The Tragic Killing of 14-Year-Old Valentina Orellana-Peralta

I approach each police shooting on a case-by-case basis — that is I judge each according to the facts of the particular situation. I have seen police shootings that I felt were unjustified and said so and I have seen police shootings that I felt could not have been avoided and said so. That said, I wanted to wait for more information to come out before I formed an opinion about the Dec. 23 Los Angeles police officer-involved shooting that took the life of Valentina Orellana-Peralta at a Burlington clothing store in North Hollywood. Since the release of the 911 calls, store surveillance footage, and officers’ body-camera video from the incident, I have a better understanding of the events that led up to that fateful moment that took the lives of two individuals — one of whom was an innocent bystander.

To be clear — there is only one villain in this situation and that is 24-year-old Daniel Elena-Lopez who is dead as a result of his actions and in the process caused the death of 14-year-old Valentina. I understand that for the ACAB community — commonly mistaken for “All Cops Are Bad” but really stands for “All Cops Are Bastards” — that opinion is unconscionable, but it’s true.

Daniel Elena-Lopez set all of these events into motion. Without his actions, we’re not debating the police shooting of a teenager in the court of public opinion because that teenager is still alive.

So let’s look at what we do know.

The Los Angeles Times reported that “store surveillance video showed Elena-Lopez assault multiple people before police arrived, striking an employee and tackling a customer at the bottom of an escalator. He was acting erratically, dragging a bicycle around the store and swinging the bike lock on the end of a chain, unnerving many and causing store leaders to begin evacuating the building.”

I want to lift up the fact that nobody in the store stopped him prior to his violent assault of the woman. The store wasn’t uninhabited we know based on the 911 calls made.

911 calls were made by employees and other witnesses at the store but those calls provided conflicting information with some saying Elena-Lopez had a gun and had shot it while others characterized him as being a hostile customer attacking other customers.

So now we’ve got conflicting information and you know that mentioning a gun is a game-changer when calling 911 for help.

In the end, Elena-Lopez didn’t have a gun, but the fear that he did definitely impacted the response of the officers. Officers don’t bring knives to a gunfight. They showed up prepared to deal with a certain situation. And quite frankly, if you were the victim getting beat bloody with a metal bike lock by some deranged and erratic man who was most likely high on drugs (and if I had to guess Imma go with crystal meth) — you don’t want them showing up unprepared to save your life.

Another fact is that the only superpower that cops possess is the power to put you in handcuffs and take you to jail for any reason or no reason at all. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s one heck of a superpower and for good or bad, they use it all of the time. But that’s all they got. They don’t have bionic hearing or vision with a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities. They aren’t more powerful than a locomotive or are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

As someone who likes to talk big about what I’d do if someone assaulted me, I will be the first to tell you when it comes to fight-flight-freeze situations — I usually freeze. I can’t help it.

Defined, the “freeze” response occurs when our brains decide we cannot take on the threat nor are we able to escape — it’s a panic response.

I said that to say, I am not sure how I would have reacted to what I watched on the surveillance footage and officers’ body-camera video. I can tell you that my eyes got big, my mouth dropped open and I kept repeating oh my god, oh my god when I first watched it.

After watching the video a few times I asked myself, “Jasmyne, would you want the police to stop and figure out what’s the best course of action to make sure they don’t hurt the guy beating my ass senseless or save my life?” It was an easy question to answer. Save my damn life.

I am not sure that in the time span we witnessed, given the fact that the officers were dispatched to a situation where they believed the suspect to have a gun, and having witnessed a bloody victim on the ground whose life they believed to be in imminent danger, there was enough time to contemplate best how to deal with the suspect.

Unfortunately, an officer opened fire on the suspect and according to police one of the three rifle rounds ricocheted off the ground and went through a wall separating the dressing rooms from the shopping floor killing the teenager.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore told The Times it did not appear that the officer who fired “would have known that there was anyone behind there or that he was looking at anyone other than the suspect and a wall.”

And just like that the debate over police tactics in facing violent and aggressive suspects and has been given new life with Americans split down the middle again on whether or not to use lethal force to stop armed (and unarmed) violent criminals.

According to the police, they “must assess the situation objectively, evaluate their options and act accordingly,” with the primary objective of stopping “aggressive deadly behavior” when dealing with active or (potentially active) shooter scenes.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department’s own training bulletin, officers “shall not fire under conditions that would subject bystanders or hostages to death or possible injury, except to preserve life or prevent serious bodily injury.”

So I guess the question for the department and possibly a jury is going to be, did the officer feel that the woman who was being assaulted was going to die or be subject to additional serious bodily injury. We do know that her injuries were serious not only from watching the video but from the amount of blood that she lost a lot of which was visible at the scene.

Now if the officer had not shot Elena-Lopez and he managed to deliver a lethal blow to his victim — I imagine the outcry today would be why didn’t the officers act sooner to save her life.

A damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation if ever there was one.

Calls are being made by community activists and the victim’s family for the officer who killed Orellana-Peralta to be criminally charged.

L.A. County District Attorney Geroge Gascon will no doubt have to take into consideration the evidence presented to him including Elena-Lopez’s criminal record which The Times reports include convictions for car theft, carrying a loaded gun in public, and carrying a gun as a felon.

The newspaper also reported that he was arrested in August 2020 and charged with domestic battery, stealing a car, and recklessly fleeing the police, later pleading guilty to domestic battery and fleeing police and sentenced to two years in state prison.

Similarly, the district attorney will have to look at the record of the officer involved which the department should make as public as they did Elena-Lopez’s criminal record (and just as fast too).

Understand that I’m not here to defend the police. I know the police lie and I do not base my opinions solely on their description of any incident. I know better. But in this situation, we have witnesses, audio, and video (and not just police body-camera footage) to help put the pieces together of what really happened. And while the police love to tell anyone who is not a cop that the video never tells the whole story, in this case, the video put the situation into perspective for a lot of people, including myself.

I know that my opinion on this is not going to be in lockstep with the folks calling for the officer to be criminally charged — whose cries I have often echoed.

I’ll repeat what I said at the onset, I approach each police shooting on a case-by-case basis — that is I judge each according to the facts of the particular situation. I have seen police shootings that I felt were unjustified and said so and I have seen police shootings that I felt could not have been avoided and said so.

Based on what I’ve seen and heard so far, this was not an assassination but a horribly tragic accident that was set in motion by the actions of one person, Daniel Elena-Lopez. An accident that should make the LAPD examine their police tactics in these types of situations to see where there is room for improvement because there’s always room for improvement when dealing with police tactics.

My heart goes out to the family and friends of young Valentina Orellana-Peralta whose life was abruptly cut short. There is nothing anyone can say to end the pain of losing such a young life but know that you are not in mourning alone. No matter what side of the debate Angelenos are on over this shooting — both sides mourn the loss of Valentina.

Finally, I have no doubt the debate about this police shooting will continue on in the court of public opinion — as it should. I just hope that it can be done civilly and objectively — with an open mind — that is considering the facts rather than our personal feelings.

Jasmyne Cannick lives in Los Angeles and writes about the collisions that happen at the intersection of race, politics, and society.