Los Angeles prosecutors are trying for the second time to hold the suspect from the 2018 Silver Lake Trader Joe’s shootout accountable for the death of the grocery store employee.
Jury selection will continue Friday morning for the retrial of Gene Atkins. The 36-year-old faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Trader Joe’s assistant manager Melyda “Mely” Corado, who was killed by a police bullet. Officials determined a gunshot from an LA police sidearm went through the store during the shootout with Atkins, striking and killing Corado.
In June, Atkins was convicted on 40 charges, but jurors acquitted him of first-degree murder and deadlocked on the second-degree murder charge.
Authorities alleged Atkins went on a “trail of terror” on July 21, 2018: He first shot his 77-year-old grandmother and girlfriend, then led police on a pursuit with the injured girlfriend in the car. Atkins, at one point, unsuccessfully tried to carjack someone at a gas station.
The pursuit came to an end when Atkins crashed his car into a pole outside the Trader Joe’s on Hyperion Avenue. While holding shoppers and store employees captive, Atkins fired shots at officers, prosecutors said. Hostages inside the store were ordered to create a “human shield” around him, according to prosecutors.
The prosecution had argued during the first trial that Atkins’ choices led to the shootout 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.
Even without the second-degree murder conviction, Atkins faces a sentence of more than 80 years to life in prison.