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 Carletonās Pride flag before he shot her, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriffās Department. Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooter, whom authorities have not publicly identified, died following āa lethal force encounterā with deputies after the shooting, the sheriffās department said in a statement.
Community members have since rallied around Carletonās 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.
āShe was a fierce protector of everybody being who they wanted to be,ā Clevenger told The Washington Post.
Carleton, who went by Lauri, began working in fashion as a teenager at her familyās business, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, according to Mag.piās 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 storeās website says.
Carleton was one of the largest donors to Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ and attended the organizationās 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.piās Pride flag multiple times.
After making ādisparaging remarksā about the Pride flag on Friday, a man shot Carleton before fleeing, according to the sheriffās department. He was holding a handgun when deputies found him on a nearby road, where he later died, officials said.
Thereās no reclaiming the label āconservativeā. We lost it. We need a new brand.
How about what an American Conservative is supposed to be conserving, what the parts of the world with a vaguely educated population calls them:
Liberal.
Tbh in most of the civilized world āliberalā is not a compliment. American brought tankies, wokies and liberals to the worldwide left, and that is NOT something to be celebrated (or maybe as the CIAās best psyop)
Well no. Conservative, to me, means a federal government thatās pretty much powerless to change anything in the States (10th amendment), that doesnāt invade the privacy of Americans (4th amendment), and that doesnāt go around waging war without declaration.
Thatās not what we have. Thatās not what either conservatives or liberals want, so we need a new label.
Thatās liberalism. You just donāt know what it means.
Itās classical liberalism, but the meaning of the word āliberalā has changed.
Iām not really interested in whatever Newspeak the people actively attacking democracy, education, and our Constitutional rights push, be they Reagan-type neoliberals or modern āconservativesā who sure do use a lot of dogwhistles they hope decent people are too clueless by design to hear until itās too late.
When someone tells you they hate socialists and theyāre definitely not a liberal, connect the dots.