Protester shot and killed at 'No Kings' rally in Utah, police say
apnews.com
Salt Lake City police say a demonstrator who was shot at the city's “No Kings” protest has died and that the bullet that killed him appears to have been fired by one of the demonstration's peacekeepers.

A man who was believed to be part of a peacekeeping team for the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City shot at a person who was brandishing a rifle at demonstrators, striking both the rifleman and a bystander who later died at the hospital, authorities said Sunday.

Police took the alleged rifleman, Arturo Gamboa, 24, into custody Saturday evening on a murder charge, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said at a Sunday news conference. The bystander was Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, a fashion designer from Samoa.

Detectives don’t yet know why Gamboa pulled out a rifle or ran from the peacekeepers, but they accused him of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death. The Associated Press did not immediately find an attorney listed for Gamboa or contact information for his family in public records.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
    97·
    1 day ago

    You don’t raise a gun and point it at people unless you intend to shoot it at them.

    Should the peacekeeper have waited till he started spraying bullets until he fired on an obvious threat?

    Maybe he should’ve waited until a few people got shot first. Or waited until there was at least a confirmed kill?

    Should he have called 911 and said “officer there is a man here drawing an AR-15 on the crowd please hurry before he shoots somebody” and wait 15 minutes for the cop to arrive?

    Like…I don’t know what you expect here. If there’s one time when it’s acceptable to shoot first, it’s when somebody already has a gun pointing at you.

    This whole thing is a shining example of “good guy with a gun”. It’s the second-best possible outcome, only being better if Ah Soo weren’t struck in the crossfire. .

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
        16·
        22 hours ago

        I don’t think you can see it in the video, but it is literally the first sentence of the article…

        A man who was believed to be part of a peacekeeping team for the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City shot at a person who was brandishing a rifle at demonstrators.

        “Brandish” is a specific word. It implies aggression.

        brandish 1 of 2 verb bran·​dish ˈbran-dish  brandished; brandishing; brandishes transitive verb 1: to shake or wave (something, such as a weapon) “menacingly brandished a knife at them”; 2: to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner “brandishing her intellect”

        If I were to brandish a rifle at you, you would have every right to shoot me first and ask questions later. Especially given the circumstance and current events.

        • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
          6·
          19 hours ago

          I’m going to go with the evidence I trust, the video, as opposed to the word of the guy who was specifically told he was not allowed to have a weapon that shot into a crowd. So far the evidence leaves me with doubt of the official story being reported.

          Edit: to add to this, I live in Salt Lake and have attended many protests with this very man not more than five feet from me, he’s a left wing gun protection and safety advocate.