A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting Samoan designer Arthur Folasa Ah Loo was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday.
Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa, died June 14 in Salt Lake City, Utah, when a man who was part of a volunteer peacekeeping team for the protest fired three rounds. Matthew Scott Alder, 43, opened fire during the protest after seeing another man, Arturo Gamboa, carrying a rifle.
Alder fired three shots, wounding Gamboa but killing an innocent bystander, Afa.
Ah Loo’s widow, Laura Ah Loo, called the five-month wait “long, painful and deeply frustrating,” but commended the decision to pursue charges as “moral and just.”
She said in a statement, “No one else should have to go through what I have experienced in the future. It is my desire to help ensure that tragedies like this are prevented in the future, and that public spaces in our community remain safe.”
The sign Ah Loo was holding that fateful day read, “The world is watching,” his wife said at a press conference earlier this year.
