A 14-year-old aspiring engineer who came to America from Chile after fearing for her safety was killed two days before Christmas in a tragic police shooting. Valentina Orellana-Peralta wasn’t a suspect when officers were called to a Burlington department store to investigate an assault with a deadly weapon in progress around 11:45 AM Thursday in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said in a news release. Valentina and her mother were trying on Christmas dresses in a fitting room, the family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, told media outlets.

Officers knew before they arrived that “there was a possible shooting in progress and that there were individuals sheltering in place,” police officials said in their release. A 911 caller had told them someone fired a gun. When police arrived and began searching for a suspect later identified by CNN as 24-year-old Daniel Elena-Lopez, they found a woman injured and bleeding. Surveillance video showed Elena-Lopez attacking multiple people in the store. But although officers were told he was possibly armed, they later determined he only had a bike rack. Officers had guns drawn as they started to get closer to Elena-Lopez, and one of them could be seen in police video saying: “Hey, slow down. Slow down. Let me take point with the rifle.”

“They encountered the suspect a short distance away and an officer involved shooting occurred,” police said in their release. “The suspect was struck by gunfire and taken into custody. Fire department paramedics responded and determined the suspect deceased at (the) scene.” 

“Unbeknownst to the officers,” Valentina was in a changing room “directly behind the suspect and out of the officers’ view,” police said. She was also pronounced dead at the scene and was believed to be struck by a single round. “This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved,” Police Chief Michel Moore said in a media statement. “I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family. My commitment is to conduct a thorough, complete and transparent investigation into the circumstances that led up to this tragedy and provide the family and public with as much information as possible.”

He directed the release of 911 calls, radio transmissions, body camera footage, surveillance video, and other evidence. In keeping with state law, the California Attorney General’s Office is investigating the shooting, as is the California Department of Justice. The results will be turned over to its prosecutions section in a criminal law division.

When CNN asked Crump whether this was excessive force, he didn’t answer directly. “I think that they have training for these types of situations,” he said. Crump added that Valentina ended up as “collateral damage” from Los Angeles police engaging with the suspect in the manner that they did.

“Is it foreseeable that there would be shoppers in a shopping plaza two days before Christmas?” Crump asked. “I think everybody knows that there were going to be innocent people, so they should’ve taken every reasonable precaution to make sure that an innocent person like this 14-year-old little angel Valentina wasn’t shot and killed two days before Christmas.”

CNN journalist John Avlon pointed out that footage indicates that the second floor of the department store appeared to be empty from officers’ perspective. Avlon asked how it could have been foreseeable to officers responding to a violent attack that a bystander was present “given what they were able to literally see.”

Crump cited several experts who have weighed in on the shooting. “And they all are saying, ‘where were the verbal commands?'” Crump said. “You saw the person going away from the victim. Was there anybody in the vicinity? Why did you have to shoot in the store? Could you have used least intrusive measures than this rifle that you knew was going to be powerful? How many shots hit the person and how many didn’t because a police officer has to take all of that into account when you’re shooting inside of a shopping center for God sakes?”

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Edwin Arroyo, a supervisor with Nancy’s Cleaning Services who worked to clear the shooting scene of broken glass, told the Los Angeles Times he saw blood on one of the store’s walls, on an off-white dress, and on several other items. “I don’t know how many gunshots there were,” he said, “but there was a lot of blood.”

Carolina Peralta, Valentina’s aunt, said her niece had spent about six months in the United States, visiting her older sister who worked at a restaurant. Her father, Juan Pablo Orellana, worked as a bank clerk, and Valentina was raised in a working-class community in Chile’s capital city of Santiago. 

Orellana came to Los Angeles on Sunday. “I will not rest until all of these criminals are behind bars,” he said in Spanish during a news conference on Tuesday. Valentina’s mother, Soledad Orellana-Peralta, also spoke to press in Spanish during the news conference.

“She died in my arms,” the woman told reporters. “I couldn’t do anything.” 

View the parents speaking and a translator translating their words below:

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