LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury Thursday found the city of Los Angeles was not liable in the killing of a 14-year-old girl who was hit by a police officer’s stray bullet during a shootout while Christmas shopping in 2021 with her mother.
The ruling came after a nearly monthlong trial in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the LA Police Department by the parents of Valentina Orellana-Peralta. She was at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood neighborhood on Dec. 23, 2021, when she was struck by a bullet that had gone through the dressing room wall.
The jury sided with the city 9-3 after deliberating for just over a day.
The family’s attorney, Nick Rowley, in a video statement called it “the most devastating loss of my career” and said he doesn’t understand the jury’s decision.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto said the city shares the family’s grief but the jury made the correct decision and that the city stands by the officer who will carry the “burden of Valentina’s death with him for many years.”
