BURBANK, Calif. — Citing four reasons that include alleged judicial error, attorneys for the parents of a teen girl who was inadvertently shot to death by a Los Angeles police officer in a North Hollywood store are asking a judge to grant a new trial in their negligence lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles.
On May 7, a Burbank Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the city by a 9-3 margin. The 14-year-old girl, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was killed Dec. 23, 2021, while shopping with her mother for Christmas dresses at the Burlington store at 12121 Victory Blvd. The teen was in a second-floor dressing room when a bullet fired by Officer William Dorsey Jones passed through a wall and struck her.
Police had gone into the store in search of a suspect who assaulted multiple people with a metal bicycle lock. That suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez, was also killed in the shooting. Police said at the time that a bullet Jones fired ricocheted off the floor, passed through a dressing room wall and struck Valentina…