When a clothing store opened in Cedar Glen, Calif., in the summer of 2021, the owner hung a Pride flag at the entrance, her friends recalled. Whenever someone would tear down the flag, owner Laura Carleton would raise another one.
But after someone complained about the flag on Friday, the encounter turned deadly.
A man arrived at the store, Mag.pi, around 5 p.m. and criticized Carleton’s Pride flag before he shot her, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooter, whom authorities have not publicly identified, died following “a lethal force encounter” with deputies after the shooting, the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Community members have since rallied around Carleton’s store, placing Pride flags, flowers, candles and photos of Carleton in front of it. Matthew Clevenger of Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ said Carleton was a strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
“She was a fierce protector of everybody being who they wanted to be,” Clevenger told The Washington Post.
Carleton, who went by Lauri, began working in fashion as a teenager at her family’s business, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, according to Mag.pi’s website. After graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., Carleton worked at a retail store before joining Kenneth Cole in the 1980s. Carleton worked for the fashion company for more than 15 years as an executive.
In 2013, Carleton founded her clothing store, Mag.pi, on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Calif. She added a second store in Cedar Glen in 2021. While she built her career, Carleton married her husband and took pride in their blended family of nine children, her store’s website says.
Carleton was one of the largest donors to Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ and attended the organization’s Pride boat parade in June, Clevenger said. A section of Mag.pi was dedicated to rainbow-colored products, and she displayed rainbow candles by the cash register, he said.
Carleton helped create a culture in which the LGBTQ+ community felt accepted, Clevenger said. But some community members were still resistant, he added, and took down Mag.pi’s Pride flag multiple times.
After making “disparaging remarks” about the Pride flag on Friday, a man shot Carleton before fleeing, according to the sheriff’s department. He was holding a handgun when deputies found him on a nearby road, where he later died, officials said.
They want to be treated like human beings. Nothing insane about that.
No they don’t. The LGB community already fought for that and won. The majority were with them.
You know how they won? They didn’t force it on people, they didn’t force it in class rooms, they didn’t parade naked in the streets or encourage people to mutilate themselves, they didn’t tell people to suck the dick or get people fired or losing access to accounts.
That’s the insane part.
And won??? So there’s not a current moment to ban books talking about LGBTQ people? There’s not a “don’t say gay” bill in Florida? There’s not people attacking trans kids and adults and making it illegal for them to get healthcare? Phew. I was so worried about all those things.
Gaslighting argument. The ban is to ban books in school talking about homosexual sex to kids, showing graphic content and things they do not need to know. You know the books grooming kids.
Gaslighting argument. The Parental Rights in Education act doesn’t say gay at all and is basically about point 1. You can try and change the terms all you like but it shows how much of a mouth piece you are by not understanding.
People are being attacked by everyone, and that includes trans against the straights. And “healthcare” of becoming reliant on drugs should be illegal. Puberty blockers are incredibly dangerous and it’s scary how much support there is trying to get a generation of underdeveloped adults there are… almost like they wanted “legal kids”…
Of course because you have to be a victim, even when you’re the ones attacking and forcing these disgusting books, lessons and drugs on children you still want to play the victim.
This is exactly why people are against you.