logo
Project Runway star is killed at anti-Trump 'No Kings' rally

Project Runway star is killed at anti-Trump 'No Kings' rally

Daily Mail​16-06-2025
A Project Runway star was killed when a man brandished a rifle during an anti-Trump rally in Utah on Saturday. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was struck by official peacekeepers at Saturday's No Kings rally in Salt Lake City. They'd spotted another protester - Arturo Gamboa, 24 - wield a weapon and point it at a crowd. The peacekeepers ordered Gamboa to drop his weapon but he failed to do so.
When Gamboa ran towards a crowd with the rifle in a firing position, the peacekeeping team opened fire on him. Ah Loo was caught in the crossfire and shot. The fashion designer, who leaves behind a wife and two young children, later died at a local hospital , authorities said Sunday. Police took the alleged shooter into custody on Saturday evening on a murder charge. Detectives don't yet know why he pulled out a rifle.
Ah Loo, from Samoa, recently became an American citizen and voted for the first time during the 2024 election. He attended the No Kings march because he 'believed that everyone was deserving of basic human rights', Utah Rep. Verona Mauga told KSL-TV . Ah Loo, known as 'Afa', was a husband and father to two children and a fashion designer who leaned into his Samoan heritage, according to a GoFundMe page organized to support his family.
Ah Loo founded Creative Pacific, an event celebrating the diversity of the Pacific Islands, with workshops, artists and a fashion runway. He was on Season 17 of the fashion design reality TV show Project Runway. The peacekeeper, who was dressed in a neon green vest, fired three shots from a handgun at Gamboa, inflicting a relatively minor injury but fatally shooting Ah Loo.
Authorities did not share the man's name. Ah Loo, an innocent bystander participating in Saturday's march, was with a group of friends when the shots were fired into the crowd, Mauga told the TV station. The gunshots sent hundreds of protesters running, some hiding behind barriers and fleeing into parking garages and nearby businesses, police said in a statement.
'That's a gun. Come on, come on, get out,' someone can be heard saying in a video posted to social media that appears to show the events. The designer's friends realized 'something wrong may have happened' when they did not hear back from him after the chaos broke out, Mauga added. 'Afa is a person who believed in equity and equality for all people and all communities,' she said.
'That's why he was there. He was with his community and he was with people he cared about, marching and rallying for all of those things that make our community, like, really great.' Police said the shooter and another person in a neon vest allegedly saw Gamboa separate from the crowd of marchers in downtown Salt Lake City, move behind a wall and withdraw a rifle around 8 p.m. Saturday.
When the two men in vests confronted Gamboa with their handguns drawn, witnesses said Gamboa raised his rifle into a firing position and ran toward the crowd, said Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd. That's when one of the men dressed in the vests shot three rounds, hitting Gamboa and Ah Loo. SWAT medics immediately performed life-saving care to the bystander before firefighters and paramedics stepped in.
The coroner will determine Ah Loo's official cause and manner of death. Gamboa, who police said didn't have a criminal history, was wounded and treated before being booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail. He was seen in dramatic pictures and videos being arrested and taken away on a stretcher by police and paramedics. Officers also located a backpack belonging to Gamboa that contained an 'AR-15 style rifle' and gas mask, according to Redd. Redd added that the peacekeepers' actions are also part of the investigation.
Volunteer peacekeeping teams are common for protests, said Sarah Parker, a national coordinator for 50501 Movement, which was a partner in the No Kings protest. But the organizers ask attendees, including the peacekeepers, not to bring weapons, she said. Still, Parker said they stopped what could've been a larger mass casualty event. 'Our safety team did as best as they could in a situation that is extremely sad and extremely scary,' said Parker. The Associated Press did not immediately find an attorney listed for Gamboa or contact information for his family in public records.
No Kings protests swept across the country on Saturday, and organizers said millions rallied against what they described as President Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies. Confrontations were largely isolated. In Riverside, California, authorities said a driver of an SUV struck a woman who was participating in a demonstration and sped away. The woman had 'significant injuries' but was stable, police said, adding that they were still searching for the driver. Outside the Arizona statehouse, a social media video showed protesters Saturday jeering at and then skirmishing with a masked man, who eventually pulled out a handgun, causing the crowd to scatter. Another video showed Arizona Department of Public Safety officers taking the man into custody.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Watch live: Brian Kohberger sentenced for murdering four Idaho students
Watch live: Brian Kohberger sentenced for murdering four Idaho students

The Independent

time18 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Watch live: Brian Kohberger sentenced for murdering four Idaho students

Watch live as Brian Kohberger is sentenced for murdering four college students in Idaho. University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death by the 30-year-old in a frenzied attack at their college home on November 13, 2022. On Wednesday (23 July), Kohberger will be sentenced after admitting to the killings for the first time at a plea-deal hearing to avoid the death penalty. In pleading guilty, Kohberger waived all rights to an appeal. The students had enjoyed a Saturday night out in the small college town of Moscow before returning in the early hours. As most of the roommates in the house slept in the six-bedroom home, Kohberger - dressed in all-black with a balaclava - broke in around 4am and crept through the kitchen sliding door before killing the four students. Prosecutors said there's still no known connection between the victims and Kohberger, who had been planning the murders for months.

Tulsi Gabbard scrambles to appease MAGA by declassifying MORE Obama docs showing he 'ordered' Russia 'hoax'
Tulsi Gabbard scrambles to appease MAGA by declassifying MORE Obama docs showing he 'ordered' Russia 'hoax'

Daily Mail​

time19 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Tulsi Gabbard scrambles to appease MAGA by declassifying MORE Obama docs showing he 'ordered' Russia 'hoax'

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified another tranche of documents about the 2016 elections – a day after President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of 'treason' and said he should be investigated. Gabbard ordered the release of a 2020 report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on the Intelligence Community's assessment on Russia during the 2016 presidential election. That is an election Trump won, but the president has long railed against what he calls the Russia 'hoax' – and this week has been calling for investigations of top security officials at the time while referring to Obama as the leader of a 'gang.' The report by the Intelligence panel, then chaired by Trump ally Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) found the nation's spies reached 'credible' assessments that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 'conventional and cyber influence operations' by leaking hacked emails. But it also disputed the Intel assessment, released in 2017, that Putin 'developed a clear preference' for Trump and 'aspired to help his chances of victory.' That conclusion has long infuriated Trump. It said these conclusions did not 'adhere to the tenets' of intelligence tradecraft. The House Intel panel's report put the onus on Obama and dismissed its composition, calling it a 'high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.' Gabbard on Friday released a report and accused Obama of overseeing a 'treasonous conspiracy' against Trump. On Tuesday night at a meeting at the White House with House Republicans, Trump called Gabbard the 'hottest' person in the room. That comes despite indications of a split over the attack Trump ordered on Iran's nuclear facilities. 'She's like, hotter than everybody. She's the hottest one in the room right now because she found out. ... I think we knew it before, in all fairness, Tulsi, but now you have certainty. She has all the documents. She has everything that you need. And she found out that Barack Hussein Obama led a group of people, and they cheated in the elections, and they cheated without question,' Trump told his allies. Gabbard, an anti-interventionist, had testified in March that the intelligence community 'continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon' despite its big stockpiled of enriched Uranium. Gabbard appeared on the conservative Newsmax network Tuesday night, and contested a scathing statement by Obama, who had called the resurfaced allegations 'bizarre' and a 'distraction.' 'We will be releasing further documents tomorrow that will refute that statement,' Gabbard said. The backdrop for the throwback drama over the 2016 election – rather than the 2020 race Trump repeatedly calls 'rigged' – are the series of stunning disclosures about the Jeffrey Epstein case that have rocked the White House and divided the MAGA movement.

Trump again calls for Fed board to act, says Powell 'doesn't get it'
Trump again calls for Fed board to act, says Powell 'doesn't get it'

Reuters

time19 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Trump again calls for Fed board to act, says Powell 'doesn't get it'

July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reiterated his criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell amid his ongoing call for lower rates, and called on the central bank's board to act. "Our Rate should be three points lower than they are, saving us $1 Trillion per year (as a Country). This stubborn guy at the Fed just doesn't get it — Never did, and never will. The Board should act, but they don't have the Courage to do so!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store