Melyda Corado: Trader Joe’s Employee Killed After LAPD Fires Into Store
A makeshift memorial of flowers, candles, and notes grows on the sidewalk outside the Trader Joe’s store where Melyda Corado was shot and killed one day earlier. Los Angeles police officers had fired shots into the building’s entrance while chasing a suspect and struck Corado. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Updated September 13, 2024
September 6, 2021 ~ By Shari Rose
After an armed gunman ran into Trader Joe’s, LAPD officers fired shots into the entrance and killed 27-year-old Melyda Corado
On July 21, 2018, two officers with the Los Angeles Police Department received a call about a man who shot his grandmother and escaped the scene in her car. They found the shooter, a man named Gene Atkins, driving his car and began pursuing him. Atkins drove erratically and shot multiple times from his car, but thankfully did not hit anyone with gunfire.
He then crashed his car in front of Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake. Atkins jumped out and ran for the building’s entrance, firing shots at police. The LAPD officers, Sinlen Tse and Sarah Winans, both fired back into the entrance of Trader Joe’s.
Melyda Corado, 27, and other employees at the store heard the crash. Corado ran toward the front of the building and was immediately struck by LAPD gunfire.
Melyda “Mely” Corado in an undated photo. (Source)
Atkins then took several hostages and barricaded himself in the Trader Joe’s. He eventually agreed to let Corado be taken out of the store to be treated for her gunshot wound, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Atkins was arrested about an hour later. In the aftermath, the LAPD said that neither their body cams nor dash cameras caught their officers shooting Corado.
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Los Angeles DA Clears Sinlen Tse of Wrongdoing in Mely Corado’s Killing
After Corado’s shooting death, her family filed a wrongful death suit against the LAPD. A trove of documents related to the killing, including autopsy and officer statements, was ordered for release by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in June 2019. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office took another year before complying with the judge’s order to release a report about Melyda Corado’s shooting.
Police officers guard the entrance to the Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake one day after the shooting. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In 2020, the DA released a report that identified Sinlen Tse as the officer who killed Corado. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office blamed Gene Atkins for Corado’s death, not the person who fired the bullet that killed her, and called the shooting justified:
“We conclude that Corado was killed due to Atkins’ provocative act resulting in the officers’ responding to Atkins use of deadly force and therefore Atkins of criminally responsible for Corado’s death.”
Additionally, LAPD officer Tse defended his choice to shoot five times into the entrance of the Trader Joe’s, saying he had to “stop this deadly threat that [Atkins], himself, had created.” Sinlen Tse was hired by the department in 2012 and works in the Hollywood Division.
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Corado Family Reaches Settlement in Melyda’s Death
On August 30, 2024, the Corado family reached $9.5 million settlement with the city of Los Angeles. Led by Mely’s father and brother, the 6-year legal battle was settled on the same day as two other multi-million dollar lawsuits filed against the LAPD. In total, tax payers in Los Angeles will pay nearly $40 million to settle multiple alleged abuses committed by its police department.
A Trader Joe’s employee from a different store pauses at the memorial for Mely. Grieving family members, co-workers and customers remembered her as lively, hardworking and always smiling. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
This story about Melyda Corado is part of a larger project that looks at police shootings of Latinos in Los Angeles from 2016 – 2021.
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