Teen killed by LAPD thinks America is safe, father gives eulogy, but she’s ‘wrong’ – Orange County Register

Valentina Orellana Peralta is a smart girl with a dream to study robotics in high school and college.

The 14-year-old girl from Santiago, Chile told her mother she wanted to build a robot to help her with chores around the house, cousin Emily Carr said in her teenage eulogy on Monday , January 10, in the City. of the Refugee Church in Gardena.

“Valentina is thoughtful and quiet,” Carr said. “She was always contemplative, always thinking. She absorbs the world around her like a sponge.”

Carr spoke to an audience of 100, half of whom were members of the media, inside the church’s cave hall. Right in front of her, Orellana Peralta’s body lay in an open coffin, her father and mother crying as they held a photo of their daughter.

Funeral of Van Nuys Girl – was killed on December 23, 2021, when a Los Angeles police officer fired a rifle at an assault suspect inside a North Hollywood Burlington store – attracted intense coverage by the media and national civil rights figures.

Just before Carr spoke, Father Al Sharpton and Ben Crump, an attorney for other victims of police violence including the family of George Floyd, led mourners chanting “Justice for Valentine!” and “Innocent Valentine!”

Juan Pablo Orellana and Soledad Peralta, among other mourners, again called for charges against the LAPD officer, who shot and killed their daughter as she huddled inside her dressing room. shop that day.

“She always told me that this country is the safest place in the world,” her father said in Spanish in his eulogy. “Unfortunately, she was wrong. She came to this country to face her death.”

LAPD Officer William Jones was one of several police officers who responded to Burlington that day after receiving a report of a man assaulting a shopper with a bicycle key. Several incoming calls suggest that the man, Daniel Elena Lopez, may have a gun. He did not.

The LAPD has released footage showing Jones walking briskly through the store, then spotting a wounded, bloody woman on the ground. He turned a corner into a driveway and saw Lopez standing not far away holding a bike lock. Jones opened fire three times, killing Lopez, and accidentally shooting dead the unseen teenager behind the wall where she was hiding with her mother.

LAPD officials said the shooting was under investigation. The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta is also looking into it, as required by state law governing some police shootings.

Sharpton told mourners he flew to Los Angeles from the East Coast to be with Orellana Peralta’s family and call for justice. A longtime civil rights leader, he and Crump have been involved in protests for people killed by police in the US for years.

He said the race of those involved – Orellana Peralta is Latina, and Jones is black – did not change his call for justice.

“I don’t feel better if I get shot dead by a black cop,” Sharpton said, pointing to his chest.

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti both apologized for the shooting and offered their condolences to Orellana-Peralta’s family. Neither of them would comment on disciplinary action against Jones prior to the completion of the city’s administrative investigation and the attorney general’s review.

The Gardena Church is welcoming with family members of Orellana Peralta from many countries: Most are from Chile and Canada. They sat in the front row in black sweatshirts with the girl’s face on, listening to vibrant gospel music and raising their hands in praise.

When the ceremony was over, the family moved behind Orellana Peralta’s coffin to a waiting hearse. Her parents used to hold large photographs of her. There, a homage to Sharpton’s National Action Network, his longtime civil rights group, led a vigil again as he released pigeons that were perched in Hacienda Heights and would return there. .

As the hearse left, a convoy of activists in their vehicles held placards with Orellana Peralta’s face out of their windows. The hearse and family went in a different direction, reaching the burial site of Orellana Peralta at an undisclosed location.