Anthony Torres, San Francisco DJ Known as Bubbles, Shot to Death

Anthony Torres, a San Francisco disc jockey, artist, and LGBT activist known for his gender-nonconforming alter ego Bubbles, was shot to death early Saturday morning.

Torres, 44, was killed about 3 a.m. Saturday in the Tenderloin district, the San Francisco Chroniclereports. Initial police reports described the victim as female, but friends said Torres was a gay man, not a transgender woman.

He "was a fixture in the San Francisco club scene, regularly DJing house parties, marches and events," the Chronicle reports.

He created the Bubbles persona about 20 years ago. As Bubbles, he would wear a beehive wig, bright pink lipstick, oversize glasses, and chunky jewelry. In 2012 he told the Chronicle he was actually rather reserved, but Bubbles allowed him to bring out his flamboyant side.

"In San Francisco you can get away with doing this," the Arizona native said. "It's an escape from every mundane day, and San Francisco allows me to do that. Bubbles is like a toy, in a way."

"He was a gay man who loved being the personality Bubbles," friend Traci Huston told the Chronicle over the weekend. "He started out looking for love, settled for fame." While he loved San Francisco, where he had lived for two decades, he was thinking about moving out of the country to start a new chapter in his life, Huston said.

No information was available on potential suspects in Torres's death, and early reports did not indicate it was a hate crime, according to the Chronicle.

"The city loses a loving, special character, the type of person that makes San Francisco the great, unique place that it is," Jim Reilly, Torres's attorney and friend, told the paper.