Trader Joe's suspect in 2018 shootout will stand trial for murder of store manager
LOS ANGELES - The gunman spotted the police sharpshooter on the roof and became agitated.
Inside the Trader Joe's supermarket in Silver Lake in July last year, he threatened to kill someone if the sharpshooter did not leave.
"Five, four, three," he counted on a cellphone to a police negotiator as his terrified hostages waited to die.
At the count of two, the sharpshooter abandoned his post, and the hostages were spared.
The countdown was among the many harrowing moments recounted by hostages and other alleged victims of Gene Evin Atkins in emotional testimony during a four-day hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Some hostages established a rapport with Atkins and tried
