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apnews.com

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.

  • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    Pedantic arguments about the word brandish are pointless. He was walking through a crowd with a a rifle and wearing a mask. We don’t like it when the cops do it and shouldn’t tolerate it when anyone else does either. It’s too risky for us all and mass shootings are a real danger here.

    • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Is it pedantic when it means the difference between life and death?

      I’m not saying I agree with someone open carrying at a protest. I’m saying if that’s all they’re doing it’s not appropriate to charge them with murder, when if they were only open carrying it would be the security officer who overreacted and shot an innocent bystander to death.

      A situation we could have avoided if there were stricter gun controls, but there aren’t.

      • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        39 minutes ago

        I agree with you, but if you look at the video he’s not pointing it down holding it weakly, he’s got it pointed slightly below waist level basically ready to fire. It seems like he’s not ABOUT to fire, but he’s in a combat stance with the rifle and his hand position being ready and shooting in less than a second. If you hadn’t been looking at him the whole time I could easily see someone thinking he had just raised his weapon and was about to shoot.