Woodside, California Authorities said that a 66-year-old business owner in California was shot and killed by a man outside her clothing store after he made “disparaging remarks” regarding an LGBTQ+ Pride flag that was displayed outside her establishment.
Following the shooting on Friday night, the man fled the store, but he was subsequently apprehended by San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officers and killed.
According to the agency, Laura Ann Carleton passed away at Mag.Pi, the Cedar Glen, California, store she owned and ran, which is about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
Shannon Dicus, the San Bernardino County Sheriff, named Travis Ikeguchi as the suspect during a news conference on Monday afternoon. The suspect, a 27-year-old Cedar Glen resident, was shot and killed after he left the scene of the crime and opened fire on the responding deputies, hitting several patrol cars. Deputies attempted to save his life, but he passed away at the scene, according to Dicus.
Investigators discovered that when Carlton confronted the suspect, he hurled homophobic epithets at her and destroyed the Pride flag that was displayed in front of Mag. Pi. Emergency medical personnel declared Carlton dead at the scene, according to Dicus.
Carleton, who wished to be called “Lauri,” leaves behind a blended family consisting of her husband and nine children.
According to a local LGBTQ organization in Lake Arrowhead, Carleton did not consider himself to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community. However, the group claimed that she devoted time to supporting and standing up for everyone, as well as defending the Pride flags that were flown in front of her store the night of the shooting.
Being a straight White woman was something she needed and wanted for other people, not for herself. Matthew Clevinger, assistant director of Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+, described it as “extremely selfless.”
Carleton’s friend Melissa Lawton told lead national correspondent David Begnaud of “CBS Mornings” that while she worried there might be a fight over the Pride flags at some point, Carleton had no regrets about hanging them outside her store.
“She used to say, ‘Those motherf*****s tear it down, and I just put a new one back up, and I’m scared that I’m going to get into an altercation some day,'” Lawton said to Begnaud.
Over the weekend, there was a flood of support on social media, with people leaving shock and sadness in the comments sections of the store’s accounts. Emojis of rainbow flags were used in many.
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