LAPD Now Admits They Shot & Killed Manager at Trader Joes, In an Accident

Trader Joe's store assistant manager Melyda Corado was unintentionally shot by guns Los Angeles police officers fired, during a chase and shootout with a suspect at a Trader Joes in Silver Lake Saturday.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that investigators have determined that one of two officers accidentally shot 27-year-old Melyda Corado while engaging in a shootout with the suspect, 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins.

A 28-year-old man who allegedly shot his grandmother and led police on a high-speed pursuit before exchanging gunfire with officers - leading to the fatal shooting of a woman - was charged today, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.

Gene Evin Atkins (dob 01/12/90) is expected be arraigned today in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Atkins faces 31 counts in case BA469832:

One count each of murder; kidnapping; fleeing a pursuing peace officer's motor vehicle while driving recklessly; grand theft of an automobile; driving or taking a vehicle without consent; discharge of a firearm with gross negligence; shooting at an occupied motor vehicle; and assault with a firearm.

Atkins also is charged with two counts of attempted, willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder; four counts of attempted murder of a peace officer; four counts of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm; and 13 counts of false imprisonment of a hostage. The criminal complaint additionally includes allegations of gun use and causing great bodily injury and death.

Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef of the Major Crimes Division said Atkins is charged with the murder of Melyda Maricela Corado, 27, who was shot on July 21 when the defendant allegedly engaged police in a gun battle at a Trader Joe's in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said Atkins was charged based on a provocative act theory of murder which holds that the defendant's criminal acts set into motion a situation where the natural and probable consequences of the defendant's criminal acts were dangerous to human life and a third party, in response to those acts, responded with deadly force.

Prosecutors have recommended that bail be set at $18.7 million. If convicted as charged, Atkins faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.