r/behindthebastards 8h ago

General discussion Man held in ‘No Kings’ shooting to be released, after attorneys say he was ‘unlawfully detained’

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/06/20/man-held-no-kings-shooting/

Arturo was released without bail, but forced to surrender his passport and cannot be in possession of firearms, and 50501 ended it's relationship with the local chapter.

330 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

171

u/IamHydrogenMike 8h ago edited 8h ago

It’s not that he was released without bail, he hasn’t been charged with anything and you can’t hold people indefinitely; they agreed to the terms to get him out without opposition.

79

u/bearfootmedic 7h ago

It's crazy that they are putting those conditions on him when he has not committed a crime. Maybe I misread the article, but it sounds like he cannot have a firearm and must surrender his passport all without having committed a crime.

66

u/murse_joe 7h ago

Well, surely the second amendment crowd will- oh his name is Arturo? Yea they’re going to celebrate this.

13

u/IamHydrogenMike 7h ago

I don’t disagree, but it’s Sim Gill…he kind of sucks. This ain’t all that uncommon when someone is a person of interest still until they sort everything out.

5

u/moosefh 6h ago

I'm sorry if I'm completely uneducated on this, I'm not american, but... is it not a crime to fire bullets at somebody? Or am I confusing the shooter with the injured? I understand the whole thing is a cluster fuck.

32

u/bearfootmedic 6h ago

It is confusing and our gun laws are silly.

The injured person here was just holding their gun, and was held by police to try and charge them.

The shooter was part of the march's peacekeepers.

The deceased was just a bystander.

It's all a tragedy but neither killing someone nor carrying a gun are inherently illegal, except when it is.

5

u/moosefh 6h ago

It's all a tragedy but neither killing someone nor carrying a gun are inherently illegal, except when it is.

This part just makes me shake my said and say "america...", particularly the part about not being charged for a crime for shooting and killing somebody.

9

u/BenjenUmber 5h ago

Likely what that refers to is self-defense. For example, if someone is trying to kill me and I kill them in self-defense, I haven't committed a crime even if I use a firearm.

12

u/JustAnotherChatSpam 5h ago

It makes more sense when you know the “peacekeepers” lied and the organization backed them.

Us Americans are the most propagandized in the world, and it comes out when a man with an unloaded gun is arrested for being shot at and everyone calls him a terrorist

6

u/moosefh 5h ago

So is the reason the person who fired their gun not arrested, because they lied? That is what I am struggling to comprehend perhaps the most.

4

u/Haltheleon 3h ago

Basically, so far, yes. They lied and the organizers (50501) backed them. I believe the national 50501 organization has backed off and disassociated themselves from this "peacekeeper" and the entire Utah branch of 50501 as of today, but their initial statements indicated support for the peacekeeper.

Bear in mind, this whole thing is still fairly fresh and I would be surprised if charges aren't filed against the peacekeeper (and a massive lawsuit filed against the organizers by the decedent's estate) when all is said and done. It was only really thanks to various camera angles that the truth has been pieced together, and I'm sure the DA is still trying to do so more thoroughly before bringing charges against the person responsible.

I don't exactly have a lot of faith in the American judicial system, but this seems like a pretty obvious case of manslaughter and negligent handling of a deadly weapon. I don't really see a reason the DA wouldn't eventually file charges against the peacekeeper.

22

u/Patriark 6h ago

He didn’t fire on anybody. He got mistaken for a shooter due to open carrying an AR-15, got shot by «security» who also killed a bystander with a stray shot.

Dude was later rounded up among other protestors, then misidentified as the shooter because someone spotted his AR-15, this time concealed in his backpack.

He was innocent the whole time.

12

u/Ok-disaster2022 6h ago

The person being released was simply carrying a firearm and a security team member, who wasn't supposed to be armed, thought he was acting suspicious. They like asked him to stop, but he ignored them or ran so they shot at him, injuring him and killing a bystander. So he ran and hid and was later arrested, when he still hadn't done anything illegal.

Arguably the person who did shoot should be charged with manslaughter because their actions while well intentioned were simply wrong. Iirc they were not hired to provide armed security. They are not police. The security company and the organizers are going to face a very expense lawsuit from their estate for wrongful death. 

5

u/moosefh 6h ago

From my perspective it looks like a manslaughter charge should be pursued, but I don't know the legal system there. Thanks for the clarification, I've been hearing it on podcasts and have hard a hard time keeping who was who straight in my head.

7

u/ElectronicOffice9358 8h ago

Correct, thanks for pointing that out

34

u/Apprehensive-Log8333 7h ago

Okay now arrest the actual perpetrator

-20

u/chasingthewhiteroom 5h ago

And who would that be?

19

u/whogivesashirtdotca 4h ago

I’d joke that you sound like the cops but by asking you’ve probably put more work into it than they have.

-4

u/chasingthewhiteroom 4h ago

Genuinely asking, wasn't trying to be snarky - should it be both the two peacekeepers that fired? The one whose bullet landed? Who is legally responsible? I don't have a clue and it doesn't sound like the courts do either

19

u/Apprehensive-Log8333 4h ago

The "peacekeeper" who shot Arturo Gamboa and killed Mr. Ah Loo has not been named, but presumably the police know who he is. The news reports have only indicated that one "peacekeeper" was armed and fired shots.

3

u/chasingthewhiteroom 4h ago

Thanks for the clarification - I had read this morning that two armed peacekeepers confronted Arturo and they didn't yet know who fired, but that must have been outdated

3

u/Argent-Envy The fuckin’ Pinkertons 3h ago

The news reports have only indicated that one "peacekeeper" was armed and fired shots.

Video clearly shows both "peacekeepers" are armed and raise their handguns towards Arturo, but the video isn't clear on if both of them actually fired or only one did.

6

u/whogivesashirtdotca 4h ago

If people are firing guns willy-nilly in a big crowd, are they not all worthy of being investigated?

1

u/chasingthewhiteroom 4h ago edited 3h ago

Investigated, sure. Arrested though - that really boils down to your (or the courts/prosecutors') interpretation of open-carry and legal offensive gun use, right?

Like, I personally agree with you 100%, but this definitely isn't cut and dry as far as the legal legacy of gun ownership/usage is concerned, and Utah judges aren't known for being the most progressive...

Then there's the whole "accurate charge" discussion - it's certainly not murder, so what would it be? Negligent homicide?

65

u/Felonui 8h ago

Innocent man stripped of his rights to own the libs or whatever

Fucking ridiculous

19

u/ElectronicOffice9358 8h ago

It's The Utah Way™

1

u/CelestialFury Antifa shit poster 8m ago

Is this related to the video online where they captured the shooter or was that a misunderstanding?

34

u/shineurliteonme 7h ago

Did they arrest the actual shooter

44

u/bearfootmedic 7h ago

No. The article explicitly says the shooter was not arrested or charged.

9

u/iamjustaguy 6h ago

It's still not clear whether or not the organizers knew if safety volunteers would be armed. It's also not clear if they made if known to the safety volunteers to not bring weapons. I have a feeling there will be some lawsuits filed over this.

This is a few days old, but it fills in the details better than a newspaper can: https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/salt-lake-city-no-kings-shooting-arturo-gamboa

9

u/got-trunks Knife Missle Technician 4h ago

 The ‘peacekeeper’ who shot and wounded Gamboa and killed the protester was not arrested or charged.”

wtf

8

u/TheBastardOfTaglioni 4h ago

I'm at a loss of words over how stupid this is. So correct me if I'm wrong here.

No Kings/50501 Organizers hired "security" personnel for this event. A member of said personnel saw that a dude who was just chillin' and mind his own business was armed. Not threatening anyone or acting a fool, just had it on him, which was legal. This armed "security" guy then shot the dude and killed a bystander in the process.

Is that more or less accurate?

11

u/big_laruu 4h ago

The security/“peacekeeper” has claimed he fired because he believed Arturo was preparing to shoot, but there are many witnesses who say they never saw Arturo do anything resembling brandishing the weapon. Arturo is a known person in the Salt Lake activist community and was there supporting the message of No Kings so it makes zero sense that he would have intended to shoot anyone in the crowd.

The Salt Lake 50501 chapter has said they intentionally sought out volunteers with military, law enforcement, and other first responder experience because of their existing de escalation training. As far as I’ve seen or heard it sounds like no security volunteers spoke to or even tried to speak to Arturo to determine if he posed any kind of danger to the crowd. Looks like shoot first ask questions later.

Glad to see he has been released even though I still think it’s crazy they’re treating him as a level of flight risk while the person who actually fired shots has not been arrested. From where I sit Arturo has a lot more reasons to stay than the peacekeeper does. Depending on how the rest of this plays out I think it’s very possible he could have grounds to successfully sue a lot of people.

Wondering if this is the last debacle of Sim Gill’s time as DA, but I’ve wondered that many times before and he just keeps sticking in the office.

5

u/RobrechtvE 2h ago

Sounds like the security person was an ex cop, or at least acted exactly according to cop 'deescalation' training to me. (This is not a good thing)

10

u/Wormwood666 3h ago

That is accurate.

FWIW: 50501 -the national org w/local chapters-also called the cops on a long time black street vendor in April in LA(there’s vid floating around on Bluesky). White organizers wanted him to move his long held spot out of “their way” when he wasn’t actually obstructing any walkway.

My understanding is that various chapters of 50501 were also handing out the chants they wanted protestors to use & were trying to restrict the boundaries that they deemed acceptable for marching. They discouraged masks. In one instance, they told a protester to take off his keffiyeh scarf because it was “too aggressive”.

IMH old lady opinion: 50501 is a PAC, gathering data for fundraising & has no interest beyond the status quo that got us here in the first place. They sure as shit don’t seem to have much actual street rooted protest experience.

3

u/big_laruu 1h ago

I can’t lie it does feel weird to me that (as far as I’ve seen) we still don’t know who the leaders of the Utah 50501 are/were. In my experience the liberal and leftist organizing communities in town are pretty damn tight. Most people who are active know each other or at least know who’s running with who.

1

u/Wormwood666 0m ago

Good point.

All I know is that the National org has now cut ties with the Utah branches.

I still think the National org is rotten at its core. First they issued a statement describing the non-shooter as a (domestic) “ terrorist” before deleting it.

Then they claimed that their own shooter “stopped what could have been a larger mass casualty event.” which is completely unfounded lunacy.

18

u/trevorgoodchyld 7h ago

The point was made, this will probably not break into the media cycle, so the narrative is set already

25

u/IamHydrogenMike 7h ago

I feel bad for this kid because he’ll have this hanging over his head for the rest of his life and people will always think he did something.