A Trader Joe’s manager killed during a gunfight between a deranged gunman and Los Angeles police was fatally struck by a cop’s bullet before the suspect took hostages, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday.
Ballistic tests found that a bullet fired from an officer’s firearm struck and killed 27-year-old Melyda Corado, who had run to the front of the store when Gene Evin Atkins, 28, crashed a car after a chase and opened fire Saturday.
Moore said Atkins earlier
at their South Los Angeles home, then took off in her Toyota Camry along with his wounded girlfriend, the LA Times reported.
Police used an anti-vehicle theft system to track the suspect to Hollywood hours later, but he fled and fired at cops during the ensuing car chase.
He crashed into a light post near Trader Joe’s and ran toward the store while continuing to fire at police, who injured him in a volley of return fire, police said.
Corado was struck when she stepped into the parking lot.
Atkins is being held on $2 million on suspicion of murder, with additional charges likely, according to an LAPD spokesman.
The decision to engage in a gun battle at the busy shopping center led some to question the LAPD’s response, while others praised police for risking their lives in an effort to stop the suspect.
“It’s one of those lose-lose situations,” Geoff Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force, told the LA Times.
“Unless you can walk away with no one else getting injured or killed, there’s going to be someone criticizing something,” he said.
Corado’s neighbor Jesse Palmer, 38, slammed the LAPD.
“How are police deciding to open fire in a packed place, in the afternoon, on a Saturday?” Palmer said.
“It’s not like it’s an empty lot. It’s not like it’s an abandoned warehouse. What sort of protocol is required before you shoot into an area that’s congested and booming with commerce?” he added.
Sid Heal, a retired LA County Sheriff’s Department commander and expert in the use of force, said the suspect was an obvious danger to both the public and responding officers.
“We try to have a clear field of fire, but obviously the suspect has a substantial, even a decisive, advantage if we don’t return fire,” he told the LA Times. “There is no easy answer.”
Meanwhile, Corado’s brother described a touching memorial service for his sister.
“What an amazing night. Went to the memorial for Mely outside of Trader Joe’s in Silverlake,” Albert Corado tweeted early Tuesday.
“The amount of people who have left flowers and notes and have lit candles is astonishing. Saw so many of her coworkers and people who came to celebrate my sister’s life.”
