Al Sharpton to Deliver Eulogy for 14-year-old Girl Killed by Stray LAPD Bullet

Valentina Orellana-Peralta is remembered at a memorial outside the Burlington clothing store in North Hollywood where she was killed by a stray LAPD bullet on Dec. 23, 2021. (Credit: B. Higgs)

Rev. Al Sharpton will officiate and deliver the eulogy at Monday’s funeral for Valentina Orellana-Peralta, the 14-year-old girl killed last month by a police officer’s stray bullet in North Hollywood, California.

Sharpton’s National Action Network announced funeral details Wednesday evening for the teenager, who was struck by a bullet fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer responding to calls about a man assaulting customers inside a Burlington clothing store on Dec. 23.

Orellana-Peralta was trying on dresses with her mother on the second floor of the store when a bullet went through the dressing room wall.

The teen was killed about six months after she arrived in the U.S. from Chile with her mother, Soledad Peralta.

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The funeral is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 10 at 11 a.m. at City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California.

Bishop Noel Jones, the church’s senior pastor, will attend the service along with Orellana-Peralta’s relatives and members of the community. In addition to Al Sharpton, family attorneys Ben Crump and Rahul Ravipudi plan to speak at the funeral service.

LAPD body camera footage released after the shooting showed officers found a bleeding woman on the second floor of the Burlington store and an erratic male suspect nearby who had been beating the woman with a metal bicycle lock.

After shots were fired, officers descended on the suspect identified as 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Immediately after officers shot Lopez, a woman could be heard screaming from the dressing room where Orellana-Peralta was trying on clothes.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore previously released a statement calling Orellana-Peralta’s death “devastating.”

“This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved,” he said.