The California Justice Department announced today that it has found no cause to file chargesagainst a Los Angeles police officer who, while aiming at a suspect, shot and killed a 14-year-old girl hiding in a department store fitting room.

Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was picking out a quinceanera dress with her mother just before Christmas in 2021. She was shot and killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the floor.

  • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago
    1. Treat every gun as if is loaded

    2. Never point your gun at anything you aren’t willing to destroy

    3. Keep your finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot

    4. Be aware of your target and what’s beyond it

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1. The cop was fully aware it was loaded.

      2. The cop was willing to destroy the target.

      3. The cop was ready to shoot immediately.

      4. The cop couldn’t give less of a shit what’s beyond their target.

      You don’t know cops very well.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        You’re missing the point. Anyone who is unable to follow firearm safety should be disqualified from holding a position that will require the use of a firearm.

        Your flippant attitude doesn’t help anything. Yes, peace officers seem to have no moral code and are currently a detriment to society. However, resigning them to your point of view is somewhere between pessimistic and harmful. We must be open to changing this system for the betterment of society.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          My flippant attitude is based on this article.

          I don’t disagree that you shouldn’t have a gun if you can’t follow basic safety protocols. Unfortunately, California (and the rest of America overall) does disagree. Which was my point.

        • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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          I don’t think you get the point.

          You can say things like “Y’all rape is bad” and we can make laws to also say rape is bad but not enforce it on a few people, then shit is fucked up.

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            That’s a false equivalence.

            The comment they made is about a subset of people, not just a few people.

            It’s like saying “Rape is bad” and then someone coming along and saying something like:

            “Mexicans think rape is good. You don’t know Mexicans”

            Rape is bad, period.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          You’re missing the point. Anyone who is unable to follow firearm safety should be disqualified from holding a position that will require the use of a firearm.

          But thanks to the 2nd Amendment anyone who is unable to follow those rules can have multiple guns

    • Drusas@kbin.run
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      If only we could get these heavily-armed cops to follow basic firearms safety protocols.

      • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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        Sounds difficult. Easier to just continue giving them inadequate training and have the city pay out millions of dollars every time a cop wants to kill someone.

    • Aganim@lemmy.world
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      Never point your gun at anything you aren’t willing to destroy

      “Don’t point gun at fellow cops, check. Okay, maybe except Ray, because he’s just a total softy.”

  • Otakulad@lemmy.world
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    Ah yes. The classic “We investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong defence.”

    Things like these need to be held by an independent team and no info given about those involved, e.g. the shooter was a police officer. Some people keep saying the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The fact the shooter was an officer should have no bearing on the outcome then.

    Also, getting an independent team means new jobs for people. Get better results and be a job creator.

  • Red89@lemm.ee
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    How is it not negligence? If a citizen did the same thing, they would get charged with negligence.

    • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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      There was an active shooter

      No, there wasn’t. Dude was hitting people with a bike lock. The only way it comes out differently is if you hold the police accountable for their horrible judgement, but clearly we’re not going to do that.

      • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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        There were two separate 911 calls reporting an active shooter from people hiding in the store (apparently both mistook the smashing of glass as the sound of a gunshot), the officers that responded treated it as an active shooter situation because that’s what they were told it was

        • Jojo, Lady of the West@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Showing up ready for a shooter because that’s what was reported is prudent. Being cautious as though a shooter may appear soon because that’s what was reported is prudent. Shooting to kill someone not armed with a gun while other parties are present and while your cohort has nonlethal weapons on hand and ready to use instead isn’t prudent any more

        • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Maybe we should ask Andrew Finch if the police should believe everything they’re told over the phone.

  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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    Sounds like an honest accident to me. I don’t think we should punish people for accidents or for the very least it should be taken into consideration in the sentencing. He was there after an active shooter. That takes courage - we need people like him.

    • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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      • There were other officers on the scene
      • The other officers had warned the officer who fired to slow down and de-escalate, but they were ignored
      • The other officers had non-lethal options, but the officer escalated and fired live rounds in a situation where they couldn’t know if they were putting bystanders in danger

      Any asshole with a gun can shoot it. If you want courage, you want officers who are professionals, trained to de-escalate, contain and protect, not militant thugs who spray rounds at the spray rounds at the slightest provocation with no regard for bystanders

      • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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        There were other officers on the scene

        One of which had a shotgun, the rest were armed with either their service pistols or non-lethal, the officer with the AR-15 took point because he had the most effective weapon for the sorts of long ranges you would see in a large department store with a reported active shooter

        The other officers had warned the officer who fired to slow down and de-escalate, but they were ignored

        It was not about deescalating, this was a (in two separate 911 calls from people in the store) reported active shooter in a now unknown location, and the officers were attempting to follow their training by forming into a group and slowly moving through the store to find and eliminate the threat, they were telling him to slow down because he was pushing ahead out of formation (I believe upon seeing the woman that was attacked, blood streaming down from the multiple lacerations on her head and face, attempting to crawl towards them for help)

        The other officers had non-lethal options, but the officer escalated and fired live rounds in a situation where they couldn’t know if they were putting bystanders in danger

        Lethal force is certainly authorized in (what is believed to be) an active shooter situation, with hindsight we can say he didn’t have a gun but the officers at the time not only didn’t know that, they were told the opposite, he was both armed and had already fired the weapon. Upon spotting the suspect, he was holding something (a painting) in front of him, concealing half of his body, and with a gun trained on him made a rapid movement with his free hand behind the painting, which is ultimately what got him shot

        not militant thugs who spray rounds at the spray rounds at the slightest provocation with no regard for bystanders

        The officer fired three rounds, one of which either missed or over penetrated, ricocheted off of the ground, and then penetrated a wall to unfortunately kill an innocent bystander hiding in a changing room behind

        Cops are overwhelmingly shit and need better training, but aside from the almost freak accident killing of the innocent bystander, this was more or less a textbook handling of an active shooter situation by police who probably have never otherwise responded to one in their life, without the two errant 911 callers who apparently mistook breaking glass for gunshots the response would have likely been very different

        • FurtiveFugitive@lemm.ee
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          almost freak accident

          The purpose of firing a gun is to take a life. It’s not a freak accident that this cop pulled the trigger and someone died. That’s what the weapon is explicitly designed to do. It’s also the reason cops should not be drawing guns as their first response.

    • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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      He was there after an active shooter.

      He was there after an active bike lock swinger. Get the facts straight before you get to licking boots.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        I mean, there was an active shooter.

        That was just shooting at all the things (like the floor), not even aiming. I wonder how many shots it took the active shooter to realise he was the only active shooter. Or was that completely besides the point of wanting desperately to use that gun?

        • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
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          Three shots, one of which ricocheted off the ground, penetrated a wall, and killed the 14 year old hiding in the changing room behind where the shooting took place

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          Do you think maybe the cop was lying about mistaking the bicycle lock for a gun considering bicycle locks do not look remotely like guns and lying about it would give him cover?

        • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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          He thought it was time to play commando and ignored the more sensible and responsible officers around him. But you’ll believe his lies and consider him a hero despite his absolute incompetence causing the death of an innocent young woman. I hope the boot polish gives you cancer.

        • Sami_Uso@lemmy.world
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          These MFS think acorns are gunshots. We cannot trust them to tell the truth about what the felt in the moment. It’s a problem whether or not you can sympathize with the officer.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          Yes, every other cop there knew and tried to get him not to shoot but he was the special snowflake that day so his idiocy must be respected.

    • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
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      How about no, and you should really be fucking ashamed of your pandering ass. Imagine one of your loved ones was murdered by a cop who was just being brave….you’d be fine with that? Don’t answer, just gtfo.

    • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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      I AGREE! I don’t care HOW MANY INNOCENT CHILDREN DIE, we need MORE COPS COURAGEOUSLY killing people armed with bike locks!