the failure to follow police procedures and the officer’s missed radio communications about the suspect’s true weapon.