Deadly LA market shooting started with domestic feud
LOS ANGELES: A man’s feud with his grandmother turned into a bizarre and deadly confrontation that ended with a supermarket worker dead and dozens of people held hostage in a store miles away.
Gene Evin Atkins, 28, was booked Sunday on suspicion of murder after an explosion of violence that a relative said may have been brewing for weeks.
Melyda Corado, 27, was shot to death Saturday at a Trader Joe’s market in the Silver Lake neighbourhood after a gunfight that shattered the store’s glass doors, witnesses said.
“I’m sad to say she didn’t make it. My baby sister. My world,’’ her brother, Albert Corado said on Twitter.
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.
“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.
The violence began when Mr Atkins shot his 76-year-old grandmother several times at their South Los Angeles home after she complained about his having too many television sets on, said a cousin, Charlene Egland.
Mary Elizabeth Madison was taken to a hospital in critical condition but Ms Egland said she underwent surgery and was improving Sunday.
Ms Madison raised Mr Atkins from the age of seven and he had never been violent toward her but recently had seemed upset and distant, Ms Egland said.
“He didn’t seem right to me,’’ Ms Egland said.
For the past two or three weeks, the two had argued over Mr Atkins’ girlfriend, who was staying at their home, Ms Egland said.
“She didn’t want the girl over there anymore,’’ Ms Egland said.
Ms Egland said she was walking toward the house when she heard about six gunshots. Another cousin, who lives in the house, came running from the porch and shouted to Ms Egland, “I think Gene shot my mama!’’
Police said Mr Atkins’ girlfriend was grazed in the head by a bullet, but the injury is not life-threatening.
Ms Egland ran to call 911 but Mr Atkins allegedly forced his wounded girlfriend into his grandmother’s car and drove away.
A stolen-car device helped police track the car to Hollywood but Mr Atkins refused to pull over, police said.
During the chase, Mr Atkins fired at officers, blowing out the car’s back window, and there was more shooting before the car crashed into a pole outside the Trader Joe’s, followed by another shootout with police, Police Chief Michel Moore said.
Customers and employees frantically dove for cover and barricaded themselves inside storerooms and bathrooms.
Glass fragments injured a 22-year-old woman who later took herself to a hospital for treatment, police said.
As he heard gunfire, Sean Gerace, who was working in the back of the supermarket, grabbed several of his co-workers took them to an upstairs storage area. He grabbed a folding ladder and helped his colleagues escape, 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,’’ Mr Gerace told the television station.
About three hours later, Mr Atkins — who’d been shot in the left arm — agreed to handcuff himself and walked out the front door, surrounded by four of the hostages. He was being held on US$2 million (66 million baht) bail on Sunday.
Mr Atkins, who has two daughters, bounced between several jobs, including working as a security guard, but had been repeatedly fired, Ms Egland said. His grandmother had tried to help him find employment and “was just trying to make him do better,’’ she said.