LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles police officer who inadvertently killed a teenage girl when he shot at an assailant in a North Hollywood department story late last year was justified in firing his weapon once, but was wrong to keep shooting, the city's Police Commission ruled on Tuesday.
In reaching its conclusion, a divided commission broke with LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who recommended the commission find Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr.'s decision to shoot was unreasonable and violated the LAPD's policy on deadly force.
The rulings brought an element of closure to an exceptionally tragic episode, in which a bullet fired by Jones inside a Burlington Coat Factory store missed its target and killed 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was hiding in a dressing room with her mother.
