Jurors reached a verdict Tuesday in the murder trial of a man charged in a deadly 2018 police standoff and shooting at a Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake.
Gene Evin Atkins also is charged with 40 other counts, including shooting and wounding his grandmother and girlfriend, firing at police officers and holding people hostage inside the store. The charges include murder, attempted murder, four counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearms on a peace officer, and 25 counts of false imprisonment of a hostage — the people inside the store.
The jury’s verdict is set to be read Tuesday afternoon, City News Service reported.
The deadly chain of events on July 21, 2018 unfolded after Atkins allegedly shot the two women, then led police on a pursuit that ended when he crashed into a pole outside the Trader Joe’s. Atkins was shot in his arm when he ran from his car and into the store in the community northeast of downtown LA.
Prosecutors said Atkins fired shots at officers and held people hostage inside the store.
It was a gunshot from an LAPD sidearm that went through the store, striking and killing assistant manager Melyda “Mely” Corado.
Prosecutors alleged it was Atkins’ choices that led to the standoff and Corado’s death.
In 2024, Corado’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the city for nearly $10 million. The Los Angeles Police Commission determined the officer who fired the shot did not violate department policy.
In a sworn statement submitted to the court in May 2024, the officer who fired the shot said, “I had no alternative but to fire my weapon at Gene Atkins in order to stop this deadly threat that he, himself, had created. 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, despite the fact that he was still considered a violent fleeing felon and continued to pose an imminent threat of serious/great bodily injury and/or death while inside Trader Joe’s.”
The officer said shots fired by Atkins struck a nearby pole, forcing officers to take cover behind a concrete wall.
A LAPD officer who responded to the initial shooting call took the stand Monday at the start of testimony. Jurors will hear from additional witnesses in the coming weeks, including some who were at the store.