On August 18, 27-year-old Travis Ikeguchi allegedly shot and killed Laura Ann Carleton for displaying the pride flag outside her store in Lake Arrowhead, California. Accounts linked to the suspect had been posting incessantly on social media about hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community, according to police.

ISD’s Senior Research Manager Jared Holt spoke to USA Today about the shooting and the reactions, or lack thereof, across far-right channels.

Jared noted that far-right channels had been rather quiet about the shooting, contrary to their usual attempts to frame these types of violent incidents as an “inside job” or anti-fascist attack aimed at discrediting the far right. “If they’re not going to try to discredit it, or use it for some sort of narrative gain, they would just as soon ignore it. […] It’s hard to imagine a really clear gain they would have by trying to do reality-denial on a situation that is just so black-and-white,” he said.