Argued Over Business, Family Matters : Shopkeeper Kills Father, Then Herself

A 31-year-old woman shot her father to death Friday in their Woodland Hills photocopying store and then killed herself with the same gun, police said.

Aref Orfalea, 60, of Tarzana was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound through the back. His daughter, Leslie, of Woodland Hills, shot herself in the head and died a short time later at Northridge Hospital, Los Angeles Police Detective Joe Diglio said.

Store owners at a small shopping center in the 21000 block of Victory Boulevard said the father and daughter, who had jointly operated Kinko’s Copies there, often argued over the management of the business and family matters.

They had been arguing Friday morning over the father’s reluctance to give his daughter $200 for rent, Diglio said. The father eventually wrote his daughter a check, but she stormed out of the store and returned half an hour later with a handgun, according to an unidentified store employee.

Knew ‘Something Was Wrong’

Martin Pelayo, the only customer in the store at the time, said: “You could tell something was wrong when she walked in because she had a very long face, very stern. The next thing I heard were shots.”

Stuart Hoffenberg, who operates a fast-food restaurant two doors away, said the father and daughter had argued recently about the lowering of prices for a single photocopy from 4 1/2-cents to 2 1/2-cents.

“Most of the things they fought about were just little business matters,” Hoffenberg said. “She was a very temperamental woman, and I guess she just blew up.”

Another shopkeeper said they also argued recently about the daughter’s desire to live with her boyfriend.