For years before last week's killing of a businesswoman who displayed a Pride flag in front of her Lake Arrowhead shop,, the gunman, Travis Ikeguchi, posted far-right, conspiratorial content to
his social media accounts.
Most of it had no personal detail. There were rants against the LGBTQ+ community, posts about political correctness as well as anti-police content. Ikeguchi posted often on his Christian beliefs and about the importance of accepting Jesus Christ.
Days after Ikeguchi, 27,
was killed by San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies following the shooting of
Laura Ann Carleton outside her shop, Mag.Pi, few details have been revealed about who Ikeguchi was beyond his fringe political beliefs.
Authorities said Ikeguchi made “several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag” outside Carleton's store Friday and hurled homophobic slurs at her. The heated argument then turned violent, and
Ikeguchi fatally shot Carleton, 66, before running away, according to the Sheriff's Department.
According to an acquaintance of Carleton who watched closed-circuit video of the shooting, Ikeguchi seemed to pause in the moment before he shot Carleton, as if considering what he was about to do.
"He then almost flinched as if thinking twice but then went for it, grabbed the gun and then aimed it and shot Lauri," said the acquaintance, who requested anonymity because the video did not belong to him.
"That caused her to fall back onto the floor, and then the door swung closed, and then he shot one shot through that door and then took off."
Carleton was holding a phone when she was shot and never exited her store, according to the acquaintance.
A short time later, deputies confronted Ikeguchi and shot him to death after he opened fire, the department said.
Court documents and a few social media posts paint a narrow picture of Ikeguchi's troubled life, a young man struggling to make ends meet and support his mother while falling further into an abyss of social media conspiracy theories and hate-fueled rhetoric online.
Ikeguchi moved to California with his sister and mother after his parents divorced in 2018.