With trial less than a month away in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teen girl accidentally shot by a Los Angeles police officer in a North Hollywood clothing and home accessories store in 2021, the plaintiffs have dropped the officer as a defendant in the case.
The 14-year-old girl, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was killed Dec. 23, 2021, while shopping with her mother for Christmas dresses at the Burlington store at 12121 Victory Boulevard. The girl was in a second-floor dressing room when a bullet fired by Officer William Dorsey Jones passed through a wall and struck her.
On Monday, an attorney for Valentina’s father and mother, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas and Soledad Peralta, filed court papers with Burbank Superior Court Judge Frank M. Tavelman asking that Jones be dismissed as a defendant “without prejudice,” meaning he could be reinstated as a defendant at a later date.
Trial of the parents’ negligence suit against the city is scheduled April 8.
Police had gone into the store in search of a suspect who assaulted multiple people with a metal bicycle lock. That suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez, was also killed. Police said at the time that a bullet Jones fired ricocheted off the floor, passed through dressing room wall and struck Valentina.