Los Angeles - The heartbroken parents of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, the 14-year-old accidentally killed as the LAPD shot to death an attacker at a Burlington Coat Factory store, are demanding answers from the authorities.

Valentina's father, Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas, arrived from Chile over the weekend and spoke to the media through a translator.

"It is like my whole heart has been ripped out of my body," he told reporters tearfully.

His daughter had only moved to the US earlier this year and was an aspiring engineer.

Soledad Peralta, Valentina's mother, was also in tears as she asked for justice. Valentina died in her arms in the changing room after a bullet fired by cops ricocheted with deadly consequences.

Video footage released by the LAPD on Monday showed the moment police officers fired at Daniel Elena-Lopez, who had assaulted a woman with a bike lock. The 24-year-old did not have a weapon and died at the scene.

One of the bullets passed through the wall of the changing room, where mother and daughter were sheltering amid the chaos

"She died in my arms and there was nothing I could do" Soledad said, also through a translator. "As I lay screaming for help, the police did not come to help me or my daughter. But I kept screaming. When the police finally came, they took me out of the dressing room, and left my daughter laying there. I wanted them to help her. But they just left her laying there alone."

The family had noted civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump at their side, as well as protesters outraged at the police's apparent trigger-happy approach, which ended in a horrific tragedy.