The tender, terrifying truth about what happened inside the Trader Joe’s hostage siege

About halfway through the three-hour siege at Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, the wounded gunman, Gene Atkins, looked at one of his hostages, MaryLinda Moss, and told her it was all over for him. “I just shot at a cop,” he said.

Moss, a 55-year-old artist who exudes calm, feared a suicidal gunman…