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.

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlEnglish
        11·
        24 hours ago

        ??? All I see is him ducking and running after presumedly getting shot at. Who wouldn’t do that? Gonna wait for more evidence before I take such a hard stance like you have man sheesh.

        • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          15 hours ago

          Yeah he’s obviously lying, he’s saying things happened then providing video that completely counters what he said. It’s just low effort rage bait.

      • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        8·
        23 hours ago

        Thanks.

        I watched it several times in slow-mo. Seems to me like Arturo was walking towards the crowd before the peacekeeper fired, but he started running after the first shot in response to the shot. Looks like the barrel is down until shooting starts, at which point it goes up like 30° but still pointed at the ground. Video is quite blurry, from a distance, and doesn’t show the lead-up or aftermath of the shooting.

        Utah is an open-carry state and it doesn’t seem like he was doing anything other than walking towards the protest with a gun, which is legal and expected behavior in that state.

        But IMO Arturo is innocent until proven guilty, and if anything this is evidence that suggests his innocence.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          2·
          20 hours ago

          This is correct. That said if you open carry you do so knowing any slight move can result in you being seen as threatening. It’s a logical result of being armed and masked at a protest where a large part of the issue being protested is ice using unlawful force and authority while armed, masked and without any indicator that they are in fact police.

          It’s not victim blaming and it’s not shooter advocating it’s just saying this was both wildly foreseeable and incredibly unnecessary.

        • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          24·
          23 hours ago

          It’s perfectly legal behavior to open carry at a protest. But walking behind a wall and pulling out a gun? That’s definitely not expected behavior. You can’t tell me you would expect that at a protest.

          It’s also not legal or expected behavior to hide your weapon after you are involved in a shooting and try to blend in with a crowd. That’s not legal anywhere in the US.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
            5·
            22 hours ago

            Concealed carry is legal in SLC. If you’re carrying a concealed weapon at a peaceful protest and you realize that the “peacekeepers” are armed, you might want to be obviously also armed to deter escalation (as we’ve seen advised on lemmy a bunch lately). However, pulling a weapon out of your bag in the middle of a crowd is almost certainly going to scare someone, so it’s probably best to go off to the side, unpack it out of sight, and rejoin the group afterwards.

            I’m not a gun owner, but this seems like a totally reasonable course of action to me. Am I missing something?

            • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              15·
              22 hours ago

              However, pulling a weapon out of your bag in the middle of a crowd is almost certainly going to scare someone

              Making it reasonable to shoot someone who does this. That’s literally self defense, even if they fucked it up and shot someone else.

                • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  13·
                  22 hours ago

                  Those were your words, not mine. In fact, I think it’s much more suspicious to hide and then pull out the weapon than it is to do it surrounded by people.

                  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    22 hours ago

                    I was saying that it’s reasonable to go behind the wall, because doing it in the middle of a crowd could scare someone. Why do you think it’s more suspicious to hide? It’s a pretty big gun, I imagine the process of removing it from his bag would either take serious gymnastics or involve the gun at some point having up to a 30 degree angle from the ground.

          • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            5·
            23 hours ago

            But walking behind a wall and pulling out a gun? That’s definitely not expected behavior. You can’t tell me you would expect that at a protest.

            ?? I didn’t see that? Is that what the cops said? Did anyone else say that?

            It’s also not legal or expected behavior to hide your weapon after you are involved in a shooting and try to blend in with a crowd.

            Again where does this come from? Would be suspicious if verifiable.