Gunman in the stalemate of Trader Joe was in conflict with Grandma

LOS ANGELES – A quarrel between a man and his grandmother about her girlfriend who was staying at her grandmother's house exploded into violence that eventually led her to dozens of people in a supermarket in Los Angeles. 19659002] Investigators believe 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins shot his grandmother several times and wounded his girlfriend in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon before leading the police in pursuit of the police. In the Silver Lake section of the city, he ran inside.

Atkins was charged with murder after being killed by an employee while he was running to the supermarket, police said to his colleague, Charlene Egland. he had quarreled with his grandmother – who had raised him since the age of 7 – "for two or three weeks" during and after his girlfriend who was staying with an elderly woman. 9003] "She did not want the girl there anymore," said Egland.

On Saturday, Atkins' grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Madison, 76, was returning home and telling her grandson "that he owed" Egland said that she heard six shots before another cousin runs away from the porch and shouted at Egland, "I think Gene shot my mother!"

Egland said she ran to call 911 and waited for an ambulance to arrive. At the same time, police said that Atkins had stolen his grandmother's car and forced his girlfriend to get in the vehicle.

The police followed the car with the help of a stolen vehicle tracking system. the police said. During the chase, he fired at the officers, firing through the rear window of his car

Other shots followed before Atkins crashed into a post at the 39, outside the supermarket. The man again exchanged shots with the police and that's when Melyda Corado, a 27-year-old Trader Joe employee, was shot dead, said police chief Michel Moore.

Customers and employees frantically plunged for cover and barricaded themselves in shops and bathrooms as police bullets broke through the store's glass doors

. at the back of the supermarket, grabbed several of his colleagues and the group made its way into a storage area upstairs. He grabbed a folding ladder and threw it out of a window, helping his colleagues to get in safety, he told KNBC-TV.

"I caught a rescue ladder, barricaded the hallway, caught a gun He just tried to attract the attention of the SWAT officer," Gerace tells the TV channel

About three hours later, Atkins agreed to handcuff himself and went out the door, surrounded by four hostages.He was held on bail of $ 2 million on Sunday and it was unclear s & rsquo; He had a lawyer to comment on the allegations.

His grandmother was taken to hospital in critical condition and the police said that she had been shot seven times. who visited Madison at the hospital on Sunday, said she had only been afflicted three times, that she had undergone surgery and that her condition was unhealthy. Improved

Atkins, who has two daughters, worked several times as a guard, but had been fired several times, said Egland His work permit as a security guard expired in November 2017, according to state records. It was not clear if the particular permit that he possessed would have allowed him to legally carry a firearm.

Her grandmother had also tried to help her find a job and [traduction] "was just trying to make her do better"

. Atkins never became violent toward her grandmother before, Egland says, but she began to worry about him in recent weeks because he seemed upset and distant

"It did not seem to me just, "said Egland. "I'm just devastated."

On Sunday, grieving family members, colleagues, and customers remember Trader Joe's hardworking, hard-working, and always smiling Corado worker. An impromptu memorial of flowers, candles and notes sprouted on the sidewalk outside the store on Sunday.

"I am sad to say that she has not succeeded." My Little Sister My World, "his brother, Albert Corado said on Twitter.

Trader Joe's stated that the store – known by customers as a popular neighborhood with excellent customer service – would remain closed in a predictable future to give their employees time to deal with and cry day in the history of Trader Joe while we mourn the loss of one of ours, "said the spokesperson of the Company, Kenya Friend-Daniel, in a statement. "Our thoughts are with his family, and our crew members and customers who have lived through this terrifying and unimaginable ordeal."

___

Christopher Weber and Robert Jablon, associate editors of the press, contributed to this report.