The “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City on June 14, 2025, was a large march that ended in the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo. An estimated 10,000 people participated. The protest, organized by the local 50501 group, turned deadly when an armed “peacekeeper” associated with 50501 fired shots into the crowd after seeing a man carrying a rifle.
Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo was much more than a protester. He was a devoted husband, a loving father to two young children, a gifted designer, and a beloved member of his community. He had plans. He had dreams. He believed deeply in the rights and dignity of every person. The void left by his passing is irreparable—for his family, and for all who knew him.
Parker & McConkie has been retained to represent Afa’s surviving spouse, Laura Ah Loo, and children to pursue clarity, accountability, and systemic change in the wake of the terrible loss they now endure. We are here not only to mourn Afa’s loss, but to hold to account each party whose failures contributed to that loss. It is our duty—and now our mission—to ensure this tragedy is understood fully, so it will never be repeated.
What Happened Must Be Examined
No single failure alone caused Afa’s death. This tragedy occurred at the intersection of a series of flawed decisions, inadequate protocols, poor communication, and negligent acts—each of which must be scrutinized.
The organizers launched an event of large scale which they knew would be politically charged. They had been warned that this protest carried risk. Public safety officials had cautioned them over months that using armed volunteer “peacekeepers” might be a “bad idea.” Yet the event moved forward with those volunteer teams included—and with critical uncertainties about how they would act, under what rules, with what oversight.
Volunteer “peacekeepers” were assigned security roles during the march yet they lacked clear authority, training, or structure consistent with how policing and crowd control should operate.
Law enforcement’s planning, decision-making, and coordination before and during the march involved critical judgment calls about security, safety, and crowd control—decisions that, unfortunately, contributed to rather than prevented this tragedy.
City permitting systems, too, were insufficient—unable to anticipate, identify, or implement procedures that could have prevented the danger that unfolded.
These failures, and others, created the circumstances that led to Matthew Alder’s final act of unnecessarily and negligently firing the weapon that ultimately took Afa’s life.
Our Purpose
We have been retained by Afa’s family not merely to ask questions, but to demand answers, to seek justice, and to insist on change.
First: there must be a full, independent investigation. The family demands a full, independent, exhaustive inquiry into every dimension of what happened—and why. We must understand the choices, the procedures, the warnings, the breakdowns—all of it. That transparency is the foundation of justice.
Second: there must be accountability. If institutions, public officials, organizers, or private actors failed in their duties—if they made decisions they should not have or omitted actions they should have—then the law must reach them. We will pursue civil claims, including a wrongful death suit, and we will bring to light what must be brought to light.
Third: there must be reform. Afa’s family will not settle for the statement, “We’ll do better next time.” We will demand prompt changes in how protests—especially around volatile political issues—are permitted, staffed, policed, and overseen. Protest organizers must plan responsibly. Volunteer safety teams must be held to clear standards, rules, and coordination. Law enforcement must refine training, command structure, and escalation control. Permitting authorities must require full disclosure, stronger vetting, day-of coordination. All this must happen in a way that honors the constitutional rights we all hold dear—free speech, peaceful assembly, and lawful bearing of arms when the law allows. But with rights come responsibilities—and public safety is a responsibility we all bear.
This community knows of both the importance and potential dangers of political protest, the tension of divergent voices, the weighty burden on public institutions to maintain order while respecting rights. That tension must be handled with humility, with professionalism, with respect for human life.
Afa’s Family Deserves Justice
In the wake of this loss, nothing can restore Afa to his children, his spouse, his community. But this family deserves clarity. They deserve accountability. They deserve the assurance that reforms will prevent what happened to Afa from happening again.
Salt Lake City’s limited cooperation in the aftermath of this tragedy has raised serious concerns about transparency. Despite formal GRAMA requests, the City has withheld or redacted essential information that should be available to the public. Likewise, the prolonged delay by prosecutors in completing their investigation or announcing charging decisions has deepened the family’s sense of frustration and loss. The focus of both City officials and prosecutors should be on achieving justice for victims and ensuring community safety—not on shielding those whose negligence led to this devastating outcome.
We do not seek to simply criticize. We seek to learn. We seek a safer city and community. We seek to ensure that no other family suffer the way Afa’s family suffers now.
We call for openness and assistance from city and state officials, law enforcement, protest organizers, participants and witnesses. We ask for your cooperation in this effort to ensure that Afa’s death will not be in vain—but rather a catalyst for positive change, for safety, for respect, for responsible exercise of our most fundamental rights.
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
Richard Lambert
Of Counsel, Parker & McConkie.
October 29, 2025
A bedrock principle of the Rule of Law in America is that “Justice Delayed Is Justice
Denied.”
The delay of more than four months in deciding who and what to charge in the senseless death of Afa Ah Loo has denied his family, his friends, and his Polynesian community the justice they are entitled to. Furthermore, his death does damage to the rights of the rest of us.
While no one wants a rush to judgment, the law and the facts of this case should not require many weeks, let alone months, to decide. Of course, witness statements and videos need to be reviewed by prosecutors, but they know who killed Afa Ah Loo. This is not a “who-done-it.”
Afa was killed with a bullet fired by a so-called Peacekeeper volunteer who came to the No Kings march armed with a loaded gun. Prosecutors also know the shooter was trying to kill Arturo Gamboa who was lawfully carrying a rifle.
The shooter was either justified in firing his gun multiple times or he was not. The weight of the evidence of which we are aware supports the conclusion that the self-styled Peacekeeper was not justified in firing his gun at Arturo Gamboa who, I repeat, possessed an unloaded rifle which he kept pointed towards the ground.
We believe a reasonable person familiar with Utah law would not have fired those shots. Can you imagine what it has been like for Afa’s family, waiting as weeks passed with no word from the District Attorney, only to have four months come and go?
They have surely been puzzled why the man who fired three shots endangering the crowd and killing Afa still has not been named, as if he is a victim.
People may also wonder if instead of Arthur, the victim had been one of Utah’s political, business or social elites, would the case really have proceeded the same way? And, what about members of the Utah public who are uncertain if it is safe to exercise their Constitutional rights to attend other marches in Salt Lake City or wonder if by doing so they might risk their own lives at the hands of an irresponsible gunman.
