Police bullet killed store employee during LA gunbattle

Updated: 2018-07-24 23:45

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Flowers are seen at a memorial for Melyda Corado, the assistant manager at the Silver Lake Trader Joe's, who was killed in a July 21 shootout between police and a gunman in Los Angeles, California on July 23, 2018. The gunman, Gene Evin Atkins, took hostages inside a supermarket in Los Angeles on Saturday after a gun battle with police, leaving a store employee dead before the suspect handcuffed himself and surrendered. The Los Angeles Police Department revealed on July 24 that Corado died as a result of police gunfire. [Photo/VCG]

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore says a store worker killed in a gunbattle before a suspect took hostages in a supermarket was hit by an officer's bullet.

Moore told reporters Tuesday the suspect fired at officers Saturday after crashing a car outside the market and the officers returned fire.

The chief says 27-year-old store employee Melyda Corado had run to the front of the store with others at the time of the crash and was near the suspect, 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins.

Moore says Atkins earlier shot and wounded his 76-year-old grandmother at their South Los Angeles home and fled in a car, taking with him a teenage girl who was grazed by a bullet.

Moore says numerous charges have been filed against Atkins.

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