LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury Thursday found the city of Los Angeles was not liable in the killing of a 14-year-old girl who was hit by a police officer's stray bullet during a shootout while Christmas shopping in 2021 with her mother.
The ruling came after a nearly monthlong trial in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the LA Police Department by the parents of Valentina Orellana-Peralta. She was at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood neighborhood on Dec. 23, 2021, when she was struck by a bullet that had gone through the dressing room wall.
The jury sided with the city 9-3 after deliberating for just over a day.
The family's attorney, Nick Rowley, in a video statement called it “the most devastating loss of my career” and said he doesn't understand the jury's decision.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto said the city shares the family's grief but the jury made the correct decision and that the city stands by the officer who will carry the “burden of Valentina's death with him for many years.”
Police responded to calls for help after a man wielding a bike lock attacked two women in the building. Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. was part of a group of armed officers that walked through the store. He fired his rifle three times, killing the man and Orellana-Peralta.
The lawsuit filed by the girl’s parents alleged wrongful death, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The jury found the city not negligent on all accounts.
Jones told the LAPD’s Use of Force Review Board that he mistook the bike lock the man was holding for a gun. He said he thought the man stood in front of an exterior brick wall, when the area actually contained the women’s dressing rooms. One of the bullets he fired ricocheted off the ground behind the man and went through the wall, hitting Orellana-Peralta.
The Los Angeles Police Commission, a civilian oversight board, ruled in 2022 that Jones was justified in firing once but that his two subsequent shots were out of policy. Then-Police Chief Michel Moore found in his own review that all three shots were unjustified.
A report by the California Attorney General’s office in April 2024 found that Jones acted with the intent to defend himself from “what he reasonably believed to be imminent death or serious bodily injury” and decided not to file criminal charges.
FILE - The casket containing 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, killed on Dec. 23, 2021, by a LAPD police officer's stray bullet while shopping with her mother, is readied for her funeral at the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, Calif., Jan. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/David Swanson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.
A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.
The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and ”unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote.
The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.
If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.
At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, were set to expire July 24.
The court’s decision directly applied only to three of the plaintiffs — the state of Washington and two businesses, spice company Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! “It’s not clear’’ whether other businesses would have to continue to pay the tariffs, said Jeffrey Schwab, director of litigation at the libertarian Liberty Justice Center, which represented the two companies.
“We fought back today and we won, and we’re extremely excited,” Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun!, told reporters Thursday.
The ruling marked another legal setback for the Trump administration, which has attempted to shield the U.S. economy behind a wall of import taxes. Last year, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare the nation's longstanding trade deficit a national emergency, justifying sweeping global tariffs.
The Supreme Court ruled Feb. 28 that IEEPA did not authorize the tariffs. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to establish taxes, including tariffs, though lawmakers can delegate tariff power to the president.
Trump is widely expected to try to replace the tariffs that have been struck down. The administration is conducting two investigations that could end in more tariffs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is looking into whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. It is also investigating whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.
President Donald Trump adjusts his microphone while speaking during an event for military mothers in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
