The LAPD refused to identify the “Jones” who shot and killed 14-Year-Old Valentina Orellana-Peralta at Burlington Coat Factory while trying to arrest Daniel Elena-Lopez, who was hitting customers with a bike lock.
It didn’t take social media long to figure out the “Jones” in the video was Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr.
The sad thing is Officer Jones Jr. seemed like the type of cop that should have known better to act so recklessly.
William Dorsey Jones Jr. moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 to pursue a career in entertainment. While he was out there, he found another passion – service.
That led him to join the Los Angeles Police Department. He spent eight years on patrol and the past three years working as a community relations officer within the department – the third largest in the U.S.
Not only does he work as a police officer, he also has a family, including a wife who has been working from home during the pandemic, and a 6-year-old son who has been learning from home. As though his plate isn’t full enough, Jones also started a nonprofit organization, called “Officers for Change,” in August. The objective is to mentor at-risk youth in low-income communities and “positively affect my community,” he said.
Jones Jr. killed two people that didn’t need to die. Elena-Lopez could have been arrested without lethal force, all he had was a bike lock, and he never posed a threat to the cops before Jones Jr. fired his shots. 14-Year-Old Valentina Orellana-Peralta should have never been in the line of fire because no shots would have been fired.
Anthony Barksdale, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former Baltimore deputy police commissioner, said the video raises questions.
“Was the use of the patrol rifle justified?” he asked Monday night on CNN. “And … if you’re going to fire a (.223) round inside of a department store, those rounds can easily rip through a body and keep right on moving through dry wall. So the use of force must be looked at.”
Barksdale said that the suspect did not appear to be moving toward a victim or an officer when he was shot.
The officer who fired the fatal shots is on “paid administrative leave, per department protocols for officer involved shootings, for at least two weeks,” a police official told CNN.
Jones Jr. has been scrubbing all his social media accounts, but it is too late people know who he is now.
Regardless of his intent, he needs to be charged with a crime. He killed an innocent young girl because of his reckless actions, and to be honest, the suspect didn’t need to die either.
Flip the pages for more info on Jones Jr and bodycam footage, which clearly shows that Jones Jr was in the wrong.