GLAAD condemned the “tragic, targeted killing” of Lauri Carleton, a mother of nine.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates and allies have expressed heartbreak and outrage since Friday, when Laura “Lauri” Ann Carleton was fatally shot by a man who made disparaging comments about a pride flag displayed at Mag.Pi, her California clothing store.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that deputies found Carleton “suffering from a gunshot wound” at her Cedar Glen shop Friday evening and emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene. The 66-year-old is survived by a husband and a blended family of nine children, according to her website.
After fleeing the scene on foot, an unnamed male suspect “armed with a handgun” died in “a lethal force encounter” with law enforcement, the sheriff’s department said. “Through further investigation, detectives learned the suspect made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton.”
As The New York Times reported Sunday:
Ms. Carleton’s daughter Ari Carleton, 28, said that her mother was “fearless” and put the needs of others ahead of her own. Ms. Carleton had been a pillar in the community, she added.
When a rare blizzard struck the area this year, Ms. Carleton and her husband, Bort Carleton, converted her shop into a relief center.
“She opened up a free shop where she and my dad just gave out supplies to those in need who had been impacted by the storms,” Ari Carleton said in a phone interview on Sunday, adding, “That really sums up who she was as a person.”
Ms. Carleton preached “love, acceptance, and equality,” her daughter said, and those values were reflected in her store, Mag.Pi, where she carried a collection of personally curated, high-quality, and ethically sourced clothes, and sometimes her own designs.
“I just want the world to remember her for who she was,” added Ari Carleton. “And that she passed away in a place that she cherished, doing what she loved and defending something that was so important to her.”
Carleton’s daughter also noted that multiple people have removed the pride flag outside her mother’s shop over the past two years.
Film and television director Paul Feig, whose work includes Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks, was a friend of Carleton.
