By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A man who engaged in a gunfight with Los Angeles police outside a Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake after a pursuit and crash, leading to a store assistant manager getting fatally shot by an officer, was sentenced Wednesday, Oct. 14 to more than 200 years to life behind bars.
Gene Evin Atkins, 36, had been convicted of second-degree murder, 24 counts of false imprisonment of a hostage involving Trader Joe’s employees and customers, three counts of attempted murder, and four counts of assault with a firearm on an officer for the July 21, 2018, crime spree.
That jury acquitted him of first-degree murder and deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt on second-degree murder involving the death of Melyda “Mely” Maricela Corado, resulting in a retrial in which a second jury found him guilty of second-degree murder.
Melyda Corado, 27, was a manager at the Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake where a man suspected of shooting his grandmother fled following a police pursuit. Corado was shot when the suspect and police exchanged gunfire, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. (Photo courtesy of Corado family)
Mely Corado, pictured at a friend’s wedding roughly one month before she was shot and killed by LAPD gunfire during a hostage incident at a Silver Lake Trader Joe’s on July 21, 2018. (Courtesy of Albert Corado)
Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, which was the scene of a deadly shooting, was closed as investigations continued on Sunday morning, July 22, 2018. (Photo by Dan Watson)
Los Angeles police released additional video footage from the July 21 chase and gun battle at a Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake. (Courtesy of Los Angeles Police Department)
A customer leaves a Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The Los Angeles grocery store where a manager was accidentally killed by police during a gunbattle with a suspect has reopened. The market reopened its doors Thursday with a sign telling customers, “We missed you.” (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Kenya Friend-Daniel with Trader Joe’s shows buttons worn by store staff in memorial to store manager Melyda Corado at Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The grocery store where Corado was accidentally killed by police during a gun battle with a suspect has reopened. The market reopened its doors Thursday with a sign telling customers, “We missed you.” (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A note is left for Melyda Corado on a street side memorial next to the entrance to a Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The grocery store where Corado was accidentally killed by police during a gun battle with a suspect has reopened its doors on Thursday. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Store employees wait for customers at Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The Los Angeles grocery store where a manager was accidentally killed by police during a gun battle with a suspect has reopened. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Workers do some last minute repairs on an entrance door to a Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The grocery store where a manager was accidentally killed by police during a gun battle with a suspect has reopened The Trader Joe’s market in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood opened its doors Thursday with a sign telling customers, “We missed you.” (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Paolo Singer, 27, a Silver Lake resident, prays at a makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes growing on the sidewalk outside the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s store in Los Angeles, Monday, July 23, 2018. Two days earlier, Trader Joe’s employee Melyda Corado was shot and killed at the store in a gunfight between a gunman and police. Grieving family members, co-workers and customers on Sunday remembered Corado as lively, hardworking and always smiling. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Visitors add to a growing memorial outside of the Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake. Frequent shoppers, nearby residents and employees built a makeshift memorial outside the store on Sunday to mourn the death of the 27-year-old manager Melyda Corado who was killed when a shooting suspect fled into the market while exchanging gunfire with police. (Photo by David Crane, Daily News/SCNG)
A pair of visitors embrace outside of the Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake Monday. Frequent shoppers, nearby residents and employees built a makeshift memorial outside the store on Sunday to mourn the death of the 27-year-old manager Melyda Corado who was killed when a shooting suspect fled into the market while exchanging gunfire with police. (Photo by David Crane, Daily News/SCNG)
A pair of visitors embrace outside of the Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake Monday. Frequent shoppers, nearby residents and employees built a makeshift memorial outside the store on Sunday to mourn the death of the 27-year-old manager Melyda Corado who was killed when a shooting suspect fled into the market while exchanging gunfire with police. (Photo by David Crane, Daily News/SCNG)
Los Feliz resident Orameh Bagheri posts a rememberance on the wall outside Trader Joe’s, Silver Lake on Sunday, July 22.(Photo by Dan Watson)
Investigators walk through the parking lot of the Trader Joe’s, Silver Lake on Sunday morning, July 22, 2018. (Photo by Dan Watson)
Flowers from the store stand in front of Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake on Sunday morning, July 22, 2018 while investigations continue into Saturday’s deadly shooting . (Photo by Dan Watson)
Construction workers place flowers from the store in front of the Trader Joe’s, Silver Lake on Sunday morning, July 22, 2018 while investigations continue into Saturday’s deadly shooting . (Photo by Dan Watson)
Flowers from the store sit in front of Trader Joe’s, Silver Lake on Sunday morning, July 22, 2018 as the entrance is boarded up while investigations continue into Saturday’s deadly shooting . (Photo by Dan Watson)
In this image from video provided by KNBC-TV, hostages and a suspect leave a Trader Joe’s supermarket as Los Angeles Police officers close in at right, in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles Saturday, July 21, 2018. (KNBC-TV via AP)
In this image from video provided by KNBC-TV, police and civilians take cover near a Trader Joe’s supermarket in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles Saturday, July 21, 2018. Police believe a man involved in a standoff with officers shot his grandmother and girlfriend before firing at officers during a pursuit, then crashing outside the supermarket and running inside the store. (KNBC-TV via AP)
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Melyda Corado, 27, was a manager at the Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake where a man suspected of shooting his grandmother fled following a police pursuit. Corado was shot when the suspect and police exchanged gunfire, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. (Photo courtesy of Corado family)
Deputy District Attorney Ben Schwartz has noted that the officers and those near the Trader Joe’s saw Atkins get out of a blue Toyota Camry and immediately fire at police officers after crashing his grandmother’s vehicle near the store, saying that an expert also concluded that Atkins had fired first at the officers.
Atkins surrendered at about 6:30 p.m. that day, just over three hours after he ran inside the busy store.
The prosecutor said Atkins had also fired at officers in two separate rounds of gunfire without police firing back as they chased him after being informed that he was being sought in his grandmother’s shooting earlier that day.
Atkins opened fire on a 17-year-old girl who had been in his bedroom before he shot his 76-year-old grandmother at the woman’s South Los Angeles home, then fled from police with the injured teenager in his grandmother’s car, Deputy District Attorney Ani Bailey had told jurors in the first trial.
Then-Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore confirmed in 2018 that the bullet that killed Corado was fired by an officer — not by Atkins.
Atkins was charged with murder for Corado’s shooting under the “provocative act” theory, that his actions resulted in the woman’s death.
Relatives of Corado filed a wrongful-death and negligence suit in November 2018 against the city and the officers that resulted in a $9.5 million settlement.
The Los Angeles police officer who fired the shot that accidentally killed Corado said in a sworn declaration that he had no choice but to open fire to protect himself, his partner and bystanders.
“I had no alternative but to fire my weapon at Gene Atkins in order to stop this deadly threat that he, himself, had created,” Sinlen Tse said in his sworn statement. “I fired based upon his actions and stopped when I realized he was moving into the Trader Joe’s entrance to avoid striking individuals inside.”
In a 2020 memorandum, the District Attorney’s Office found that Tse and Officer Sarah Winans were “justified in using deadly force in an attempt to stop” the suspect.
“After the crash, Atkins immediately exited the Camry and fired his handgun three times at Tse and Winans as he ran into the Trader Joe’s,” according to the memorandum from the District Attorney’s Office.
“Tse and Winans returned fire in an attempt to stop Atkins from trying to injure or kill them or civilians in the Trader Joe’s. Atkins showed no consideration for the lives of others and it was reasonable and lawful for Tse and Winans to use deadly force to protect themselves and the public.”
The District Attorney’s Office noted that “no bystanders were visible” behind Atkins or in the line of fire when the officers fired at the suspect, with the evidence suggesting that Corado was “accidentally struck by gunfire when she ran toward the front doors” of the store after the vehicle crash.