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The California store owner and mom of nine who was killed by a homophobic man over a Pride flag had ordered a larger one shortly before her death — and the family found it in a package on their doorstep the day she died.
Laura “Lauri” Carleton, 66, had several rainbow flags torn down from her Cedar Glen boutique, Mag.Pi, recently, so she bought larger ones to replace them before the hate attack took her life, one of her daughters, Ari Carleton, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
The store owner had also bought a big new flag to replace one that had grown too faded, before it wound up apparently angering 27-year-old Travis Ikeguchi enough to kill her on Friday.
When the devastated family returned home after she was gunned down, a package containing the new Pride flag was waiting outside, Ari said.
“She had told my dad that she had ordered it because the one that had been hanging had naturally faded from the sun,” she said, adding that it was “hard and emotional” to see it.
“But I mean, even the store now, and she has another store down in LA, so many supporters and people that were a part of our community have gone and put up their own flags and rainbow flowers and so many things to honor her,” Ari added.
She said she was proud about how her mom — who did not identify as a member of the LGBTQ community but was an unwavering supporter — reacted to the haters.
“[S]he always went and ordered an even larger flag in response and put it out,” Ari said. “So you know, I admire her and I’m so proud of her. And I know that she passed standing up for something that she believed in.”
She added: “She was so fearless, and any negative reaction she just powered through.”
Ari said countless people have reached out to the family after the senseless shooting to share what her mom and the flag meant to them.
“I want to make sure that … we just focus on who she was as a person — just beautiful inside and out — and that we all move forward by preaching love and acceptance and equality in her honor,” she said.
Ikeguchi tore down the faded flag before shooting her and fleeing — but was later killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, officials said.
He had made “several disparaging remarks” about the flag and shouted “many homophobic slurs” at the woman before taking her life, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials told reporters on Monday.
Ikeguchi frequently posted anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion comments on X, formerly Twitter, and the far-right platform Gab.
He also made anti-government and anti-police statements — even though he was the son of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters that Ikeguchi was not known to law enforcement before the shooting, which he carried out using a semi-automatic handgun that was not registered to him.
The gunman also was not licensed to carry a concealed weapon, the sheriff said.
Carleton is survived by her husband and nine children, including Ari and her twin sister, in what she had described as a “blended” family.
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