Family members of Melyda Corado led a march Sunday through Silver Lake, walking with protesters to the Trader Joe’s grocery store where she was fatally shot by police nearly two years earlier.
Los Angeles Police Department officers were chasing Gene Atkins, 30, on the afternoon of July 21, 2018, after he allegedly stole his grandmother’s Camry from their shared home in South Los Angeles. The pursuit ended in a shootout outside the store on Hyperion Avenue, about 10 miles away, where police later confirmed an LAPD bullet killed Corado. She was an innocent bystander.
An attorney for the Corado family has said the officer who shot that fatal bullet fired at a crowded grocery store, with his gun aimed toward “at least four or five visible people.”
But the L.A. Police Commission later determined the officer did not violate department policy.
Albert Corado said his family is still fighting for justice for his daughter. He marched alongside protesters Sunday afternoon, walking about 2 miles from the Northeast LAPD station in Glassell Park to the Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, where his daughter once worked as a store manager.
“We want the police officer who killed my daughter to be charged,” Corado said.
In December 2018, Atkins pleaded not guilty to 51 criminal charges including murder in 27-year-old Corado’s death. He told the judge he has no criminal record but an extensive history of mental health issues.
Atkins allegedly shot his 78-year-old grandmother and kidnapped his girlfriend before the July 2018 police chase that ended in Silver Lake. When he crashed outside the store, he and officers exchanged gunfire, according to witnesses at the scene that day. A bullet fired by an LAPD officer killed Corado, who was working at the store at the time, police said.
Then Atkins went inside the store and took dozens of people hostage for hours, police and witnesses said.
He is awaiting trial on charges including attempted murder, attempted murder of a peace officer, kidnapping and false imprisonment of a hostage among dozens of other criminal counts. The charges also include murder since authorities allege he set off the chain of events that led to Corado’s death.
However, her brother, Alberto Corado, said police are using Atkins’ trial as a “smokescreen to deny us any information.” LAPD put a security hold on his sister’s autopsy, blocking its release, and withheld surveillance footage from inside the grocery store for months.
“We didn’t get the autopsy for a year. They put a toxicology hold on Mely’s autopsy — they were trying to look for drugs,” Alberto Corado said.
After the Corado family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against LAPD, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the release of those documents in June 2019.
“They haven’t given us any bit of information without us having to go to court — crime scene photos, any sort of discovery, officer statements,” he said.
Corado’s brother and father protested with hundreds of people carrying signs with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and other calls for justice. Her brother shouted “No justice, No peace!” and “Defund the police!”
The crowds were considerably larger compared to last year, when dozens of people carried sunflowers and signs to a vigil on the first anniversary of Corado’s death. Her father spoke at a church and delivered a simple but pained plea to the city of L.A. and community of Silver Lake.
“I need your help,” he said.
“I cannot bring Mely home,” Corado said. “But one thing I can do is I can fight for Mely and give Mely the justice she deserves.”
On Sunday, Corado was relieved to see the crowds marching for his daughter and others like her.
“It made me happy to know that she’s not forgotten, and that we have the love of all these people,” he said, gesturing toward the protesters. “That made me feel Mely’s spirit is alive.”
Corado’s brother said the support has swelled in the last two months.
“Since George Floyd was killed, it woke something up in people,” he said.
“This is a manifestation of we’re mad, we’re angry. But we’re also full of love, and we’re going to take to the streets for injustice,” Alberto Corado said. “This summer in this city is going to be wild.”
