Valentina Orellana-Peraltas (14) was a random victim of police bullets. Now the father wants to put the Christmas presents he had bought for her on the grave.
Four days after a bullet from the police killed the teenage girl Valentina Orellana-Peraltas (14) at a shopping center in California, the girl’s father talks about the tragedy.
– The only thing she wanted was to become a US citizen. I said, “Let’s leave this country.” She said “No, Dad, this is the safest country in the world, the land of opportunity”, says Valentina Orellana-Peralta’s father, Chilean Juan Pablo, in an interview with the American press shown on CBS.
The tragic event happened on little christmas eve.
Police were on the scene to incapacitate a man who attacked customers in the store.
The 14-year-old girl became a random victim of one of the police bullets as it went straight through the wall to the rehearsal room where she was staying with her mother.
Christmas presents on the grave
Valentina Orellana-Peralta’s father says he had many Christmas presents to give to his daughter.
– Now I have to save them for her grave, says Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas American press.
Mother and daughter were at the clothing store to try on dresses for Valentina’s upcoming quinceañera, the traditional and important celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, reports LA Times and CNN.
The 14-year-old and her mother held each other and prayed to God inside the rehearsal room of the clothing store in Los Angeles where the shooting took place, according to relatives who CNN have talked to.
–Attack customers with locks
Orellana-Peraltas was hit in the chest of a bullet that went straight through the wall to the rehearsal room where she stood.
On Monday, Los Angeles police released surveillance videos of the shooting that led to Valentina’s death.
The videos show the now deceased, accused 24-year-old entering the Burlington Coat Factory in North Hollywood on a bicycle, wearing a singlet and shorts.
The man takes the escalator up the floors by bike. Shortly afterwards, he is seen again in the pictures by the escalator, but then wearing a multicolored jacket and trousers, while he swings his bicycle lock in the air towards customers in the store. The man attacks several women, and several of the surveillance videos show a woman covered in blood, writes CNN.
Police received several emergency calls about the threatening man.
–The police are criticized
The tragedy has created a great deal of commitment and demands for transparency in the police.
After the incident, the police have received strong criticism for being too quick to use firearms in a place where there was a great danger that random people were hit, writes NTB.
The police officer who fired the shot that killed Valentina is now temporarily laid off for two weeks. This is in accordance with the usual procedure for officers involved in the shooting, a source from the Los Angeles police told CNN.
Police Chief Michel Moore says he has ordered a full investigation.
– This chaotic incident that led to the death of an innocent child is tragic and absolutely terrible for everyone involved, says Moore, who strongly regrets the death, writes NTB.
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