The man suspected of shooting dead a California business owner over a Pride flag she displayed at her clothing store has been identified.
Travis Ikeguchi, 27, fatally shot Laura “Lauri” Carleton, 66, outside her Mag.Pi store in Cedar Glen on Friday after “yelling many homophobic slurs” about the store’s Pride flag, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference on Monday.
Ikeguchi fled Carleton’s store on foot and was later killed in “a lethal force encounter” with deputies.
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Dicus said Ikeguchi fired at multiple patrol vehicles with an unregistered semi-automatic handgun before officials fatally shot him.
Ikeguchi, of Cedar Glen, did not have identification on his person and investigators were unable to immediately identify him, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
He shared anti-LGBTQ+ posts on social media, authorities said on Monday. In one post on Gab, a platform that has welcomed extremists, Ikeguchi shared a photo of a burning Pride flag.
According to ABC7, he wrote alongside it: “We need to stop compromising on this LGBT dictatorship and not let them take over our lives.”
The caption later asked:”Who has the courage to post this and feel no shame of it!?”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.