Los Angeles agrees to pay $9.5M to settle lawsuit over woman’s 2018 death during police shootout with gunman

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, attorneys for the family 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 being chased by police became involved in a shootout with officers as he ran inside the store.

Corado was killed in the crossfire during the shootout, according to police.

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The gunman, Gene Evin Atkins, had been accused of already shooting his grandmother, kidnapping his girlfriend and shooting at 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)

An attorney for Corado’s family, Neil Gehlawat, said her death would have been preventable if the officers had followed their training during the shootout with the gunman.

“Officers must look at the dangers posed to bystanders when using 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 shootout. (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 department policy. The commission said in a report that officers acted reasonably because they suspected that the gunman presented an immediate threat of injury or death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.