Friends of Arturo Gamboa say they don't believe he ever brandished the weapon. Instead, they believe the shooting was a deadly miscommunication — someone overreacting because he was open-carrying.

A self-described “peacekeeper” shot three times at Gamboa. At least one of the bullets hit Gamboa in the side. Another bullet accidentally hit and killed a 39-year-old protester.

So some rookie sees a guy peacefully walking around with an AR-15 and starts blasting? Open carry is stupid, carrying an AR-15 alone at a protest is stupid. But it’s still the dude’s right. Maybe the “peacekeeper” was an off duty HiGhlY TraINeD cop.

  • TranscendentalEmpireEnglish
    111·
    3 days ago

    a statement issued Monday afternoon, the Salt Lake City Police Department said it’s investigating the involvement of the “peacekeepers,” as well as other aspects of the protest’s organization and staffing. “At this time, it remains unclear whether these individuals were hired by or volunteered for the event organizers, or acted on their own initiative,” Salt Lake City Police spokesperson Brent Weisberg said.

    I don’t think there are official security from 50501. It sounds like they just put up a post telling people who wanted to volunteer to dress in hivis. However they specified that no one should be armed and not to confront armed protestors.

    Also your research must not be very fleshed out if you didn’t know the “dead guy” was just an innocent bystander who was killed when a vigilante open fired on a target in front of a crowd.