Note to readers •The Salt Lake Tribune has made this story free to all.
Some 10,000 demonstrators marched against President Donald Trump in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday evening. The vast majority of them were peaceful. Then, three gunshots at the end of that milelong march sent those thousands scattering.
One “innocent bystander,” 39-year-old Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, never made it home, said Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd, at a Sunday news conference. Another man, 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa, was later jailed on suspicion of murder.
Redd said investigators believe Ah Loo was killed by a man who was apparently part of the demonstration’s “peacekeeping team.” He hit Ah Loo as he fired three shots at Gamboa, who Redd said was running into the crowd of protesters just before 8 p.m. with a rifle drawn.
Officers found Gamboa minutes after the shooting, crouching in a group of people near 100 South and 200 East, and arrested him. He was treated at a hospital for a “minor” gunshot wound before he was booked into jail.
While police say Gamboa didn’t fire a shot, an officer wrote in a probable cause statement that the 24-year-old was “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.
Police initially detained the alleged shooter and another man — both men wearing the neon, high-visibility vests commonly worn by protest safety organizers — who’d confronted Gamboa, though neither were arrested and both were let go. Redd said they are cooperating with the police investigation.
“There’s still a lot of questions to be answered, and we will continue to update you as we learn more and the investigation progresses,” Redd said. “What we do know is that this incident unfolded very quickly. It was chaotic, but it was resolved very quickly” thanks to police and civilians.
Ah Loo, who was also known as Afa Ah Loo, was a well-known fashion designer and was once a contestant on “Project Runway.” He was a self-taught designer who grew up in Samoa, according to previous Tribune reporting. He served a mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, and moved back to Utah when he got married after attending Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He and his wife have two children, according to a GoFundMe that family friends set up on Sunday.
Organizers who planned Saturday evening’s protest did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s requests for comment on Sunday.
In a statement posted to Instagram Saturday, “No Kings” protest organizers with Utah 50501 called Ah Loo an “innocent, peaceful protester who came out to make his voice heard as he stood up for our rights when our country needed him most.”
The local group is part of the grassroots 50501 coalition, which plans protests against the Trump administration, like Saturday’s, aiming for at least 50 protests in all 50 states in one day.
The statement from Utah 50501 added that organizers are “grateful to the SLC first responders and our safety team at the event for their quick response to the shooting, for apprehending the suspect before he could injure more people” and for safely
Eunic Epstein-Ortiz, a national spokesperson for the “No Kings” coalition, said in a statement that they were “devastated” and “[o]ur hearts are with the family, friends, and community of those impacted.”
“We unequivocally condemn any act of violence” Epstein-Ortiz continued. “This movement is rooted in nonviolence, dignity, and justice — and we grieve any loss of life or injury.”
Leading into the evening, Redd said officers “prepared extensively.” They were “very prepared” for Thursday’s large protest, and “were even more prepared Saturday night.” He said police did not have any reason to suspect violence or threats at the demonstration and called the protest otherwise “very peaceful.”
“This,” he said, “came out of nowhere.”
A peaceful gathering ends in violence
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People run from the scene of a reported shooting during a protest march in Salt Lake City, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
About two hours before shots rang out, thousands gathered at Pioneer Park for Utah’s capital city’s iteration of the nationwide “No Kings” protests planned in opposition to Trump, his immigration enforcement and use military force against protests in Los Angeles, as well as a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday, which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
One of the demonstration’s first speakers, Britt Miller, president of Teamsters Local 222, told the crowd packed shoulder-to-shoulder atop the park’s green grass that “nonviolence is critical.”
“We are here to protest back and raise our voice” against mass deportation and efforts to quiet protesters by “this authoritarian regime,” said Jiro Johnson, assistant director for Salt Lake County’s public defender office. “We must stand with those families,” he added.
Democrats chose Johnson last week to fill a Salt Lake County Council seat formerly held by Arlyn Bradshaw.
Passing cars honked and a cowbell clanged out amid the applause, as speakers addressed the crowd.
Around 7 p.m., marchers exited the park, walking east along 400 South. They chanted, “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA” and carried a collection of signs — depictions of Trump, as a dunce on a green military tank or his disembodied head on wooden stakes; or scrawled messages like, “Rejecting Kings Since 1776” or, simply, “Fascism is bad”.
Others waved flags, both Mexico and the U.S.’s, including an upside down star spangled banner, meant to symbolize extreme distress.
The crowd then turned north, up State Street, en route to the event’s planned terminus at the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building, at 125 S. State St., about four blocks away.
At 7:56 p.m., Redd said a police officer heard shots near 151 S. State St. First responders soon found Ah Loo injured on the ground. Medics quickly surrounded him, offering aid, but he died later at a local hospital.
“Our preliminary investigation shows that our victim was not the intended target,” Redd said, “but rather an innocent bystander participating in the demonstration.”
Chaos on the street
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Less than 24 hours after the protest ended, Redd stood behind a podium at the downtown Public Safety Building, about a mile from the shooting scene, and told Utahns that what happened was “sudden and alarming and not representative of our values here in Salt Lake City, or in our state.”
“Our teams acted with courage and professionalism,” Redd said, “and responded very quickly in the middle of chaos.”
While police haven’t released any information outlining Gamboa’s possible intentions on Saturday, documents and statements elucidate the timeline and the shooter’s motivations.
As the march progressed from the park, the two men apparently on the event’s “peacekeeping team” told officers they saw Gamboa “move away from the main crowd to a secluded area behind a wall,” according to a probable cause statement.
They thought this was “suspicious” and watched him, eventually seeing Gamboa pull an assault-style rifle from his backpack. They called out for Gamboa to drop his rifle, as they pulled their own handguns. Then, officers wrote, Gamboa lifted the rifle into firing position and ran into the crowd.
One member of the “peacekeeping” team fired three times, fatally injuring Ah Loo and striking Gamboa, causing “minor” injuries.
Minutes after the shooting, Redd said officers arrested Gamboa, crouching among other protesters near 200 East and 100 South.
Video of the arrest posted to social media shows protesters in that area kneeling, as demonstrator Sam Hernandez says, “This is a rifle right here” and picks up a black backpack and moves it away from Gamboa.
“I just grabbed this from that guy,” Hernandez yells as officers approach with their guns drawn. “He’s right there.”
Police moved toward Gamboa, shouting, “Get on the ground.” Gamboa, who was kneeling with his hands raised, lowered on to his stomach and officers cuffed his hands behind his back. Officers later recovered the backpack, a rifle and a gas mask, Redd said.
Gamboa did not fire a weapon Saturday, Redd said, and neither did officers.
What’s next
A review of court records shows Gamboa had two speeding tickets in 2023 but otherwise has never been charged with a crime in Utah.
Charging decisions ultimately rest with Salt Lake County prosecutors. Gamboa had not been formally charged as of Sunday afternoon and is being held in jail without bail.
Redd said Sunday that detectives are working closely with the district attorney’s office to “ensure a thorough review of all the facts.”
He offered his condolences to the family of the man killed and all others impacted.
“No one,” Redd said, “should fear coming to a demonstration, a peaceful lawful demonstration, in our city.”
