LOS ANGELES (AP) — A store worker killed in a gunbattle before a suspect took hostages in a crowded supermarket was hit by a police officer’s bullet, Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday.
The employee, Melyda Corado, 27, was leaving the store Saturday as the suspect, Gene Evin Atkins, 28, was going into the store after firing two rounds officers pursuing him, Moore told reporters.
The two officers each fired back at Atkins and one of their rounds went through one of Corado’s arms and into her body.
In deciding whether to open fire, the officers had to consider whether the suspect in what was already a long-running series of violent events would become an active shooter in a market crowded with weekend shoppers, Moore said.
“That is the worst, worst decision that any officer ever wishes to have to make,” the chief said.
Atkins was scheduled to be arraigned later Tuesday on numerous charges.
The events began about 1:30 p.m. in South Los Angeles when Atkins allegedly shot and wounded his 76-year-old grandmother and fled in a stolen car, taking along a 17-year-old girl who was grazed by a bullet. Moore said the abduction of the girl was kidnapping.
Around 3 p.m., officers spotted Atkins in Hollywood and got into a car chase with him.
Moore said Atkins fired at the officers through the rear window of his vehicle but the officers did not fire back at that time.
About 15 minutes later he crashed into a utility pole outside a Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake neighborhood, where the gunbattle erupted. Corado was fatally struck and Atkins was wounded in the arm.
Store employees and customers fled or hid.
Atkins held some as hostages, let some go and then surrendered several hours later.
Investigators recovered casings of the two bullets fired at the officers after the car crash, Moore said.
So lets recap:
Guy shoots and injuries his grandmom, then flees with a teen girl. Police are chasing the car which crashes at a trader joe’s. After the crash people inside the store go to see the crash not realizing what is happening. The suspect then fires at officers (no officers were injured) before going into the store. The police return fire at the suspect who is close to other bystanders. Police shoot and kill a 27 year old women employee during this return of fire (at a crowd of people). The suspect then takes hostages in the store. Hostage negotiators get suspect to give himself up.
Why exactly did cops spray bullets at a store front with a bunch of people who were not involved were at? How many bullets did cops shoot at this crowd of innocent bystanders?
All these guns flooding our streets…part of Putin’s plan to destabilize the US. Question for Putin: Why doesn’t Russia allow AK-47’s and hand guns on their streets and in the hands of civilians?
Where’s the NRA and that good guy with a gun theory…cop shoots innocent worker in shootout. Imagine if it was an untrained school teacher with a Russian made AK-47…dozens could have been kiled by that good guy trying to take out another civilian with a gun!
Stop ignoring “a well regulated militia”. Our founding fathers knew guns…Mitch McConnell doesn’t even now which end is the pointy end let alone someone who should be wrongly defending and mischaracterizing the actual words in the US Constitution.
Owning a gun is NOT a god given right…it is a privilege. With over 35,000 Americans dying from guns each years and over 600,000 since 9/11, Americans have blown the privilege…especially under educated, insecure white males the age of 18 to 40 which is the group most likely to kill other Americans based on the FACTS!
Who buys all the guns?
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/why-are-white-men-stockpiling-guns/
LAPD doesn’t have a policy about firing into a crowd?
Yes, but is the gun ok?
I think people have to stop and think how excited this officer was to be able to actually “return fire”. I had a brother-in-law who was a Phoenix policeman (back during my first marriage) and this is a moment a lot of these guys live for.