A police officer’s stray bullet fatally struck a teen girl as she was trying on dresses for her quinceañera.
On Thursday, 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shot dead while shopping for a dress for her upcoming quinceañera birthday celebration. According to the New York Post, a cop was pursuing a male suspect who had assaulted a woman.
The officer shot Orellana-Peralta at around 11:45 a.m.; she was at a Burlington store located in North Hollywood, according to Los Angeles police Capt. Stacy Spell. The bullet hit the girl after it came through a dressing room that she was in. “You can’t see into the dressing rooms and it just looks like a straight wall of drywall,” explained LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi during a news conference.
Police said they didn’t know if she’d run out or was still in the dressing room when the shooting happened. Orellana-Peralta’s body was found following the shooting when officers searched the dressing rooms.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told The New York Post that they were broken over the incident. “It’s just absolutely heartbreaking, and I cannot find words to try to comfort a mother and a family, but I will ensure them and the public and our people that we will conduct a complete and thorough investigation,” said Moore.
