Family of Trader Joe’s Worker Mistakenly Killed React to $9.5M Settlement

The family of Melyda “Mely” Corado, who was mistakenly shot dead by a police officer in a Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, in 2018 have spoken out after reaching a $9.5 million settlement with the City Attorney’s Office on Friday.
In a statement issued via their attorney the Corado family said: “Nothing will bring Mely back to us and we are forever heartbroken by her violent death caused by those who are meant to protect and serve the community. We will keep her memory alive always.
“We hope this settlement sends a loud message to LAPD and all law enforcement agencies across the country that officers must account for their surroundings when firing their guns.”
Corado, aged 27 and a Trader Joe’s assistant manager, was killed on July 21, 2018, after being hit by a bullet fired from Officer Sinlen Tse’s gun. Officer Tse and Officer Sarah Winans had been pursuing Gene Evin Atkins, now aged 34, who police allege shot and wounded his grandmother and 17-year-old girlfriend, before firing on law enforcement. Atkins ran into the Trader Joe’s store following a police pursuit and received a gunshot wound to the left elbow. He is currently awaiting trial.
Speaking to The Associated Press Charlene Egland, Atkins’ cousin, said the then 28-year-old had been arguing with his grandmother, who he lived with, “on and off for two or three weeks” about his girlfriend staying at her home before the shooting.
According to local network ABC 7 Los Angeles police pursued Atkins for 15 minutes, covering nine miles, after he allegedly shot his grandmother before the suspect crashed his car into a poll near the Trader Joe’s store and ran inside.
Both Tse and Winans insist Atkins opened fire on them during the incident, but in a handwritten note he denied firing any shots after crashing his car but said the officers still shot at him.
In a sworn statement Tse said: “I had no alternative but to fire my weapon at Gene Atkins in order to stop this deadly threat that he, himself, had created.
“I fired based upon his actions and stopped when I realized he was moving into the Trader Joe’s entrance to avoid striking individuals inside, despite the fact that he was still considered a violent fleeing felon and continued to pose an imminent threat of serious/great bodily injury and/or death while inside Trader Joe’s.”
Winans, who fired three shots but didn’t strike Corado, said: “No longer could I avoid the unfortunate need to fire my weapon to stop Gene Atkins’ deadly actions, but I also was forced into this situation based upon the deadly actions that Gene Atkins had demonstrated he was capable of engaging in.”
In December 2020 a report released by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office concluded the two officers were “justified in using deadly force in an attempt to stop” Atkins.
Newsweek contacted the City Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles Police Department for comment via email on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
In a separate incident in December 2021 Los Angeles police officers accidentally shot a 14-year-old girl dead while engaging a man who had attacked several women with a bike lock. The assailant, 24-year-old David Elena Lopez, was also killed in the shooting.