WATCH: Arturo Gamboa is released from jail, walks out arm in arm with his mother
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After a judge signed an order granting his release Friday, Arturo Gamboa was released from jail, walking arm in arm with his mother, and his attorney and another representative spoke on his behalf.
Gamboa was arrested on June 14 following a deadly shooting at the ‘No Kings’ protest in Salt Lake City that left 39-year-old Afa Ah Loo dead. Gamboa was carrying a rifle at the protest when an armed “peacekeeper” saw him and opened fire, striking both Gamboa and Ah Loo.
When he was finally released from the Salt Lake County Jail, after six days, he walked out arm in arm with his mother, and they headed straight to their car. He did not speak with media or offer any comment.
Earlier in the day, his attorney said in a statement that Gamboa was “treated like an animal” in jail, and that he was only given two bandages and over the counter painkillers for his gunshot wound.
A representative for Gamboa did offer comment. He is a friend of Gamboa’s and an indigenous activist, and they have demonstrated at protests together in the past. Carl Moore said that Gamboa never lifted his weapon during the protest and that it was not loaded.
“He is thankful for all the people that have been supporting him, because there is a large community that has been supporting him through all this, and we will continue to support him,” Moore said. “This is something in the activist community that we want to support each other, and very much in this case where he was wrongfully put in jail and put in such a level that a person that didn’t even lift their weapon and had a weapon that wasn’t even loaded. There’s no reason for this to happen. Honestly, it’s an embarrassment for the whole system.”
In an interview with ABC4.com, his attorney Greg Skordas explained why Gamboa did not speak to the media.
“He really just wanted to go have a meal with his mother, and to me that seemed like the right thing to do,” Skordas said. He also said that Gamboa may be willing to speak in the future.
As for his release, Skordas said, “We’re obviously pleased that he was released when he was, disappointed that he wasn’t released sooner, very disappointed that he was taken into custody at all.”
I think that it was misguided to believe that he could possibly be a suspect in a homicide case, and I think the evidence for that was quite clear quite soon, and so that’s why we took the steps that we did to file the motion today, because at some point enough was enough, and the District Attorney’s office was reasonable with this and spoke to us and agreed that he would be released.”
Gamboa’s attorney, Greg Skordas
When it comes to what will happen next, Skordas said he hopes the Salt Lake City Police will conclude their investigation. “They’ll come to the same conclusion that I did, and we did, that there was no crime committed, and that we’ll be done with this,” he said.
Skordas also said that he hopes people learn from this. “I hope that people don’t come to the conclusion that because a person of color chooses to open carry a gun, that suddenly he’s doing something wrong when other people who do the exact same thing would be treated as though they’re doing something right,” he said. “But we have a lot to learn, and hopefully we’ve learned something from this case.
Salt Lake City Police Department and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office both said in statements Friday that the investigation was still ongoing, and they will continue to coordinate as the investigation continues.
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