Among demands for justice, they say goodbye to a Chilean girl killed by police

Between demands for justice and in favor of a reform of law enforcement agencies in the United States, family members, friends, and civil rights defenders said their last goodbye in Los Angeles this Monday to the Chilean teenager Valentina Orellana Peralta, who he was shot dead by a city policeman on December 23.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, a prominent US civil rights leader, delivered the keynote address at the funeral, vehemently calling for “justice” for the 14-year-old and for agency reform police across the country.

Orellana Peralta, who had immigrated to the United States with her mother six months earlier from Chile, died in the middle of an operation by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to arrest a suspect in assaulting customers in a grocery store. clothes in the North Hollywood sector, an incident regretted by the president of the United States, Joe Biden.

DECADES OF NEGLIGENCE?

Sharpton condemned the fact that for decades law enforcement agencies have not applied measures to de-escalate dangerous situations, and recalled his efforts to make changes in the policies applied by law enforcement Los Angeles Police.

The operation by LAPD agents followed several alerts about a possible assault with a deadly weapon and subsequent reports of shots fired at the Burlington Coat Factory store.

Red Note

Upon arrival, officers began a search of the scene, during which they located a bloody female and, a short distance away, a suspect. One of the policemen fired three rounds with his automatic rifle at the man, who died at the scene.

At least one bullet went through the wall of a changing room where Valentina was with her mother, Soledad Peralta. The teenager died in the arms of her mother, who could not do anything to save her daughter's life.

“It is not rational for (the Police) to enter a store two days before Christmas and chase a man without it being possible to de-escalate the situation,” said Sharpton, who recalled the decades of complaints against the LAPD after the beating of the African-American Rodney King by officers of that corporation in 1991, an event that sparked riots that marked the history of the city.

“It's not normal to shoot in such an irresponsible way,” the reverend insisted, noting that 31 years after King, this kind of situation still occurs. "How much longer is it going to take them to fix it and do it right?" he questioned.

The lawyer Ben Crump, who has represented numerous families of people killed at the hands of the Police – including the relatives of George Floyd, whose murder in May 2020 by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, triggered protests across the US - and who represents Valentina's father.

“The Los Angeles Police are not going to wash their hands of justifying their actions by shedding the blood of an innocent person,” the lawyer insisted.

VARIOUS INVESTIGATIONS

LAPD chief Michel Moore promised transparency in the investigations and regretted the fact from the very day the shooting occurred. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last week promised an investigation into the incident.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is also investigating the incident.

Edited body camera footage of LAPD officers involved in the operation was released four days after the incident. The video shows from the arrival of the officers until the moment one of them fires at the suspect.

William Dorsey Jones Jr., 42, was the officer who fired. The African-American agent is currently on paid leave while the matter is investigated.

Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for county police officers, told local media that two weeks before the shooting Jones Jr. had completed active shooter apprehension training in a mass risk situation.

THE AMERICAN DREAM THAT WAS VANISHED Valentina's parents, Juan Pablo Orellana and Soledad Peralta, remembered their daughter, who ironically considered the United States the safest country in the world.

“Unfortunately he was wrong. He only came to this country to find his death, ”Orellana said at the service, while thanking the community for his support and encouraging them to continue with the demands for justice. "We do not want a more murdered Valentina," he declared.

The funeral was held at the City of Refuge Church, a Pentecostal church, attended by dozens of community leaders and hundreds of community members who have held several protests in recent days over the death of the teenager.

Valentina's remains will remain in the United States. Soledad Peralta has said that she hopes to stay in the country for a few more years helping other immigrants.