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The California Justice Department announced today that it has found no cause to file charges against a Los Angeles police officer who, while aiming at a suspect, shot and killed a 14-year-old girl hiding in a department store fitting room.
Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was picking out a quinceanera dress with her mother just before Christmas in 2021. She was shot and killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the floor.
The suspect, Daniel Abisai Elena Lopez, 24, was also killed in the shooting.
Los Angeles Police Department Officer William Jones will not face charges under the Justice Department’s two-year-old program to investigate fatal police shootings of unarmed people.
The Justice Department program has closed eight police shooting cases since July 2021. It has not recommended charges against officers in any of them. There are 46 cases still open, the oldest one dating to August 2021.