"The saddest day in the history of Trader Joe": they mourn the death of a supermarket employee shot in Los Angeles – Univision 34 Los Angeles

Gene Evin Atkins, 28, led a police chase that ended after hitting a light post, exchanged shots with officers and ran to the police station. Entrance to Trader Joe's Supermarket in the Silver Lake District.

He has been charged with a murder charge and is expected to impose several others. His bail is $ 2 million, said Los Angeles police spokesman Drake Madison. He will have to go to court next week to be formally charged.

The woman who was shot while Atkins ran and entered the supermarket was identified by her parents as Melyda Corado . Reports indicate that she was the store manager.

Trader Joe described the attack as "the saddest day in history" of the supermarket in a statement posted on his website, which states that the store will remain closed indefinitely. "Our thoughts are with his family, with the members of our team and also with our customers who have lived this terrible and unimaginable experience," reads the text.

The suspect's grandmother was hospitalized and in critical condition on Saturday. . For this Sunday no new information has been known about his state of health.

The suspect fired seven shots at his grandmother and then injured his girlfriend, which he forced to enter Car, officials explained.

This Sunday, Atkins' cousin, Charlene Egland, told the AP that before shooting the young man had quarreled with his grandmother, who had raised her since the age of 7 years. . The reason, she said, was that his girlfriend lived in the 76-year-old lady's house, identified as Mary Elizabeth Madison. "(My grandmother) did not want the girl to stay there anymore," he says.

Egland says that he heard six blows before another cousin left the porch and shouted: "I think Gene shot grandma!"

After fleeing this scene, police followed the vehicle, pursued it and shot at the attacker, who fired back at the fire and struck a position at the police station. outside the supermarket. Then he ran inside the store.

Scared customers and workers crouched while police fired at the attacker . The bullets broke the windows. Some people inside the supermarket went out the windows and others were crammed into locked spaces. Firefighters and 18 ambulances arrived at the site and prepared for many injuries.

Heavily armed police officers in riot gear stood on the side of the store and used mirrors to look inside the store, while police experts in take-over business Hostages tried to convince the suspect to release the 40 to 50 hostages and surrender.

At around 18:30, the attacker agreed to handcuff himself after negotiating with the authorities. He went out through the front door, surrounded by four of his hostages. He was immediately arrested.

The police do not know for sure what was the initial cause of the violence that led to the persecution and then to the hostage taking. This Sunday, the authorities tried to determine the reasons that motivated their actions