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Local News in Brief : Racial Shooting Suspect Enters Plea

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A white man accused in the racially motivated shooting of a young black man fishing in Ballona Creek in Playa del Rey has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

Mark S. Lashley, 27, also denied felony charges of assault with a firearm, battery with serious injury, exhibiting a deadly weapon, along with misdemeanor and felony civil-rights violations.

Torrance Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills scheduled a hearing Sept. 7 on whether to reduce the $500,000 bail on which Lashley has been held since his arrest June 28. Lashley, a research scientist with Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, faces more than 14 years in state prison if convicted.

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Terence Goudeau, 18, was wounded in the arm and side as he fished with three cousins in Ballona Creek. The shots followed racial taunts hurled at the group of blacks by three white men on a balcony of Lashley’s apartment overlooking the creek.

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