No Kings should have stuck to at least one plank of their party. No guns. But most lefty positions are meant for other people, so the mostly peaceful riots against the monarchy we don’t have turned deadly.
A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting a man taking part in a “No Kings” protest last June in Salt Lake City while firing at another man he believed to be a potential mass shooter has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Matthew Alder allegedly fired three shots — one hitting a man who had been seen assembling an AR-15 rifle near the crowd and a third inadvertently killing the rally participant, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, according to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
The man who was seen assembling the rifle, Arturo Roberto Gamboa, was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and accused of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death, police said at the time.
Gill said Gamboa would not be charged. In a letter explaining the decision, prosecutors noted there was not enough evidence to show Gamboa had broken any law even though his actions could “reasonably be perceived as alarming and irresponsible.”
Alder told investigators that he fired at Gamboa after Gamboa began moving toward the crowd and did not respond when he yelled at the man to stop, according to Alder’s charging document. He told detectives that Gamboa’s behavior “scared the hell out of me,” the document said.
This is coming from the ACAB – Police Defunding crowd which hates police, but doesn’t understand how to do their jobs or the difficult decisions that police make. Maybe Alder stopped a mass shooting. Maybe not. The way the rally was organized, there’s no way to know. And he did kill an innocent man. And it’s one thing for people to have to make that decision when acting in self-defense, but another when you turn over security to Armed Queers.
Alder, who is named among several defendants in the lawsuit, is described as being a member of a group called Armed Queers SLC, which provided armed security at the No Kings protest at the request of Utah 50501. According to the lawsuit, Utah 50501 only reached out to Armed Queers SLC the day before the protest and march.
No kings and no gun safety. And now a lawsuit.
The family of Afa Ah Loo, the man fatally shot at a No Kings protest march in Salt Lake City, is suing the organizers of that demonstration. They are also suing the man who county prosecutors have charged with manslaughter.
A cascade of negligence by organizers produced a situation that ended in Afa’s death, said the family’s attorneys and Ah Loo’s widow, Laura Ah Loo.
“This is the tragic cost of doing something poorly when people’s safety is on the line,” Ah Loo said at a news conference announcing her civil suit.
As defendants, the complaint lists Alder and five Utah residents who Ah Loo’s attorneys believe had some leadership in Utah 50501, the local chapter of the National 50501 movement.
The protest permit was filed under the name “Michael Andaman” and the organization name “Utah Protest and Rally LLC.” As has been reported, no one has been able to identify that individual, and it is suspected to be an alias.
To summarize, the rally at which a man was killed was organized by someone operating under an alias. It’s not just the family who should be suing them. Salt Lake City should be actively investigating and prosecuting everyone involved.
