Support Arturo Gamboa An Antiracist accused of murder
(photo of Arturo in a leather jacket smiling outside)
Write to him at
Arturo Gamboa 457904
c/o Salt Lake County Metro Jail
3415 S. 900 W. Salt Lake City, UT 84119

Arturo was providing community defense as he has been known to do for years.
(still from a video with a red arrow pointing at Gamboa walking with a gun pointed at the ground and a yellow arrow pointing at "designated peacekeeper" pointing a gun at Gamboa, from a couple feet away)
While walking with his gun pointing at the ground a 50501 marshall drew on him and opened fire, killing one bystander and injuring Arturo, yet Arturo is the one facing murder charges

 The armed, yellow-vested "peacekeepers" at the Utah 50501 protest in Salt Lake City opened fire into a crowd, hitting two people:
A Sāmoan fashion designer with two young kids, who died.
A second-generation Venezuelan immigrant and antiracist protester who was legally carrying. Cops charged HIM.
(photos of both the fashion designer (Afa Ah Loo) and Arturo below)

The yellow-vested "peacekeepers" at the Utah 50501 event also approached several protesters and asked them to remove their masks and keffiyehs because they looked "too aggressive"
(image below of another post that says: Had one of those yellow vest people come up to me yesterday and ask me and my friends to take our masks off becasue it was suspicious. When we said we felt safter and would stay masked she then asked me to swap my keffiyeh for a normal mask because it was "too aggressive". I didn't obviously but wtf)

This morning, the national 50501 account posted a statement on Bluesky praising the actions of their "volunteer member of the protest safety team", calling the shooting victim a "depraved and disturbed domestic terrorist."
They have since deleted their post and have not issued a followup statement
(4 images from said account with proof. the visible portions of the images say: "any form of violence or advocacy of it. Our hearts go out to the protestors, attendees, residents of SLC, Pacifica community, and most importantly the victim's family as they mourn the loss of a beautiful life." "We're still gathering facts and are in contact with organizers on the ground. From our understanding, this was caused by a depraved and disturbed domestic terrorist who brandished an AR-15 and went into a crowd of peaceful protestors with an agenda to commit what we can only" "stop him, firing 3 rounds, striking the man and prventing a potential mass casualty event. In the process, he also hit an innocent bystander, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, better known as Afa, before rushing over to give him first aid. Afa later died from his injuries, and the man with the AR-" "Our hearts go out the protestors, attendees, residents of SLC, Pacifica community, and most importantly the victim's family as they mourn the loss of a beautiful life.")

Utah is a permitless carry state. SLC has an open carry ordinance, and protests frequently see AR-15s being carried openly.
This environment makes threat assessment more challenging, which is why having armed "security" volunteers who lack extensive training is an incredibly reckless idea.
(link to a 2020 article from The Guardian titled "The birth of a militia: how an armed group polices Black Lives Matter protests." The link preview text showing an excerpt from that article says: "In Utah, members of a militia claim their presence deters protesters from becoming ..."

 Utah antiracist activists say that Gamboa (the young Venezuelan-American activist who was one of the two shooting victims) has been a fixture at local rallies, has open-carried his AR-15 before, and has never been  violent.
The police are charging him with homicide despite him never firing a shot.
(image of Gamboa doing a Black Power salute among a crowd of also-saluting antiracists)

KSL News Utah legal analyst Greg Skordas a defense attorney and former deputy DA says the recommended murder charge against Gamboa will be "difficult to charge never mind proescute."
He says the DA will look at the actions of the "peacekeeper," and doubts his actions will be found "reasonable.
(still from a KSL Investigates news clip of a a crowd walking by. The headline says: Murder Charge Could Be Difficult to Prove in Fatal Protest Shooting")

Two days after Salt Lake City Police released a one-sided statement suggesting an innocent man was a mass shooter while praising the actual killers, local news finally reports that police are investigating the "peacekeepers" who fired into the crowd.
The killer's name is still not published.

source

Note, I’m neither American, nor heavily in that scene. I’m merely signal boosting what I feel is important information countering lib propaganda.

  • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    A single blurry still doesn’t pose a convincing argument that he was or wasn’t pointing the weapon towards the crowds.

    I’ve not seen enough to conclude either way. So many contradicting things.

    If you were wanting to assist with security, when someone obviously doing security addresses you then you’d try and comply, and explain your intent. But did the security actually address him? Or did he just run away from a gun pointed at him? Or did he have his gun pointed in the direction of the crowd while moving towards the crowd and ignoring security? Much of this doesn’t make sense.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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      1 day ago

      A single blurry still doesn’t pose a convincing argument that he was or wasn’t pointing the weapon towards the crowds.

      We don’t go around making plausible reasons and then asking the victim to prove them wrong. Maybe the killers are lying to cover their ass?

      Facts on the ground is: Arturo didn’t shoot anyone, had a right to carry, a bystander was killed by the “good guys” and Arturo was shot himself. Nothing in all of this proves that Arturo was a danger to anyone.

      • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Just because he didn’t shoot anyone, doesn’t mean his alleged actions wouldn’t cause the same reaction or worse from any other reasonable person.

        Again, things aren’t lining up with the two sides/stories.

        • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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          1 day ago

          Ye which is why I’m inclined to believe the non-killer’s story rather than the ones with the most incentive to lie

            • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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              1 day ago

              Unless more evidence appears, I’m more inclined to believe the person who didn’t shoot anyone, even when they had plenty of opportunity to do so (in self defense no less) and have a history of protecting others.

              • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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                21 hours ago

                Yep this really just seems like a tragedy from someone being overzealous. In the end only hurting allies. There’s no good outcome from this. But arguably the worst I think is to demonize an ally in an attempt to deflect blame. By shooting “preemptively” they’re where there blame lays unfortunately.

                I don’t necessarily think that there should be imprisonment or jail in this for anyone. It was all completely unintentional. And doesn’t serve any public good. But I think unfortunately a lot of people are going to want someone to crucify or demonize.

              • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                And I’m not telling you not to. I’m just saying I’m unconvinced, and without more factual information I can’t make a decision either way.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      1 day ago

      Security was across the street and started shooting before he ever acknowledged them. They were far enough that it’s conceivable he didn’t hear them at all. He didn’t run until they fired. This is all in the link they provided. It’s a video, not a still.

      • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        I like the spirit, but IMO we need more “on the ground” details to come to an actual conclusion. Cops suck but there are lots of ways to come up with “the opposite story”.

        I’m working under “innocent until proven guilty” logic, but as of this posting I absolutely cannot make any positive conclusion about what happened other than the one second video clip posted in the comments.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      You don’t have to prove you didn’t do something. The state has to prove that you did do it. We should assume he is innocent in the absence of evidence.