"Valentina was full of joy and had big dreams, she still had a lot to live ... We heard screams, we sat and prayed ... She died and my arms and I could not do anything," said Soledad Peralta, heartbroken, this Tuesday in a wheel of Press reports about his daughter, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, 14, who was shot to death by police at a clothing store in Los Angeles.
"For a daughter to die in your arms is the deepest pain anyone can have
,
"
added the woman.
"I have no words to describe what I'm going through," explained her father, Juan Pablo Orellana, "I'm torn, I can't sleep at night.
All she wanted was to be a US citizen
,
" he
said about the young woman.
"There will be no word to console this moment," she said before showing a scooter that the child received by Amazon as a Christmas gift but could not open before being shot to death last Thursday in a Burlington store dressing room.
The father called for punishment for those responsible for his daughter's death just hours after the Los Angeles police released body camera recordings showing the teenager being shot to death during a police chase.
Lawyer Ben Crump, the same one who handled the George Floyd case, is one of the lawyers in the case: "It should never have ended up being collateral damage," he said.
"They want you to know that Valentina was beautiful, intelligent ... she had exceptional qualifications even though English was not her language," added the lawyer.
Orellana-Peralta dreamed of being an engineer, of building robots, "to make the world a better place," explained the lawyer.
He also dreamed of going to a Lackers game and watching LeBron James play.
The young woman emigrated about six months ago from Chile with her mother.
They came to visit their older sister, who worked in a restaurant.
On video: Body cameras recorded the shooting where a Latina teenager died in California
Dec. 28, 202101: 51
"Valentina was a shy girl in Chile, but everything was going well for her in the United States," her aunt Carolina Peralta, 51, told the Los Angeles Times.
“She was catching up with English and was more outgoing.
He was happy to be with his older sister, "he added.
The minor was trying on a dress in a Burlington chain store last Thursday, when an agent who was pursuing a suspect of carrying a weapon fired.
The bullet went through the wall and hit Orellana-Peralta
, who had gone with her mother to buy a dress for a 15-year party.
Police also shot dead the suspect, identified by the Los Angeles County coroner as 24-year-old Daniel Elena López.
The tragedy has sparked outrage and debate about how the police should respond to such incidents, especially when it is unclear whether the suspect is actually armed and shooting.
For years, the police would surround the scene of an active shooting, assess the situation and try to negotiate in the hope of avoiding a violent confrontation.
Currently, the police are trained to kill or arrest attackers before taking other measures, such as helping victims.
The current tactic is to "stop the killing before it stops the killing," Sid Heal, retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Commander, told the Los Angeles Times.
The police in this state have shot and killed 18 people this year, double the number in 2020, according to the aforementioned outlet.
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