Shop Owner to Be Arraigned in Slaying
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Edward Nishida Drake is to be arraigned Friday on charges that he mistook a Thousand Oaks boy for a burglar and shot him to death last week.
Drake, 50, is being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail after Simi Valley police arrested him in the slaying of Leonard Anthony Coppola, 17. He will be arraigned in Ventura County Municipal Court.
On the evening of Oct. 10, police say, the teenager was trying to get into the fenced yard of a motorcycle shop where he worked next door to Drake’s shop when Drake allegedly came out and shot him once in the head.
Police say they believe Drake did not recognize the youth, but the courts will have to determine whether Drake was justified in using deadly force.
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