The City of Los Angeles was found not liable on Thursday for the death of a 14-year-old girl who was hit by a stray bullet fired by a police officer. The shooting in 2021, in which the officer was told by fellow officers to “slow down” before he opened fire, drew considerable anger from residents.
The jury sided with the city, 9 to 3, in the wrongful-death civil suit, which was brought by the family of the girl, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, a recent immigrant from Chile. The city had argued that the officer, William D. Jones Jr., had rushed to the scene believing that the man who had assaulted several people inside a North Hollywood clothing and home goods store was carrying a gun, though it turned out to be a bicycle lock.
One of the three shots fired by Mr. Jones ricocheted off a tile floor and into a fitting room, where it fatally struck Ms. Orellana-Peralta, who had been hiding with her mother, according to a report by the state attorney general.
The shooting, which also killed the attacker, Daniel Elena Lopez, occurred just before Christmas as Ms. Orellana-Peralta and her mother, Soledad Peralta, were doing last-minute holiday shopping.
Nick Rowley, a lawyer representing their family, called the verdict, which came after a monthlong trial, the most devastating loss of his career. “I don’t lose very often, but the times that I have I can understand it,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “I can’t understand this one. I don’t get it.”
Hydee Feldstein Soto, the city attorney of Los Angeles, expressed sympathy for Ms. Orellana-Peralta’s family in a statement, but she supported the actions of Officer Jones, who she said ran toward danger and in the years since the shooting has carried the burden of the girl’s death. Officer Jones remains employed by the L.A.P.D. Efforts to reach him were not successful.
“This event was a horrible tragedy and every parent’s and every law enforcement officer’s worst nightmare,” Ms. Feldstein Soto said in the statement.
The city also successfully defended a wrongful-death lawsuit by the family of Mr. Elena Lopez last year.
Officer Jones, who had been dropped as a defendant in the suit by the family of Ms. Orellana-Peralta, had moved to Los Angeles to break into show business, according to a profile on his college’s website. But he found his calling in 2009 when he joined the Los Angeles Police Department. He also started a nonprofit with his wife to distribute backpacks and school supplies to children, and coached high school football.
Ms. Orellana-Peralta had come to the United States about six months before the shooting, hoping to build a new life. She was excelling in math and physics at her new school and was excited to go to a Lakers game with her father, who was set to visit from Chile.
Ms. Orellana-Peralta had been trying on a Christmas dress with her mother when they heard a commotion in the store. Ms. Orellana-Peralta bolted the door to the changing room to be safe, her mother told investigators. Around that time, the police arrived after receiving calls from the store that a man, who the police said turned out to be Mr. Elena Lopez, had attempted to steal clothes and was attacking customers.
Officer Jones arrived at the store a few minutes after other officers. He headed to the front of a four-person formation with a high-powered rifle while other officers prepared to arrest Mr. Elena Lopez, who had removed his pants, the police said. Officer Jones was repeatedly told by other officers to “slow down,” according to testimony and prior investigations.
He had testified that he thought he was running into an active-shooter situation and that he believed Mr. Elena Lopez was holding a gun.
“That doesn’t justify deadly force, and it doesn’t justify three bullets,” said Haytham Faraj, one of the lawyers for Ms. Orellana-Peralta’s family.
The shooting came at a particularly turbulent time, a year after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and in a place where issues around police accountability have long persisted. Police shootings had spiked in Los Angeles, and a new California law had taken effect requiring the state’s Department of Justice to investigate police shootings that result in the death of unarmed people.
That investigation by the California attorney general’s office, which was completed in 2024, found that ”Officer Jones likely believed he was acting in self-defense or defense of others” and declined to file charges.
Earlier, the Los Angeles Police Commission, a civilian oversight board, ruled that Officer Jones was justified in firing the first shot but that the second and third shots had not conformed with the police department’s policy. Michel Moore, the police chief at the time of the shooting, found in his own review that all three shots were unjustified.
The judge did not allow those reports to be presented to the jury, a decision Mr. Faraj said they were reviewing as they consider whether to appeal. “The jury didn’t get the benefits of the chief’s conclusion,” he said.
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