Ari Carleton, the daughter of slain Californian businesswoman Lauri Carleton, says the man who shot dead her mother is “irrelevant”.

Authorities have named Travis Ikeguchi as the gunman who shot Carleton outside of her Glen Cedar clothing store Mag.Pi last Friday after he made “disparaging” remarks about her Pride flag.

In a message to NBC News, Ari Carleton said the family “doesn’t care” about the suspect.

“We will continue to steer the narrative away from him and towards my mother and honouring her. He is irrelevant,” Ms Carelton said.

“The media must stop glorifying these individuals by giving them this platform.”

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the homicide as a potential hate crime.

Laura Carleton, known as “Lauri” was 66 years old and was the owner of a clothing store called Mag.Pi, located in Cedar Glen, near San Bernadino in Southern California.

According to the official Mag.Pi store website, her love for fashion was sparked during her teenage years.

She started her career working in the family business at Fred Segal Feet in Los Angeles while attending the Art Center School of Design. She then made her way to Joseph Magnin Century City and began running the “top fashion” show floor.

Progressing in her fashion career, Carleton joined Kenneth Cole and remained there for over 15 years, where she worked with factory and design teams in Italy and Spain.

The designer travelled with her husband Bort across the US, Europe and South America, which fuelled her love for design, fashion, food, fine art and architecture.

Carleton said Mag.Pi,strives to tackle “everyday life with grace and ease and continuing to dream.”

Faiza Saqib has the full story.

A mother-of-nine who proudly displayed a Pride flag outside her California store. A gay man who danced to a Beyoncé song in Brooklyn. Five patrons killed in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado.

All were appalling attacks against the LGBTQ+ community and their allies in recent months. From the disruption of drag show story hours to threats against retail employees for selling Pride merchandise, the rising threat of violence is terrifying, but unfortunately unsurprising, Sarah Moore, an Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Analyst, told The Independent.

Andrea Cavallier reports.

“Our wonderful friend Lauri Carleton (seen in this picture) was murdered yesterday in her store @magpi_shop in Lake Arrowhead by a 27 year old man who didn’t like that she had a large pride flag hanging outside of her shop,” he wrote.

“He ripped it down and when she confronted him about it he shot and killed her. We are all devastated for her husband Bort and her family and the LGBTQ+ community, for whom Lauri was such a true ally. Her alleged murderer was later shot and killed by the San Bernardino police and so no longer poses a threat to the community. But this intolerance has to end.”

He continued: “Anyone using hateful language against the LGBTQ+ community has to realise their words matter, that their words can inspire violence against innocent loving people. Let’s all keep moving forward with tolerance and love. Let’s not let Lauri’s tragic death be in vain.”

Many of Feig’s celebrity friends and followers also paid tribute in the comments under his post.

Hollywood star Charlize Theron said Carleton’s death was “heartbreaking”, while The Office star Kate Flannery wrote: “Paul! I’m so sorry for your loss. And I’m sorry for the state of the world.”

Louis Chilton has the full story.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department named Travis Ikeguchi as the homophobic gunman who killed Cedar Glen store owner Laura Carleton.

Ikeguchi, 27, had a history of anti-LGBT+ posts, anti-police content along with conspiracy theories on social media, authorities said.

Accounts on X and Gab under Ikeguchi’s name, reviewed by The Independent, appear to match the hateful posts referred to by authorities.

In one post, dated 13 June and pinned to the top of the X account, Ikeguchi appeared to post an image of a burning rainbow flag.

“What to do with the LGBTQP flag?” the chilling post was captioned.

In another post on 28 June, the user took aim at same-sex marriage and abortion.

“Abortion and same-sex marriage are both immoral and are design to destroy humanity one by one,” the tweet read.

Full story below.

Laura “Lauri” Carleton endured verbal harassment for her support of the LGBTQ+ community in the scenic Californian community of Lake Arrowhead, according to a close friend.

Robin Lyles told the Los Angeles LGBT Center that the town of Cedar Glen, where Carleton was shot dead during an argument over a rainbow flag, was generally acceptant of diversity, but had a “vocal” conservative contingent.

“She would get bullied all the time by people at the local restaurants or people walking around,” Ms Lyles said.

“But she wouldn’t take it, Lauri would always challenge them and be in someone’s face. She wasn’t going to let anyone bully her,” Ms Lyles, who owns the Lake House Collection store in Lake Arrowhead, told the website.

Authorities say Carleton, 66, was shot dead by Travis Ikeguchi on Friday in a dispute over a Pride flag hung from her Mag.Pi fashion store.

Skylar Baker-Jordan writes for Independent Voices:

“It was only a matter of time.”

That was my first thought upon hearing of the callous and hateful murder of Laura Carleton, the owner of Mag Pi Clothing in Cedar Glen, California. A straight woman, Carleton was fatally shot by a man who confronted her over an LGBTQ+ Pride flag which was displayed at her shop. Her assailant was later killed by police.

This was not the first time someone had taken issue with Carleton’s Pride flag. As The Independent has previously reported, friends of Carleton say that the flag has been ripped down multiple times. Every time, she simply replaced the flag with another, refusing to cave in to the hateful bigots who vandalized her shop.

The inevitability of something like this happening was apparent to anyone paying attention.

The shooter, identified as Travis Ikeguchi, killed 66-year-old Laura Ann Carleton at her clothing store “Mag Pi” at Hook Creek Road in Cedar Glen after he made “several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store”, authorities in San Bernardino County said.

Before fatally shooting Carleton, the suspect tore down the LGBTQ+ Pride flag that was hanging in front of the store and “yelled homophobic slurs” toward the woman.

Ikeguchi reportedly lived in Cedar Glen and frequently posted hate-filled content on social media, sheriff’s officials said.

He appeared to have social media accounts on Gab and Twitter, where a user with his name routinely posted anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion, and anti-police content along with conspiracy theories.

A pinned post on his purported account on X, previously known as Twitter, shows a Pride flag on fire.

Full story below.

Laura Ann Carleton, known as “Lauri” was 66 years old and was the owner of a clothing store called Mag.Pi, located in Cedar Glen, near San Bernardino in Southern California.

According to the official Mag.Pi store website, her love for fashion was sparked during her teenage years.

She started her career working in the family business at Fred Segal Feet in Los Angeles while attending the Art Center School of Design. She then made her way to Joseph Magnin Century City and began running the “top fashion” show floor.

Progressing in her fashion career, Carleton joined Kenneth Cole and remained there for over 15 years, where she worked with factory and design teams in Italy and Spain.

The designer travelled with her husband Bort across the US, Europe and South America, which fuelled her love for design, fashion, food, fine art and architecture.

Carleton said Mag.Pi,strives to tackle “everyday life with grace and ease and continuing to dream.”

Faiza Saqib has the full story.

Ari Carleton, the daughter of slain Californian businesswoman Lauri Carleton, says the man who shot dead her mother is “irrelevant”.

Authorities have named Travis Ikeguchi as the gunman who shot Carleton outside of her Glen Cedar clothing store Mag.Pi last Friday after he made “disparaging” remarks about her Pride flag.

In a message to NBC News, Ari Carleton said the family “doesn’t care” about the suspect.

“We will continue to steer the narrative away from him and towards my mother and honouring her. He is irrelevant,” Ms Carelton said.

“The media must stop glorifying these individuals by giving them this platform.”

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the homicide as a potential hate crime.