Officer’s Bullet Killed Trader Joe’s Employee in Los Angeles Standoff, Police Say

A Los Angeles police officer fired a bullet that fatally struck a Trader Joe’s employee Saturday during the start of a standoff between police and a gunman they had been pursuing, authorities announced Tuesday.

The store employee, Melyda Corado, was hit when she ran to the front of the Trader Joe’s shortly after 3 p.m., police said. A man wanted by police had just crashed a car into a telephone pole outside the store’s entrance. The driver of the car, Gene Atkins, exchanged gunfire with two police officers as he entered the store and proceeded to take about 40 customers and employees hostage, Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday.

During that exchange, Atkins was struck in the left arm, Moore said, but a bullet also hit Corado in the left arm. She then stumbled back into the store and collapsed, he said. People inside the Trader Joe’s later carried her outside the store, which is in the Silver Lake neighborhood of East Los Angeles. She was treated by paramedics outside the store, he said. Authorities have previously said she was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I’m sorry to report that we’ve now determined through our forensic investigation that one of the officers’ rounds struck Ms. Corado as she was exiting the market and was in proximity to Atkins,” Moore said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

He added: “I know that it is every officer’s worst nightmare to harm an innocent bystander during a violent engagement. I spoke with both of the officers this morning; they are devastated.”

The two police officers fired at least eight shots at Atkins, 28, during the exchange, Moore said. He did not identify the officer whose bullet struck Corado, a 27-year-old assistant manager at the store.

Atkins fired at least two shots after he crashed the car and at least three more from within the store toward outside, Moore said.

The police department released some footage Tuesday from the body camera worn by one of the two officers, who can be seen sitting in the passenger seat of a cruiser pursuing Atkins. Almost immediately after Atkins crashed outside the Trader Joe’s, Atkins can be heard on the footage opening fire on the officers in the car. The officer wearing the body camera can be seen taking cover behind the car’s passenger door and then can be heard returning fire.

Corado was shot just as Atkins barricaded himself inside the store during a three-hour standoff, which drew police officers in tactical gear to surround the store. Some employees and customers escaped on their own, including through windows on a second floor. Atkins later let others go after negotiations with the police, Moore said.

Atkins eventually surrendered to police around 6:30 p.m., exiting the Trader Joe’s after he had placed handcuffs on himself and with hostages by his side.

His surrender ended what Moore said was an especially violent day involving Atkins.

Around 1:30 p.m., Atkins got into an argument with a 17-year-old girl and his grandmother Mary Madison, 76, while at Madison’s home in the Central-Alameda neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles. He pulled out a handgun and shot both of them in the head, police said, and took the girl, whose name has not been released, with him as he drove off in Madison’s Toyota Camry.

Los Angeles police received a bulletin to look out for Atkins and for Madison’s car. Around 3 p.m., two police officers spotted Atkins in the car, which began the chase that ended outside the Trader Joe’s. Atkins fired at the officers through the back window of the Camry during the chase, police said.

After Atkins entered the store, police rescued the injured girl from the passenger seat. The girl, who had also been beaten by Atkins, and Madison, who had been shot seven times, including at least once in the head, were in critical condition at a hospital Tuesday, Moore said.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office issued more than 30 charges against Atkins, including five counts of attempted murder. He was being held in jail on more than $9 million bail.