Travis Ikeguchi ID'd as guman who killed California shop owner Laura 'Lauri' Carleton
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The alleged gunman who shot and killed a beloved California shop owner over a Pride flag she had flown outside her boutique had a history of posting anti-LGBTQ remarks on social media and far-right sites.
Authorities on Monday identified the suspect as Travis Ikeguchi, 27, who was killed by deputies in an exchange of gunfire after he fatally shot Laura “Lauri” Carleton outside her clothing store Mag.Pi in Cedar Glen.
Ikeguchi tore town a rainbow Pride flag that Carleton, 66, displayed outside her business Friday. When Carleton confronted him, he shouted “many homophobic slurs” and then shot her, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said during a Monday press conference.
Carleton, a fixture in the community and a mom of nine, died at the scene while Ikeguchi fled.
Deputies caught up to him about a mile from the store and he opened fire — blasting multiple squad cars, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters. The officers returned fire and fatally struck Ikeguchi. No deputies were injured.
Ikeguchi — who was reported missing by his family a day before the hate-fueled shooting — frequently posted anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion remarks on X, formerly known as Twitter, and the far-right platform Gab.
In one hateful, foreboding post in June, he wrote, “What to do with the [Pride] flag?” above a photo of a burning rainbow flag on X. He pinned the post to his profile, which Dicus confirmed as his.
He also shared an illustration of a Pride flag on fire on his now-defunct Gab page under the guise of Christianity and made anti-government and anti-police statements.
“We need to STOP COMPROMISING on this LGBT dictatorship…True followers of Christ SHOULD NOT and NEVER TOLERATE this stupid indoctrination of LGBT agenda in marriage or in our own businesses,” he captioned the illustration. “…Who has the courage to post this and feel no shame of it!?”
Ikeguchi often shared and retweeted Bible verses between typing his revolting posts.
Discus said Ikeguchi was not known to law enforcement before Friday’s shooting.
The alleged killer used a semi-automatic handgun that was not registered to him and he was not licensed to carry a concealed weapon, the sheriff said.
The investigation into the shooting — about which several witnesses called 911 — is ongoing.
Carleton, whom friends knew as Lauri, is survived by her husband and nine children in what she had described as a “blended” family.
She did not identify as a member of the LGBTQ community but was an unwavering supporter, according to the Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ organization.
Carleton was remembered in an outpouring of tributes from names big and small, far and wide.
Friends, family and admirers turned the outside of her shop into a makeshift memorial with bundles of flowers and Pride flags as a single bullet hole could be seen through its glass door.
“Thank you for standing up for what’s right,” one person wrote in a note left among roses and sunflowers.
“Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig called Carleton a friend.
“She was a wonderful person who did so much for the LGBTQ+ community as well as the community at large,” he wrote on X. “What happened to her is an absolute tragedy. If people don’t think anti-gay & trans rhetoric isn’t dangerous, think again.”
The killing follows a rise in anti-LGBTQ attacks and hateful rhetoric across the country and locally.
Advocacy group Equality California said over the past year, it has documented “a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric being expressed by far-right extremists and hate groups — rhetoric which has resulted in physical intimidation, harassment, and acts of violence.”
In late July, a teenager fatally stabbed O’Shae Sibley, a 28-year-old gay man known in the NYC dancing community, for voguing to a Beyonce song outside a Brooklyn gas station in a case that prosecutors have determined to be an anti-gay hate crime.
With Post wires
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