Arraignment postponed for suspect in shootout; more charges filed

LOS ANGELES— Prosecutors on Thursday announced additional felony charges against a man accused of holding customers hostage inside a Trader Joe's market last month and engaging in a gun battle with Los Angeles police officers—one of whom mistakenly shot and killed a store manager.

Gene Evin Atkins, who appeared in a downtown courtroom dressed in blue jail scrubs for a hearing in his murder case, stared ahead as a prosecutor announced 20 new criminal counts against him, bringing the total to 51. The new counts include false imprisonment of a hostage, mayhem and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury. His bail, which had been set at $18.7 million, was increased to $23 million.

A judge postponed Atkins' arraignment until Sept. 19, allowing the defense more time to review evidence.

On July 21, investigators said, Atkins shot his grandmother, kidnapped his girlfriend and fired a gun at police officers from his car during a frenzied chase from Hollywood to Silver Lake, where he rammed into a light post on Hyperion Avenue.

As he sprinted toward the grocery store's entrance, Atkins fired from his hip and police returned a barrage of bullets, according to dashboard video footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department a few days after the shooting. During the confrontation, store manager Melyda Maricela Corado, 27, whom customers remembered for her constant smile and eagerness to help, was killed.

At a news conference, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore announced that a bullet from an officer's gun had killed Corado and offered condolences to her family.

"It's every officer's worst nightmare," Moore said.

While Atkins, 28, did not fire the fatal round, prosecutors charged him under the legal theory known as the "provocative act murder" doctrine, which says that he can be held responsible if prosecutors prove that his alleged criminal acts set off a series of events that led to the death.