Sandy MaloneLos Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released bodycam footage from the incident that left a 14-year-old girl dead in a dressing room in North Hollywood two days before Christmas (video below).
Chaos erupted in the Burlington store located at Laurel Canyon and Victory Boulevards just before noon on Dec. 23 when a man began attacking people inside the store, KCAL reported.
LAPD released audio of one of the 911 calls that showed people were reporting shots fired inside the store.
Multiple other 911 callers told dispatchers there was an active shooter in the store, KCAL reported.
Bodycam video from the incident showed at least 11 officers with weapons drawn headed into the store to find the suspect.
The video showed an officer with a long gun told his fellow officers to step aside and let him take point.
Surveillance video also released by police showed the suspect – later identified as 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez – beating a woman who was down on the ground with what appeared to be a bike lock, The Washington Post reported.
Police saw a blood trail where Lopez had dragged his victim through the store and followed it to the end of an aisle where a victim lay bleeding between the endcaps.
The video showed the suspect at the end of the aisle.
The suspect turned as if to run when the officer appeared, the video showed.
Bodycam video showed the officer opened fire on the suspect a second later, firing at least three shots.
Lopez dropped to the ground in the video.
Several officers immediately went to perform First Aid on the fallen suspect.
Bodycam showed another officer checking the area behind where the suspect had been shot.
He discovered a hole in the wall behind where the suspect had been standing and went to check what was behind it, KCAL reported.
“We went behind it [the wall], and it turned out to be a dressing room up there,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told reporters after the incident. “We were able to locate a 14-year-old female who was found deceased in that dressing room.”
The L.A. County Coroner identified the girl as Valentina Orellana-Peralta, The Washington Post reported.
The victim’s mother was in the dressing room with her when she was shot, helping her daughter try on dresses for her upcoming 15th birthday party, a source told the Los Angeles Times.
Muffled screams could be heard in the bodycam video, coming from the dressing room immediately after the shooting, The Washington Post reported.
Orellana-Peralta’s parents have hired notorious anti-police civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent them in a lawsuit against the police department.
Crump’s office put out a press release on Monday that said the girl’s parents would demand “transparency from the Los Angeles Police Department following the fatal shooting of their daughter,” The Washington Post reported.
LAPD has not yet identified the officer who fatally shot Orellana-Peralta but said he has been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated, as is protocol for all officer-involved shootings.
Activists were outraged charges hadn’t been brought against the officer immediately and compared the shooting to the death of 27-year-old Melyda Corado by LAPD in front of Trader Joe’s when officers were chasing an armed suspect who ultimately took hostages inside the store.
Watch the incident at Burlington unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content:
Trigger warning| Disturbing content
LAPD releases body cam footage of shooting inside Burlington dressing room, which resulted in death of 14-year-old girl. pic.twitter.com/3PQkz33DEm
— Nerdy Addict (@Nerdy_Addict) December 28, 2021
Holly Matkin
