- Officials are investigating a California shooting of a store owner as a possible hate crime.
- Laura Carleton was shot and killed outside of her store on Friday over a Pride flag.
Officials are now investigating the incident of a Southern California woman who was shot and killed outside her clothing store in Cedar Glen on Friday over a Pride flag as a possible hate crime, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department told Insider on Tuesday.
"We continue the investigation, and this includes the possible motive for the crime," officials said Tuesday. "The possibility of this being a hate crime is part of the investigation."
Laura Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene. She was shot following a dispute with a man over the Pride flag she hung outside of her store, Mag Pi, officials said.
The "Today" show reported that the suspect, who was shot and killed following a "lethal force encounter" with police, tore down the Pride flag and shouted anti-gay slurs outside the shop before shooting Carleton.
Speaking to CNN, Carleton's daughter said that her mom had just ordered a new Pride flag to hang outside of Mag Pi because the one flying over the store was starting to fade.
It arrived the day she died, Ari Carleton told Anderson Cooper on Monday night.
"When we arrived home on Friday night after the incident occurred there was a package on the doorstep, and it was a new flag," Ari Carleton said. "She had told my dad that she had ordered it because the one that had been hanging had naturally faded from the sun."
Ari Carleton said it was "hard and emotional" to see that package at her home on Friday.
She added that Pride flags outside of her mom's store had been torn down before, but that Carleton was never afraid.
"She was fearless, and she was confident, and she wasn't afraid to stand up to anybody," she said.