Victim of protest shooting remembered as a humanist dedicated to equality at vigil

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A vigil was held for Afa Ah Loo, killed during a protest.
Nearly 100 people gathered to honor Ah Loo with flowers and candles.
Friend Richard Wolfgramm described Ah Loo as a dedicated humanist and activist.

SALT LAKE CITY — Friends and community members gathered for a vigil Monday evening to honor Afa Ah Loo, the protester killed during the No Kings rally and march over the weekend.

They met near a growing memorial on State Street between 100 South and 200 South, where the shooting took place.

Nearly 100 people gathered to remember Ah Loo and to pay their respects to his memory with flowers and candles. Many who attended didn't know Ah Loo but were at the protest Saturday and witnessed the shooting personally.

A memorial for Afa Ah Loo, the protester killed during the No Kings rally on Saturday is shown on Monday in downtown Salt Lake City. A friend shared memories during a vigil there Monday night. (Photo: Nathaniel Gillis, KSL-TV)

One of Ah Loo's close personal friends, Richard Wolfgramm, spoke to the crowd and shared memories of his friend. Wolfgramm said Ah Loo became a U.S. citizen just last year, and that his understanding and love of his constitutional rights motivated him to march.

"This is very difficult for me because I was here with Afa on Saturday," Wolfgramm said, telling the vigil attendees that he was with Ah Loo nearly the whole time. They separated just moments before the shooting began. "I was standing in the middle of the street when I heard the gunshots."

Wolfgramm caught the moment on camera and was able to look at his own video to confirm that his dear friend was hit.

"It wasn't clear at first, but I saw his hat and everything that the body on State Street was wearing, and it was Afa," Wolfgramm said.

He said he and Ah Loo had been friends for more than 10 years, connected by their shared love of art and their Pacific Islander community.

Richard Wolfgramm shares memories of his friend Afa Ah Loo, on Monday evening in downtown Salt Lake City. Ah Loo who was fatally shot during a No Kings rally on Saturday. (Photo: Nathaniel Gillis, KSL-TV)

"Afa is one of those (people) that really feels for humanity," he said.

He said Ah Loo's citizenship process opened his eyes. "Being a new citizen, those things were still fresh in his mind, looking around and realizing that we are falling short."

If there's anything that comes out of this tragic event, it's that we all see each other as human beings, just as Afa did.

–Richard Wolfgramm

The No Kings protest was the third rally he attended in just a week, according to Wolfgramm.

"If there's anything that comes out of this tragic event, it's that we all see each other as human beings, just as Afa did," he said.

Ah Loo was a professional fashion designer and was the first Pacific Islander to be on the show "Project Runway."

Wolfgramm said he was working on a fashion collection scheduled to be finished in August. His friends and family haven't decided yet if or how that collection will be completed.

Photos

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.