A demonstrator shot Saturday during a “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City died from his wounds on Sunday, authorities announced.
Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was identified as the victim after a chaotic scene erupted at the large demonstration in Utah’s state capital. It was one of dozens of massive protests against President Trump throughout the country on Saturday.
“Our victim was not the intended target,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said, “but rather an innocent bystander participating in the demonstration.”
Ah Loo was participating in the march when another man — identified by police as 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa — ducked behind a wall and emerged with a rifle, according to Redd.
Two men wearing neon vests, who were not police officers, spotted Gamboa with the rifle and opened fire on him, authorities said. The vest-wearing men wounded Gamboa but also fatally struck Ah Loo.
The two men were initially detained by Salt Lake City police but later released, local news outlet KSL reported. Redd said they were “possibly part of the event’s peacekeeping team.”
“We did not take any actions last night on those two individuals,” the chief said Sunday.
However, Gamboa was charged with murder in connection with Ah Loo’s death. In charging documents, cops claimed Gamboa “knowingly engage[d] in conduct that create[d] a grave risk of death to another individual and thereby cause[d] the death of the other individual,” according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.
The “No Kings” protests were organized across the country to rebuke Trump’s hard-line policies across the federal government, and were timed to counter a military parade in Washington, D.C., in honor of Trump’s 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army.
