The City of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman who was shot and killed by police during a shootout with a gunman at a grocery store in 2018, the family’s lawyers said Friday.
Melyda Corado, 27, was working as an assistant manager at a Trader Joe’s in the Silver Lake neighborhood on July 21, 2018, when a gunman who was being chased by police became involved in a shootout with officers when he ran into the store.
Corado was killed in the crossfire during the shootout, according to police.
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The agency blocks access to a Trader Joe’s grocery store, the site of a shooting, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Sunday, July 22, 2018. (AP)
The gunman, Gene Evin Atkins, had already been accused of shooting his grandmother, kidnapping his girlfriend and shooting at police officers as they pursued him in vehicles and then on foot as he ran into the store.
He took dozens of people hostage in the store before later surrendering.
Corado’s father and brother filed a lawsuit in November 2018, alleging civil rights violations and wrongful death.
A makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes grows on the sidewalk outside the Los Feliz Trader Joe’s store, the site of a shooting, in Los Angeles, Sunday, July 22, 2018. (AP)
A lawyer for Corado’s family, Neil Gehlawat, said her death could have been prevented if officers had followed their training during the shootout with the gunman.
“Officers must look at the dangers to bystanders when they use deadly force, and the officers here failed to do that,” Gehlawat said in a statement.
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Melyda Corado, 27, was killed in the crossfire during the shooting. (iStock)
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The Los Angeles Police Commission found that the officer who fired the shot that killed Corado did not violate police policy. The commission said in a report that officers acted reasonably because they suspected the gunman posed an immediate threat of harm or death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.