Man whose rampage led to fatal police shooting beats murder charges

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A jury on Tuesday found Gene Evin Atkins not guilty of first-degree murder for his role in a deadly 2018 police shootout outside a Trader Joe’s in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake.

Jurors were split 10-2 in favor of convicting Atkins of second-degree murder, but they ultimately remained deadlocked. Atkins was convicted of dozens of other charges, including attempted murder and assault on a peace officer.

Atkins began the day by shooting his grandmother, with whom he’d lived since he was 7, and then his girlfriend, Leah Williams, both at close range. He then dragged Williams into his grandmother’s car, which he stole, and drove around for about an hour and a half before police caught up with him.

What followed was a frantic pursuit — Atkins fired his gun out of his back windshield, and at one point stopped in a gas station, where he tried to steal a family’s car. Eventually he crashed his grandmother’s car into a utility pole, again fired his gun at the police and ran into the nearby supermarket. LAPD officers returned fire; one of their bullets killed a Trader Joe’s assistant manager, 27-year-old Mely Corado, killing her.

Though the city paid the Corado family $9.5 million to settle a wrongful death claim, prosecutors concluded the two officers who shot at Atkins acted lawfully in defense of themselves and others. They instead charged Atkins with the murder, under the theory that Corado’s death was the natural consequence of him shooting at police. He was also charged with 39 other counts, including the attempted murder of his grandmother and Williams, kidnapping, grand theft and false imprisonment, for holding dozens of store employees and customers hostage in a tense standoff following the police shootout that ended in Atkins’ surrender.

Atkins’ grandmother, Mary Madison, survived the shooting, but lived the rest of her life in a wheelchair and died in 2024. Before that, though, she gave testimony, video of which was played in court during Atkins’ trial. Williams also testified, telling the court that Atkins had been abusive with her on numerous occasions. She said he woke up in his bed that morning not knowing how she got there.

“I woke up to him staring at me,” she told the jury. “He was saying a lot of wacky things … Like crazy things. He said, ‘If I can’t have you, no one can.” He was ’tired of chasing me.’ I know there’s more … He said ‘you left me here with these people.’ I don’t know what that means at all.”

Initially, Atkins had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, telling the court in 2019, “I was sent here by Jesus” and “I’m a prophet. Sent to correct the wrong." In 2021, he was found mentally competent to stand trial. He mostly represented himself in pretrial hearings, but eventually settled on a defense attorney, Errol Cook. During the two-week trial, Cook did not present an opening statement nor call any witnesses. His client was only an intermittent presence; on many mornings, he refused to leave his jail cell to attend his trial.

During his closing argument, Cook admitted that his client was likely guilty of some, if not many of the criminal counts filed against him. But he argued that he was not guilty of first-degree murder, arguing that Corado’s death was the LAPD’s fault.

“To transfer blame, something is unfair about that,” Cook said. “Criminal conduct should not cause extreme reckless behaviors by law enforcement.”

Deputy District Attorney Ben Schwartz, in his closing, argued the police shooting was the end result of a “chain reaction” that was set off by Atkins’ “destructive behavior.” In firing at police from a crowded store in the afternoon, “it comes as no surprise that someone was hit,” he said.

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