In California, the family of Valentina Orellana-Peralta is demanding justice after the 14-year-old girl was fatally shot last week by a Los Angeles police officer while she tried on dresses inside a department store’s dressing room. Valentina died in her mother’s arms. This is Soledad Peralta speaking at an emotional family press conference Tuesday.
Soledad Peralta: “There was nothing I could do. To see a son or daughter die in your own arms is one of the greatest and most profound pains that any human being can imagine.”
Valentina and her mother came to the U.S. from Chile about six months ago. The girl’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana, recently reunited with his family in L.A. At Tuesday’s press conference, he said, “It is like my whole heart has been ripped out of my body.”