Inset: Melyda "Mely" Corado (Facebook). Background: News footage of Gene Atkins being arrested after he engaged in a shootout with police at a Trader Joe's in Los Angeles, Calif. (KTLA).
A California man who brought a firearm to a Trader Joe's and caused a standoff that got a manager killed will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Gene Atkins, 36, was sentenced to more than 200 years to life after being found guilty of 40 felony charges, including second-degree murder, in connection with a standoff that took the life of 27-year-old Melyda "Mely" Corado. On July 21, 2018, Atkins began a crime spree that started at his grandmother's house in South Los Angeles. After shooting his 76-year-old grandmother and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Atkins stole his grandmother's car and led police on a chase to the Trader Joe's grocery store in Silver Lake, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Atkins attempted to carjack someone at a gas station but was "unsuccessful." During a press conference shortly after the incident, then-Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said Atkins fired on the police who were chasing him before he crashed into a pole by the Trader Joe's.
Atkins got out of his car and fired on police as he ran into the store, and LAPD officers began shooting back. Atkins sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the arm. While aiming at Atkins, Moore said, "One of the officers' rounds struck Ms. Corado as she was exiting the market and was in close proximity to Atkins. Ms. Corado ran back into the store and collapsed behind the manager's desk."
Fellow Trader Joe's employees dragged Corado outside so she could be treated by paramedics, but efforts to save her life were unsuccessful.
At his trial in June, Atkins was found guilty of 40 charges against him: three counts of attempted murder, six counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, 24 counts of false imprisonment of a hostage, two counts each of attempted carjacking and mayhem and one count each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, fleeing a pursuing peace officer's vehicle and driving or taking a vehicle without consent.
During that trial, the jury was deadlocked on the murder charge. Corado's family successfully requested a retrial, which resulted in a conviction.
Hochman said in a press release following the murder conviction that Atkins' "deadly and reckless actions" caused Corado's death. Corado's family sued the LAPD and the officers who fired the fatal shots and were awarded a $9.5 million settlement by the city of Los Angeles in September 2024.