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LAPD Identifies Officers Who Fired Toward The Silver Lake Trader Joe's
This still image captured from LAPD officer body camera footage shows an officer returning fire after an attempted murder and kidnapping suspect fired at him and his partner at the end of a pursuit in Silver Lake. (Image courtesy LAPD)
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Updated 7/30/18: Added new details on the officers
Los Angeles police have identified the officers who fired eight shots toward a crowded Trader Joe's in Silver Lake last Saturday. The brief shootout between the patrol officers and the gunman took place after a short chase through city streets as they pursued the man, suspected of attempted murder.
A Trader Joe's employee was killed at the scene.
The two officers involved in the shooting were identified as Sinlen Tse and Sarah Winans of Hollywood Patrol Division. Tse is a six-year veteran of the force and has attended at least 18 hours of trainings on use of force, according to state records.
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Winans has been a member of the LAPD for one year and eight months.
Officials have said it was a police bullet that killed 27-year-old store manager Melyda Corado. LAPD Chief Michael Moore called the death a "tragic loss." Police have not indicated which officer's bullet fatally struck Corado, whose public funeral was held Sunday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills.
The department previously released body cam footage from two officers. In the video, the officers can be seen exiting their vehicles and firing toward the suspect, Gene Atkins, who had run toward the store after crashing his car into a utility pole. The officers then duck behind a short wall at the edge of the parking lot.
The incident had started in South L.A. a couple hours earlier, when police allege Atkins shot his grandmother, kidnapped his girlfriend and fled in his grandmother's car.
Police said he fired shots at officers during the pursuit that followed, a chase also captured by the patrol car's dashcam. Following the crash, the suspect took hostages inside the Trader Joe's, leading to an hours-long standoff with police that finally ended with his surrender.
The investigation into the police shooting will be reviewed by the police chief, the civilian Board of Police Commissioners and representatives from the district attorney's office to determine whether the officers' decision to use deadly force was reasonable and in compliance with LAPD policies.
LAPD data from its 2017 use of force report shows that officers of all experience levels open fire in police shootings. In recent years, the biggest group of shooters are those who have between six and 10 years on the force.
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However, the agency's records show one way in which the shooting was unusual: it happened in the LAPD's Northeast Division, which stretches from Highland Park to Los Feliz. LAPD records show that last year not a single person was struck by police gunfire in the area.
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