Funeral set for Valentina Orellana Peralta; Rev. Al Sharpton to eulogize teen killed by LAPD bullet
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Funeral arrangements were announced Wednesday for Valentina Orellana Peralta, the 14-year-old girl who was fatally struck by a stray bullet when a Los Angeles police officer opened fir on an assault suspect inside a Burlington store in North Hollywood.
Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy and officiate at Orellana Peralta's funeral on Monday at the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, according to a joint statement from family attorneys and the National Action Network.
The family's lawyers, Ben Crump and Rahul Ravipudi, will also speak at the funeral and repeat their call for justice for the slain teenager, who was killed in a dressing room while shopping with her mother for a Christmas dress on Dec. 23.
The teenager had locked the dressing room door after screams broke out in the store.
"We sat down on a seat, holding each other, praying, when something hit my daughter, Valentina, and threw us to the floor," Soledad Peralta said at a news conference last week. "And my daughter died in my arms. I couldn't do anything."
The wall of the dressing room Orellana Peralta was in was behind the suspect when he was shot, police said, adding that Peralta was not in view of officers when the shooting occurred.
MORE | Mother of teen killed by LAPD tearfully recounts shooting, aftermath
Protesters have called for the firing or arrest of LAPD Officer William Jones Jr., who fired the fatal bullet.
"We cannot allow for these things to go unresolved," said Chlo Cheyenne, an activist and the CEO of social justice media app COMMUNITYx, who is running the Justice for Valentina website and petition. "Police officers must be held accountable for their bullet."
Demonstrators, some of whom have experienced police violence within their own families, have demanded justice for Orellana Peralta and supporting her family. A petition to get body camera footage and surveillance footage from the incident and to bring charges against Jones has received thousands of signatures.
The teen's family stood outside Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in downtown on Dec. 28, next to a large photo of Orellana Peralta wreathed in flowers, to call for justice and remember their daughter.
Speaking in Spanish and choking back tears, they said they had left Chile to get away from violence and injustice in search of a better life in the U.S.
The LAPD posted an edited video package online that included 911 calls, radio transmissions, body camera footage and surveillance video from the shooting at a store crowded with holiday shoppers. The department's policy is to release video from critical incidents, such as police shootings, within 45 days.
Surveillance video showed the suspect attacking two women, including one who fell to the floor before he dragged her by her feet through the store's aisles as she tried to crawl away.
Multiple people including store employees called police to report a man striking customers with a bike lock. One caller told a 911 dispatcher that the man had a gun. No firearm - only the bike lock - was recovered at the scene.
ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
