Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- District attorney Sim Gill stated the third shot a man fired during a June protest was reckless.
- Matthew Alder now faces manslaughter charges for allegedly killing bystander Arthur Ah Loo.
- An attorney for Ah Loo's widow hopes the incident prompts policy changes on guns at public gatherings.
SALT LAKE CITY — While the first two shots fired by a so-called "peacekeeper" during the No Kings protest in Salt Lake City in June may have fallen under Utah's self-defense justification statute, the third shot — the one that killed an innocent bystander — did not, according to Sim Gill.
"We believe the third shot was the reckless shot. And while you may have a right to use lethal force, that doesn't mean that lethal force can be used in a reckless manner," the Salt Lake County district attorney said Wednesday.
During an extended press conference on Wednesday, Gill explained how his office reached the decision to file a charge of manslaughter, a second-degree felony, against Matthew Scott Alder, 43, in the fatal shooting of Arthur "Afa" Folasa Ah Loo on June 14.
The case is complicated by the fact that two people were legally carrying and displaying guns amid a large gathering of people.
On that day, Alder was part of a "safety team" working with the protest organizers. Alder spotted Arturo Roberto Gamboa, 24, wearing black clothing and watched as he appeared to walk to a secluded area near 151 S. State and begin to assemble an AR-15 rifle from parts out of his backpack. After putting the rifle together, he began walking toward State Street where protesters were marching.
Alder allegedly fired three rounds, apparently believing Gamboa was about to commit a mass shooting. One of the first two shots hit and injured Gamboa. But the third shot struck and killed Ah Loo, an innocent bystander who was approximately 9 feet away from Gamboa, who was running away, Gill said.
"The case presented a very nuanced and complex set of facts. For example, we have some very liberal open carry laws in the state of Utah. We also do not have a specific prohibition against guns in public places or events like other states also have. We also have a jurisdiction that provides a safe harbor to the use of lethal force against others, which have to be part of any ongoing consideration," Gill said.
Utah law allows a person who is not a sworn law enforcer to use deadly force when that person "reasonably believes that force is necessary to defend an individual or another individual against the imminent use of unlawful force," he said.
"In theory, you can have two individuals open carry and simultaneously have the situation where one may use deadly force," Gill continued. "What is interesting about Utah's law is that since everybody gets to open carry, that we also have a very robust self-defense justification law. And so, is it logical and conceivable that I can have two independently open carry individuals where the conflict of one … may give rise to a self-defense claim?
"We found there's this gray area, this loophole if you will, where the right accidental circumstances that create this very nuanced, complex problem that confronted us in this analysis."
In this case, there is a possibility that Alder could successfully argue that he was acting in self-defense when he fired his first two rounds based on Gamboa's actions, which could have been considered both innocent and alarming at the same time, Gill said.
But Ah Loo did nothing to prompt the use of deadly force against him. And Gill said being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" is not a justifiable defense.
"If we have where two people who open carry can create what would otherwise be a legally defensible misunderstanding, I do not think that it is good public policy that those misunderstandings should be paid by the lives of innocent bystanders," he said of the bigger picture. "And our position today is that that third bullet that goes outside of that backdrop in a large gathering with so many different people, that was reckless conduct."
Gill says that is why Alder is not facing any charges for shooting Gamboa.
He noted that a recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court regarding a similar fatal shooting in that state helped his office reach its decision.
Both Gill and Jim McConkie, an attorney who is representing Ah Loo's widow, Laura Ah Loo, say there are states that don't allow guns at big public gatherings and they hope the Salt Lake shooting may prompt some policy changes statewide.
"Cleary it's dangerous to have a large group who is protesting on a political issue, to allow people to carry guns. I mean, that's dangerous. And even the states that have laws that permit people to carry weapons, they still have laws that prevent them from taking them into a rally or into a church or onto a campus," McConkie said Wednesday.
"My hope is once the facts get out, is that we'll all put our heads together and say, 'Look, how are we going to make things safer?' That may mean we need some good legislation," he said.
