Many within the Lake Arrowhead group try to return to grips with the tragic taking pictures demise of a mom reportedly killed for hanging a Pleasure flag outdoors of her clothes retailer in Cedar Glen final week.
Officers say Travis Ikeguchi, 27, a Cedar Glen resident, shot and killed 66-year-old Laura Ann Carleton Friday night time at her enterprise, Magazine Pi. After the taking pictures, authorities say Ikeguchi fled the scene on foot however was shot and killed by deputies following a confrontation.
“She was simply a tremendous, robust lady that I had numerous respect for,” Beverly Eskew, who owns a gastropub in Lake Arrowhead, mentioned.
Those who knew Carleton, a well-liked retailer proprietor, are nonetheless in shock over her mindless killing.
Eskew mentioned that she first realized that Carleton had been gunned down at her Magazine Pi store for hanging a Pleasure flag when a lady bumped into Eskew’s restaurant that night time to warn her.
“She advised me it was over a flag,” Eskew advised KTLA. “I knew instantly at that time what had occurred.”
Unaware that the shooter had been captured, the gastropub proprietor mentioned she took her Pleasure flag down.
“I instantly went to the entrance of the restaurant the place I’ve my Pleasure flag and I took it down as a result of I noticed I’ve a packed home proper now with households and children and my employees,” she defined.
Since opening her restaurant, Spade and Spatula, three years in the past, Eskew says she’s skilled a rising sense of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment within the mountain group.
“I’ve come up towards attitudes that I’ve by no means needed to take care of in my life,” she mentioned.
Eskew additionally mentioned that 66-year-old Carleton, a married mom of 9, had at all times been a fierce advocate for the homosexual group.
“She was one of many first allies to step ahead towards the attitudes up right here of hate and bigotry,” she mentioned.
Carleton owned one other Magazine Pi location in Studio Metropolis, the place many have been paying their respects to the clothes retailer proprietor and designer.
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A rising memorial seen outdoors Carleton’s Studio Metropolis Magazine Pi retailer location on Aug. 22, 2023. (KTLA)
Two of Carleton’s daughters launched a press release collectively on social media, saying partially:
“Our household is damaged. We have now a protracted street forward of us as we navigate this new actuality with out our loving matriarch. We discover peace in understanding she handed shortly in a spot she cherished, doing what she beloved whereas fiercely defending one thing she believed in.”
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus mentioned investigators decided the 27-year-old suspect tore down the Pleasure flag outdoors the Magazine Pi retailer and yelled a number of homophobic slurs on the Carleton. When Carleton confronted him, he pulled out a gun and shot her.
Whereas the investigation into the incident has simply begun, authorities mentioned Ikeguchi’s social media accounts are crammed with anti-law enforcement and anti-gay posts.
Officers additionally mentioned the gun used within the crime got here again unregistered and that the suspect’s household had reported him lacking the day earlier than Carleton was shot and killed.
