To the Editor: Your recent articles on the situation leading up to the December 23rd police shooting at the North Hollywood department store in Burlington, which left a 14-year-old girl dead, pointed to 911 calls alleging a gun had been seen or a shot could be heard.
The implication is that the callers believed the suspect was using a gun.
In more than 30 years of my adult life in Los Angeles, I have experienced firsthand the reality many times that when a person calls 911 and says that a person is under attack or that someone is a threat, the dispatcher routinely asks, whether there is a weapon. If the answer is no, the police may take too long to show up.
It is common practice to claim a gun is there only to get the police to take the situation seriously. Whether the 911 operators in the Burlington case actually believed a gun was present is very important.
Dawn Halloran, North Hollywood
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To the editors: The accidental shooting of Valentina Orellana Peralta was a tragedy, but it’s always easy to question decisions in a split second. As both a doctor and a medical director, I learned far too quickly that anything I do or not do can be criticized by someone.
If the attacker had a gun, as reported in several emergency calls, and the LAPD officials had not acted quickly and the shooter shot others while they were deliberating, they would be criticized for inaction.
It is entirely possible that the LAPD’s active shooter protocols need revision, but I caution the public and media not to jump to conclusions until the shooting is fully investigated.
Daniel Fink, Beverly Hills
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To the editor, consider how several police officers reacted to a call about a shooter in a department store (one who actually had no gun). In these circumstances, should the officers really respond with assault rifles?
They once used revolvers. Then they switched to automatic pistols that can fire several rounds quickly.
And now high-performance rifles? Could you soon respond to such calls with grenades?
This worrying trend needs to stop. It is time to resort to police weapons, which do not pose such a dangerous threat to the public.
Arthur Stone, Santa Monica
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To the editor: Los Angeles councilor Kevin de León said that “someone must be held accountable for the death of this child”. That someone is Daniel Elena Lopez, the suspect who is being confronted by the police.
Sandy Valadez, Sonnenland
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