The Los Angeles Police Department released video footage Monday of a police shooting in a Burlington store that killed a 14-year-old girl.
Valentina was in a dressing room with her mother trying on clothing at the North Hollywood store when the shooting occurred.
cbs los angeles / youtube
The officer who fired the fatal shot has been placed on administrative leave while the California Attorney General’s Office investigates, the LAPD confirms.
Police were called to the North Hollywood store around 11:45 a.m. Dec. 23 for a report of an assault with a deadly weapon.
While en route to the store, officers received a call about a man attacking customers with a bike lock. Another caller told a dispatcher a man had a gun.
The LAPD released security video inside the store that showed Elena-Lopez entering the store around 11 a.m. with his bicycle and acting erratically. Before police arrived, the footage showed him swinging the bicycle lock around, smashing it against a glass railing and assaulting a woman who tried to walk past him on an escalator.
He is later seen on video attacking a woman from behind, repeatedly beating her with the bike lock and dragging her down an aisle.
The video showed police approaching the bloodied woman on the ground and an officer firing at Elena-Lopez who was at the end of the aisle.
Police said three shots were fired.
Elena-Lopez was shot in the chest and died at the scene. The bike lock was discovered near the suspect but no gun was found.
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In the video, a woman’s screams can be heard from the changing room area.
“Valentina died in the arms of her mother, inside the dressing room,” her aunt Carolina Peralta told theLos Angeles Times. “My sister does not understand how this tragedy could have happened just when they had managed to reunite the family.”
“The girl’s American dream has been taken from her,” Valentina’s uncle Rodrigo Orellana toldCNN. “Everyone fled to the dressing rooms and, unfortunately, the bullet found her.”
“They’re supposed to be the best police department in the world and they shot her,” he said.
source: people.com
