While scrambling away from a guy who had been beating her with a bike lock in an aisle splotched with crimson, a lady grabbed her bleeding face in an aisle splotched with red as she ran away from him. An employee at the Burlington clothes shop reported to Los Angeles police officers that a guy was “acting insane” in the store, which led to the business being raided.
A phalanx of police rushed up the escalators in a diamond formation, their rifles at the ready. After recognising the individual, subsequently identified as Daniel Elena Lopez, 24, at least one cop opened fire within seconds of spotting him.
While Mr. Elena Lopez lay bleeding on the ground, the sound of a woman’s agonising cries could be heard. They seemed to be coming from the dressing rooms adjacent, where 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta and her mother had been waiting to go on stage. She, too, had been tragically shot by an officer’s bullet, according to the police, in what they now describe as a terrible accident.
Ms. Orellana-Peralta and Mr. Elena Lopez were killed in the incident on Thursday, which was captured by security cameras and police body cameras and broadcast on Monday in a jumbled and chaotic fashion in newly released film.
Los Angeles’ newest high-profile police shooting, which has revived an impassioned discussion over the role police should play in keeping neighbourhoods safe, was the subject of a 35-minute compilation that offered fresh insight on the incident.
According to the Los Angeles Times, officers with the Los Angeles Police Agency have shot and killed 18 individuals so far this year, more than double the number of people who were slain by officers with the department last year.
With the release of the footage on Monday, Los Angeles police made it obvious that it was one of their officers’ shots that wounded the 14-year-old girl in the dressing room, according to the department’s statement.
According to a statement released by the city, Mayor Eric Garcetti has committed to react to Ms. Orellana-death Peralta’s “with the openness, empathy, and responsibility that Valentina’s family and friends deserve.”
Mr. Garcetti and other city officials pledged to make reforms in the wake of major protests against police violence and racism sparked by Mr. Floyd’s murder, including shifting money away from law enforcement budgets and into other programmes.
Additionally, state leaders pledged to hold police personnel responsible when they engage in misbehaviour. As of July, a new state legislation mandates the state’s Department of Justice to examine police shootings that result in the death of unarmed persons and to determine whether or not to charge the officers who participated in them. Officials have confirmed that the department is conducting an investigation into last week’s incident in compliance with the law.
Numerous reform initiatives have failed, however, as politicians in Los Angeles and throughout California hurry to address public worries of increased violent crime and anxiety sparked by a spate of high-profile “flash mob” thefts at high-end retailers.
However, several of the candidates running to be the next mayor of Los Angeles have refrained from making conclusions from the little information that has been released so far regarding Thursday’s shooting.
According to Representative Karen Bass, who is now the front-runner in the election, “one incident does not lead you to conclude that we can no longer reform police.” “We must continue to press for more accountability and openness,” says the author.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kevin de León, a member of the City Council who is also considered a top candidate for mayor, said that the challenge confronting the city’s future leader was considerable.
