L.A | Los Angeles Police Kill Girl, 14, Shopping For Quinceañera Dresses While Shooting Suspect

The 14-year-old girl who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police inside a Burlington store’s changing room on Thursday had been trying on dresses for a quinceañera, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source within the Los Angeles Police Department.

Los Angeles police have fatally shot a 14-year-old girl who was in the dressing room of a clothing store when officers fired at an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall, authorities have said.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office identified the girl as Valentina Orellana-Peralta on Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times. The office identified the suspect who was killed by police as Daniel Elena Lopez.

Officers also fatally shot the suspect on Thursday morning at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando valley, police said.

Witnesses told KCBS-TV that a man began acting erratically, threatening to throw items from the upper floor, and attacked a woman with a bicycle lock shortly before noon as the store was crowded with holiday shoppers.

An officer found the girl inside a changing room while searching the store for additional suspects or victims, the LAPD said in a Thursday statement.

Officers answered a report of an assault and others of shots being fired, police said. Investigators have not found a gun at the scene.

The man – who has not been named – was shot and died at the store but one of the bullets went through a wall behind him, killing the girl. Police found her dead in a changing room with her mother after seeing a hole in “a solid wall that you can’t see behind”, said the Los Angeles police department’s assistant chief, Dominic Choi.

Investigators did not know whether she was in the dressing room before the violence began or had run in there to hide, he said.

“This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved,” said the chief of police, Michel Moore, on Thursday night.

“I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family.”

Moore promised a “thorough, complete and transparent investigation” into the shooting and said a critical incident video that would include 911 calls, body camera and other video would be released by Monday.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the LA Times that surveillance footage appeared to show that the girl was in the changing room with her mother when police shot her.

“We have a young girl who was in a dressing room behind a wall that my understanding was in the path of where the officer fired,” Moore told the newspaper.

“This is a devastating and tragic circumstance, and it occurred during the actions of one of our officers,” he continued.

The changing room that the girl was in was located behind a wall, which was “out of the officers’ view,” the Thursday LAPD statement said.

LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told a press conference that officers couldn’t see into the dressing rooms, and “it just looks like a straight wall of drywall.”

Investigators were trying to determine whether the assault was random or targeted. Choi said they did not believe the teenager was related to the person who was attacked.

Police found a heavy metal cable lock near the man who was shot, Choi said.

The California department of justice was investigating the shooting, the attorney general, Rob Bonta, said.

News reports showed a woman with a bloodied face, who appeared to be the assault victim, being placed in an ambulance. She was taken to hospital with moderate to serious injuries, said the fire department’s spokesperson, Nicholas Prange. Choi said she had wounds to her head, arms and face.

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