Man who killed California shop owner over Pride flag wrote anti-LGBTQ+ posts, authorities say

A man suspected of killing a California shop owner for hanging a Pride flag at her store had a history of sharing anti-LGBTQ+ content on his social media accounts and “yelled many homophobic slurs” before the shooting, police said Monday.

Authorities identified Travis Ikeguchi, 27, as the man who killed Laura Carleton, 66, outside Mag.pi, her clothing store in Cedar Glen, Calif., on Friday. Ikeguchi died in “a lethal force encounter” with deputies about a mile away from the store, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Before the shooting, Ikeguchi had frequently written and shared hateful posts about the LGBTQ+ community on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Gab, county sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said at a news conference Monday.

“The content of Ikeguchi’s social media posts contained posts critical to the LGBTQIA community,” Rodriguez said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus confirmed to reporters that one of Ikeguchi’s X posts from June included a photo of a burning Pride flag that accompanied text that read, “What to do with the [Pride] flag?” Dicus said Ikeguchi confronted Carleton in the moments before the shooting in Cedar Glen, a small town in the San Bernardino Mountains about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

“Investigators determined that prior to the shooting the suspect tore down a Pride, or rainbow, flag that was hanging in front of the store and yelled many homophobic slurs toward Carleton,” Dicus said Monday.

After Carleton was shot, Ikeguchi exchanged gunfire with police using a semiautomatic handgun that was not registered to him, according to authorities. They added that he did not have a concealed carry license.

While police said the investigation into Carleton’s death is ongoing, her children are calling on authorities to investigate their mother’s killing as a hate crime.

“She was murdered over a pride flag that she proudly hung on her storefront,” Ari and Kelsey Carleton, two of the shop owner’s nine children, wrote on Instagram. “Make no mistake, this was a hate crime.”

They added, “Our family is broken.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) condemned the shooting of the shop owner as “absolutely horrific,” saying that “this disgusting hate has no place” in the state. San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, a Republican, called the killing a “senseless act of hate and violence.” LGBTQ+ advocacy groups echoed the daughters in saying the killing of Laura Carleton, who went by Lauri, was the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community.

“The tragic, targeted killing of Lauri over the Pride flag displayed at her Lake Arrowhead store was senseless and, unfortunately, part of a growing number of attacks on LGBTQ people and our allies,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the chief executive and president of the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD, said in a statement. “Lauri’s murder is the latest example of how anti-LGBTQ hatred hurts everyone, whether they are LGBTQ or not.”

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office declined to give additional details about the investigation. It’s unclear whether Carleton and the gunman had interacted before the shooting.

There have been more than 350 anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism incidents in the United States between June 2022 and April 2023, according to a recent report from GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League. Some of the more recent incidents have involved Pride flags.

There have been multiple incidents this year in New York City of people tearing down, damaging and burning Pride flags. In June, a Pride flag hanging outside of a city hall building in Tempe, Ariz., was taken down and burned.

Carleton’s killing comes weeks after O’Shae Sibley, 29, was fatally stabbed July 29 at a Brooklyn gas station while he was dancing to music by Beyoncé. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with murder in Sibley’s killing.

Carleton founded her clothing store, Mag.pi, on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Calif., in 2013. She added a second store in Cedar Glen in 2021. Carleton was one of the largest donors to Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ and attended the organization’s Pride boat parade in June, Matthew Clevenger of Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ told The Washington Post this week. A section of Mag.pi was dedicated to rainbow-colored products, and she displayed rainbow candles by the cash register, he said.

Carleton had previously met with resistance to the Pride flag at her store. But whenever someone would tear down the flag, she would raise another one.

“Her flags had been torn down before and she always responded by putting up a bigger one,” her daughters said.

Ikeguchi’s family had reported him missing to the sheriff’s department the day before the shooting, authorities said Monday. In addition to the anti-LGBTQ+ content posted to his social media account, Ikeguchi, of Cedar Glen, also shared “anti-law enforcement content,” Rodriguez told reporters.

Ikeguchi arrived at the store around 5 p.m. Friday. After making “disparaging remarks” about the Pride flag, he shot Carleton before fleeing, police said in a news release. Carleton was pronounced dead at the scene. Ikeguchi used a Smith & Wesson 9mm semiautomatic pistol that was not registered to him, according to authorities.

Deputies confronted Ikeguchi on foot about a mile from the scene of the shooting. The 27-year-old opened fire on deputies and hit multiple police vehicles, authorities said. Deputies returned fire, hitting Ikeguchi, who died at the scene. No officers were injured.

Carleton’s death has spurred an outpouring of support from friends, LGBTQ+ allies and celebrities, including actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Charlize Theron and director Paul Feig, one of Carleton’s friends.

“Anyone using hateful language against the LGBTQ+ community has to realize their words matter, that their words can inspire violence against innocent loving people,” wrote Feig, who created the TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and directed the film “Bridesmaids.” “Let’s not let Lauri’s tragic death be in vain.”

Carleton was described by her daughters as “fearless, cool and compassionate - always putting others first.” They said the family was overwhelmed by the support, which will be needed in what’s been dark days for Carleton’s loved ones.

“We have a long road ahead of us as we navigate this new reality without our loving matriarch,” the daughters wrote on Instagram. “We find peace in knowing she passed quickly in a place she cherished, doing what she loved while fiercely defending something she believed in.”

Kyle Melnick contributed to this report.