To paraphrase an Obama acolyte, "Never let a good tragedy go to waste." 

Last Friday, a 27-year-old man by the name of Travis Ikeguchi reportedly pulled down a “pride flag” put up by a clothing shop owner. The victim was Lauri Carleton. She owned a shop called Mag.Pi.  When she reportedly confronted Ikeguchi after he pulled down her pride flag, he pulled out a 9MM handgun, shot and killed her. He then fled on foot and was followed by witnesses. Carleton owned two “Mag.Pi stores, one in Studio City (in the San Fernando Valley) and one in Lake Arrowhead. The store in Lake Arrowhead, which took the space once occupied by a "Martial Arts, Yoga, and Aerobics" business, was the newer addition for Carleton. 

Multiple media sources were quick to use the same rhetoric, that being that Carleton was a “fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community” and was gunned down because of her advocacy. Instead of a tragic local story, the Carleton murder went international. By Sunday night, media across the globe were quickly turning a tragic murder of a local shop owner into a referendum. 

A collection of publications from muck-raking TMZ  to more traditional media jumped at the chance to publish a vast swath of speculation and to make it known that Carleton was murdered because she flew a pride flag. Multiple social media posts rightly condemned her murder. Most media sources used the same language, reporting that each time a pride flag was put up by Carleton, "someone" or “they” would tear it down. The implication was that a cabal of people, or multiples of vandals in Lake Arrowhead, were targeting Carleton's store, tearing down her flags. And Carleton was defiantly putting pride flags back up – each time, the media quoted her daughter, the flags got bigger and bigger. It was likely one person who was tearing them down — Ikeguchi. Gavin Newsom jumped at the chance to conflate Carleton’s murder into a national scandal.

This is absolutely horrific.

A shop owner has been shot and killed by a man after he criticized the pride flag hanging outside her business.

Lauri leaves behind her husband and 9 children.

This disgusting hate has no place in CA. https://t.co/1Fk4IKnIRB

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 20, 2023

The day after Carleton’s murder, the San Bernadino Sheriff’s office had released little information on the shooting. The suspected murderer was shot and killed by responding deputies about a mile from Mag.Pi, but the man’s identity was not released. By Monday, his identity was still a mystery. There was plenty of social media speculation about the shooter's identity, none of it correct.

On Tuesday, the shooter was finally identified as Travis Ikeguchi. Ikeguchi wasn’t the quintessential character the media was hoping for. Ikeguchi was an Asian-American. He wasn’t a white male Christian carrying an AR-15 and wearing a MAGA hat, but he was close. Ikeguchi was militant on social media. His pinned tweet/post on Twitter shows a burning pride flag. Other than his ethnicity, Ikeguchi was a near-perfect villain.  

What to do with the LGBTQP flag? pic.twitter.com/8O57VSrn2Y

— Travis Ikeguchi (@TravisIkeguchi) June 13, 2023

There are plenty of replies to his pinned Tweet: "Rest in Flames" was common. And references to the 5th circle of Hell.

His Twitter posts are filled with comments like the one below, where he is quoting himself like it’s a Bible verse.

Abortion and same-sex marriage are both immoral and are design to destroy humanity one by one. So if someone is pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQP, they are at war against the foundation of family values.
–Travis Ikeguchi 6/23/2023 6:39am

— Travis Ikeguchi (@TravisIkeguchi) June 28, 2023

Unlike the transgender shooter at Covenant School in Nashville, Ikeguchi's social media accounts remain active. Ikeguchi's Twitter account has remained up and active for all to wish him eternal damnation. Ikeguchi's defacto manifesto is his Twitter account. Audrey Hale's actual manifesto remains hidden. 

According to the latest news reports, Ikeguchi was a local resident. Within a day prior to the shooting, Ikeguchi’s family “reported him missing.” The next day he killed Carleton. Odds are Ikeguchi was suffering from a mental illness and was likely the only person harassing Carleton’s store over the past two years. 

The gun used by Ikeguchi was not registered in California.   

What is abundantly clear is that this terrible local tragedy will be milked by politicians and militants for all it's worth. It's already started on social media. Gavin Newsom has used and will continue to use this local murder as a cudgel. Invoking Ikeguchi will be common.  

Never let a tragedy go to waste.