Woman killed in Los Angeles grocery store standoff was shot by police

The bullet that struck and killed a woman at a Trader Joe’s grocery store in Los Angeles in the chaotic early moments of a weekend hostage siege was fired by police during a gunfight with the armed suspect, authorities revealed on Tuesday.

But Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore commended his officers’ conduct in what he described as a “devastating ordeal,” while the man they arrested was charged with murder for the death of the woman caught in their crossfire.

The victim, Melyda Corado, 27, identified by relatives as a manager at the store, was one of several people who fled the market after the gunman crashed his car just outside while being chased by police on Saturday, Moore told reporters.

The suspect, identified as Gene Atkins, 28, exchanged fire with officers pursuing him into the crowded store in the city’s Silver Lake district, then took more than a dozen people hostage as he barricaded himself inside, police said. He finally surrendered following a three-hour standoff.

Suspected of having already shot and wounded his grandmother and a teenage girl elsewhere in the city, Atkins was himself shot in the arm during the gun battle outside Trader Joe’s, police said.

Corado, pronounced dead at the scene, was initially said by police to have been killed by gunshots from Atkins. An investigation later proved otherwise.

Read more at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-gunman/woman-killed-in-los...