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An armed man who participated in a deadly shooting with the police and then held dozens of people in a supermarket in Los Angeles was arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities said Sunday.
Gene Evin Atkins, age 28 According to Drake Madison, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police. He was not clear when he had a lawyer and a message left at a number listed for him in the public records was not immediately returned.
Melyda Corado, 27, was shot to death when Atkins fell on the Trader Joe's supermarket in the Los Angeles Silver Lake section Saturday, but none of the hostages were seriously injured before the day ended. man does not go three hours later. .
Coroner officials identified Corado on Sunday. His brother, Albert Corado, said on Twitter that she was working at Trader Joe's. "I'm sad to say that she did not do it, my little sister, my world," he wrote.
Authorities said that Atkins fired seven times at his grandmother and wounded another woman, whom he forced to get into a car, in a house in South Los Angeles around 1:30 pm Saturday. Officers followed the car, pursued it and exchanged fire with the man, who crashed into a pole outside the supermarket and then ran to inside, they said.
The unidentified woman, who suffered an earlier grazing injury, was out of the car by the police. Atkins' grandmother was hospitalized in critical condition and the police had no updates on her condition on Sunday.
Frightened customers and workers plunged to take cover while police bullets fired at the man who broke the glass doors of the store. Some people inside the supermarket climbed through the windows and others barricaded themselves in the rooms while dozens of policemen, firefighters and 18 ambulances converged on the scene, ready to make many victims.
Heavily armed officers in riot gear stood on the side of the store and used mirrors to look inward while the hostage negotiators were trying to get the man to release his 40 to 50 hostages and surrender. At around 6:30 pm, Atkins agreed to handcuff himself and went out through the front door, surrounded by four of the hostages. He was immediately detained.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti congratulated police and firefighters for their work and cried the loss of life at Trader Joe's, where he and his wife were doing their regular shopping when they were out. they lived in the neighborhood.
"The heroism that was shown today was unmatched, and the teams that were able to respond, secure the perimeter, and engage in conversation with the suspect have no doubt saved lives today. ", he said. Of those who survived in the afternoon, 91-year-old Don Kohles lived in the neighborhood and went to the supermarket when he saw "two police cars coming in like a bat out of the woods." "Hell" and the man crashed the pole. The driver came out and the police started shooting at him as he ran towards the supermarket. Kohles rushed inside, and he and others took cover when the man ran up.
"These bullets happened right behind me while he was running in the middle aisle," Kohles said.
Christian Dunlop, a real estate agent and actor who lives nearby, was in a corner near the store when he saw four people running away. A person, an employee, was dragging a wounded woman by the hands.
"She appeared lifeless," said Dunlop. He then saw five employees come out of a second floor window and fall to the floor and about fifteen others run towards the security at the back of the store. Among them was a policeman carrying a small child, he said.
Chief of Police Michel Moore said the shooter had formulated a "series of demands" during the crisis period, but the crisis negotiators thought he could persuade him to surrender peacefully.
The police had followed the car with the help of a stolen vehicle tracking system and had tried to arrest the man in Hollywood, but he had refused to go into the car. stop, said Mr. Moore. During the pursuit, the man fired at the officers, pulling out the back window of his car.
Outside the store, the man again exchanged shots with the police and it was at that point that Corado was shot dead, said Moore. It was not clear whether she died of a police shot or was shot by the shooter.
Fire officials reported that six people, aged 12 to 81, were transported to the hospital. None had been shot, and all were in fair condition.
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