LOS ANGELES — A gunman who took dozens of people hostage at a Trader Joe’s store in Los Angeles was booked Sunday on suspicion of murder, after an employee was killed during the man’s shootout with police, in what the supermarket chain described as the worst day in its history.
Gene Evin Atkins, 28, remained behind bars on Sunday in lieu of $2 million bail, according to Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles police spokesman. Atkins had been licensed to work as a security guard, but his license expired in November 2017, according to state records. It was not clear whether the particular license he possessed would have allowed him to legally carry a firearm.
A 27-year-old Trader Joe’s employee, Melyda Corado, was killed as Atkis ran into the supermarket in the city’s Silver Lake neighbourhood on Saturday. Police did not provide any additional details on Sunday and it remained unclear whether she died from police gunfire or was killed by the gunman.
Investigators believe Atkins shot his grandmother seven times and wounded another woman, who police initially described as his girlfriend, at his South Los Angeles home earlier Saturday afternoon.
He stole his grandmother’s car after the shooting, according to police, and forced the other woman into the vehicle. Officers had tracked the car using a stolen-vehicle tracking system and tried to stop the man in Hollywood, but he refused to pull over, police said. During the chase, he fired at officers, shooting out the back window of his car.
More gunfire ensued before Atkins crashed into a pole outside the supermarket. The man exchanged gunfire with police again and that’s when Corado was shot and killed, Police Chief Michel Moore said.
Customers and employees frantically dove for cover and barricaded themselves inside storerooms and bathrooms as bullets fired by police shattered the store’s glass doors.
As he heard gunfire, Sean Gerace, who was working in the back of the supermarket, grabbed several of his co-workers and the group made their way into an upstairs storage area. He grabbed a folding ladder and tossed it out a window, helping his colleagues escape to safety, he told KNBC-TV.
“I grabbed an emergency ladder, barricaded the hallway, grabbed a weapon, put the ladder out the window and just tried to get the attention of the SWAT officer,” Gerace told the television station.
Heavily armed officers in riot gear stood along the side of the store and used mirrors to look inside as hostage negotiators tried to coax the man into freeing his 40 to 50 hostages and surrendering. Meanwhile, police removed the female passenger in the car, who had a graze wound, from the scene.
About three hours later, Atkins agreed to handcuff himself and walked out the front door, surrounded by four of the hostages.
His grandmother was taken to a hospital in critical condition but her current condition was not immediately known.
On Sunday, grieving family members, co-workers and customers remembered Corado as lively, hardworking and always smiling. A makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes grew on the sidewalk outside of the store on Sunday.
“I’m sad to say she didn’t make it. My baby sister. My world,” her brother, Albert Corado said on Twitter.
Trader Joe’s said the store — known by customers as a neighbourhood hangout with great customer service — would remain closed for the foreseeable future to give their employees time to process and grieve.
“Yesterday marks the saddest day in Trader Joe’s history as we mourn the loss of one our own,” company spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with her family, and our Crew Members and customers who experienced this terrifying and unimaginable ordeal.”