The man who carried a rifle — but did not fire it — during the June “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City in which a protester was killed spoke publicly for the first time, saying he’s been “lambasted on an international scale.”
“The only thing I was doing was engaging in my First and Second Amendment rights,” Arturo Gamboa, 24, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
Gamboa, who was initially treated as a suspect after the shooting, should have been treated as a victim, according to his attorney, Greg Skordas.
Gamboa suffered a shot to the back, while another bullet grazed his finger, Skordas told reporters. A third shot fired hit and killed another marcher, fashion designer Arthur Folasa “Afa” Ah Loo.
Gamboa, 24, expressed condolences to Ah Loo’s family. “I pray for their healing,” he said. “I hope God replaces their pain and grieving with feelings of remembrance.”
Gamboa was one of 10,000 marchers to join “No Kings” protest against Donald Trump and his administration on June 14 in downtown Salt Lake City. Gamboa was carrying an AR-15-style rifle, something a friend later said he had done previously during protests without problems.
Exercising his Second Amendment rights, Gamboa said, is not exclusively for people who politically lean to the right.
In future protests, Gamboa said he may again carry his rifle — though he said he would have to feel more confident in the protest’s organizers.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office filed a manslaughter charge on Dec. 3 against Matthew Scott Alder, 43, an armed security volunteer at the event.
According to the charging documents, Alder saw Gamboa walking toward a crowd of protestors with an AR-15 style rifle. Alder told investigators he was worried Gamboa would “mag dump into a crowd of people to kill as many people as he could.” Prosecutors said in the charging document that Alder fired three rounds toward Gamboa, one of which struck and killed Ah Loo.
Immediately after the shooting, Skordas said, the police questioned both Gamboa and Alder, but only Gamboa, who had not fired a single shot, was arrested.
Gamboa was arrested the night of the shooting. He was booked into Salt Lake County jail the next day when he was released from the hospital. Days later, Gamboa’s lawyers filed a writ of habeus corpus — an order to bring Gamboa before a judge to determine if he was being lawfully detained. Only then, his lawyers said, was Gamboa released from jail, with no charges filed.
The legal culpability of Ah Loo’s death remained in question for almost six months, until Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill charged Alder on Dec. 3.
Skordas believes Alder should also be charged for shooting his client.
Though Gill didn’t file charges against Gamboa, he said that Gamboa’s actions “could reasonably be perceived as alarming and irresponsible.”
This is a developing story.