Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday he promised “transparency and justice” to the mother of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, the 14-year-old who was fatally shot by a Los Angeles police officer inside a North Hollywood store two days before Christmas.
Speaking to reporters at a downtown fire station, both Garcetti and Police Chief Michel Moore called the killing “unimaginable.” They said three investigations into the shooting would go beyond the conduct of Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. to also examine Los Angeles Police Department policies, practices and standards for using deadly force.
Jones fired three rounds at a suspect holding a bicycle lock inside a Burlington clothing store, and one of the bullets penetrated the wall and struck the girl. Valentina died in her mother’s arms inside a changing room. The suspect, later identified as Daniel Elena-Lopez, 24, was also killed.
“We will look comprehensively at everything from training to tactics, policies and the incident itself,” Garcetti said. “We are continually handling it with maximum transparency, sensitivity and accountability. This is something that we will need to have outcomes that address what happened. I have learned to not prejudge those but to make sure those are transparent.”
Read the full story at LATimes.com.