LA chief says police, not gunman, fired fatal shot at market
LOS ANGELES — A supermarket worker was killed by a bullet fired by Los Angeles police — not the gunman they were trying to stop — the city’s police chief acknowledged Tuesday, defending the decision to use deadly force as an attempt to stop what officers feared could become a mass shooting.
The suspect, Gene Evin Atkins, 28, already had shot his grandmother, kidnapped his girlfriend and shot at officers Saturday afternoon as they chased his car and then as he ran into the Trader Joe’s in the city’s congested Silver Lake neighbourhood, according to police.
After exchanging gunfire with police, Atkins ran into the store and took about 40 people hostage, police said.
Police released several minutes of body camera and dash-cam video that showed Atkins leading officers on the high-speed chase — during which officers say he’s shooting at them — before he crashed into a pole outside the market.