Police name murder suspect in Los Angeles store hostage standoff
(Reuters) - Los Angeles police named a 28-year-old man on Sunday as the suspect who took hostages and barricaded himself for three hours inside a Trader Joe’s grocery store in which he fatally shot a woman.
A Trader Joe's employee waits in a parking lot near a Trader Joe's store where a hostage situation unfolded in Los Angeles, California, July 21, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen
Gene Atkins is being held on a $2-million bail on suspicion of murder for the Saturday’s attacks, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Drake Madison.
Atkins is likely to appear in court to be formally charged early this coming week, Madison added.
Atkins is suspected of repeatedly having shooting his grandmother and another woman in a separate part of the city before being chased by police and crashing his car outside the Trader Joe’s, according to the police account. He exchanged gunfire with police and entered the crowded store, police said.
The woman killed at the store was identified as Melyda Corado by relatives, who said she worked there as a manager.
Atkin’s grandmother was left in critical condition in the earlier attack on Saturday, police said. There was no update on her condition on Sunday, they said.
Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler
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