Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest shooting is still under investigation. No charges have been filed, and the one person arrested by Salt Lake City Police has been released.
It’s a case that those with professional experience in Utah’s criminal justice system say will be complicated and time-consuming to sort through.
Bystander Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo was killed by an unnamed “safety volunteer” at the demonstration. The volunteer perceived Arturo Gamboa, who was carrying a rifle, as a threat and fired three shots, injuring Gamboa and hitting Ah Loo. Gamboa did not fire a shot and was held for almost a week on suspicion of murder. His release came after the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office told a judge they would need more time to decide whether to charge him.
Utah criminal defense attorney Steve Burton, who is not working on the case, was surprised by Gamboa’s release. Just the day before, prosecutors had received a judge's approval to extend his detention. After a preliminary review of evidence, District Attorney Sim Gill’s office said it couldn’t meet the extended deadline for filing charges.
“This is the type of thing that law school professors conjure up when they're trying to figure out a complex question for a law school exam,” Burton said.
This is a case the public is watching closely and carries serious potential charges. That’s why Burton said if he were the prosecutor, he would want as much information as possible to build a case that doesn’t waver as time goes on. While prosecutors can amend charges, Burton said doing so could be advantageous to the defendant if the case goes to trial. It could show that prosecutors are not confident in the charges they’re presenting beyond a reasonable doubt.
“And in the case that's high profile and this serious, it's important to try to make sure that you file the correct charges at the beginning of the case.”
Burton said there is no way of knowing how long it will take for charges to be filed without being inside the case.
“It could be three days. It could be three months,” Burton said. “Obviously, they're prioritizing the case because it is a high-profile case, so that tends to speed things up.”
Gill has asked for patience as his office works on the case.
Police spokesperson Brent Weisberg couldn’t answer questions about the ongoing investigation, but said in a statement, “Our detectives continue to actively investigate this case, which includes gathering and carefully reviewing a large volume of evidence and information. We remain committed to conducting a thorough, objective, and evidence-based investigation.”
Former Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said large amounts of evidence just make the case that much more time-consuming. If he were over a case like this, Burbank would tell his detectives to put together a case file with as much factual, unbiased evidence as possible to show what took place. From there, police and the district attorney's office weigh all of that evidence and make determinations.
While Burbank doesn’t know the scope of evidence police are working with, he said it would include talking to eyewitnesses, sorting through tips, looking at hard evidence from the scene and sorting through a lot of video, both from surveillance cameras and people at the scene. While videos show a factual representation of what took place, Burbank said they do not necessarily show the “full truth” because evidence can be interpreted differently by different people. That’s why, he said, police have to gather and evaluate as much evidence as they can to try and put together a complete picture for prosecutors.
“The responsibility of the police is to evaluate everything,” Burbank said. “To ignore any of that [potential evidence] is irresponsible.”
He said investigators will watch a video several times, sometimes second by second, until they can tell whether it is evidence or not.
“This is no different than going through and dusting for fingerprints, looking for blood splatter,” Burbank said.
Given the high-profile nature of the case, Burbank suspects police are getting lots of tips, and they have to investigate each one. Both Burbank and Burton agree there is also probably some back-and-forth between prosecutors and investigators, seeking more information about specific things before the district attorney feels confident about any charges.
