The Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta in a Burlington store last month was following active shooter protocols, according to the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
In the Dec. 23 incident, officer William Jones — assigned to the North Hollywood Division of the LAPD — opened fire on and killed assault suspect Daniel Elena Lopez, 24, at the store full of last-minute holiday shoppers.
During a search for additional suspects, police found Orellana-Peralta had been struck in the dressing room after the wall had been penetrated by gunfire.
She died in her mother’s arms after being hit in the chest in the dressing room.
Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told NBC News that Jones had just completed mass casualty active shooter training about two weeks prior to the incident.
Officers followed active shooter protocols in responding to the store due to 911 calls about a gun.
However, no gun tied to those initial reports of gunfire was found. Investigators did find a locking device used to secure bicycles and computers on or near the suspect and think it is part of the case, police said the day of the officer-involved shooting.
“The conflicting 911 calls, some said he’s got a bike lock, he’s got a chain … but the other information that made its way was that he’s got a gun and he’s shooting,” Saggau said.
“You can have conflicting witnesses calling 911 and the officers have to prepare for the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario was gun, shooting in a store, that’s an active shooter protocol immediately.”
Edited police body camera footage and security video of the incident released Dec. 27 shows the group of officers, one with a rifle, moving toward where the suspect was believed to be.
In the footage officers are heard saying, “Slow down, slow down.” Saggau said, “they’re actually trained to say that as an act of communication amongst each other, it wasn’t directed towards Officer Jones.”
“Slow down” is a reminder to keep your head on a swivel to look for threats all around, according to Saggau.
He said that the formation Jones and the officers were in was part of the active shooter protocol.
Los Angeles Police said in a statement that officers didn’t know Orellana-Peralta and her mother were in the changing room behind a wall directly behind the suspect and out of the officers’ point of view.
Jones is on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.
“He is just devastated,” Saggau said on Jones. “A lot of the kids that he worked with in his nonprofit were Valentina’s age. What he’s struggling with is that could have been any one of the kids that he worked with.”
Saggau said Jones founded a nonprofit called Officers for Change that raises money to give backpacks and school supplies to students.
The shooting is the subject of investigations by the police department, the district attorney and the state attorney general.
The family of Orellana-Peralta last week called for accountability in the teen’s death.
“The family thinks things could have been done differently to where Valentina wouldn’t be collateral damage,” their attorney, Benjamin Crump, said at a press conference Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles.
The girl’s mother, Soledad Peralta, spoke at the conference with a handwritten placard dangling from her neck reading, “Justicia para nuestra hija Valentina,” Spanish for “Justice for our daughter Valentina.”
“To see a son or daughter die in your arms is one of the greatest pains and the most profound pain that any human being can imagine,” Peralta said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
