1 ‘critically injured,’ 1 arrested

Note to readers • The Salt Lake Tribune has made this story free to all.

Sunday update: The person shot Saturday night has died. Read more here.

Salt Lake City police said they have taken three people into custody after a shooting near the “No Kings” march downtown Saturday evening left a man with a “critical” gunshot wound.

The injured man was seen collapsed on State Street with emergency responders providing care to him, directly in front of the Liberty SKY apartment complex.

The motive for the shooting and the events that led up to it remained under investigation, police said. Preliminarily, a news release said, the department believes the shooting “involved four people,” which included the critically injured victim.

A man was seen being loaded onto a stretcher by Salt Lake City Fire; he appeared to be the same man officers had handcuffed. The news release said police pursued “one of the involved parties and took him into custody near 200 East and 100 South.”

He was taken to a hospital with “serious injuries resulting from a gunshot wound,” police said, and he remains there under guard. At a news conference Saturday night, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said police do not know who shot the man.

Redd said two other individuals were taken into custody later. He did not elaborate on why they were detained.

Police said they heard shots fired at about 7:56 p.m. near 151 S. State St.

Salt Lake Tribune journalists saw protesters running away from a location near the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building. A Tribune photographer heard officers yelling “Gunman!” and “Man with rifle!” as they swarmed into a parking garage between 100 South and 200 South on State Street.

A video shared with The Tribune by witness Kris Pendleton captured the sounds of shots being fired and the crowd’s frightened reactions.

Organizers were yelling instructions, telling people to move north of the federal building. On social media, Salt Lake City police said, “We are asking people to leave the demonstration safely and orderly.”

The Police Department estimated there were 4,000 people gathered at Pioneer Park before the march to the Bennett Federal Building began. The department had increased that estimate to 10,000 during the march.

[Read more: ‘It’s just not who we are’: Utah leaders condemn shooting at ‘No Kings’ protest.]

‘We need to run’

Pendleton said he and his wife got to the protest late and were catching up to the back of the march when he heard a loud bang about 10 feet away.

After a second bang, he said, he turned and saw “a guy about 10 to 15 feet away from me in a yellow vest, and he was shooting somebody.”

He said the man in the vest “seemed like someone who knew what they were doing. Maybe it was an armed security guard or a police officer.”

“I was kind of deer in the headlights,” Pendleton said, “and my wife grabbed my arm and said, ‘We need to run.’”

They darted toward a parking garage and saw another man with a gun running past them toward the shooting.

Sarah Morton said she was walking along State Street and there was a positive feel to the day when she heard a loud pop, turned, and saw a man “drop to his knees and then face-plant” about 15 feet away, she said.

“He fell forward toward me,” she said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, that guy just got shot.’ … I ducked and scurried, and I got to the [Edison Street] alley, and people were running past me, and I saw a policeman drawing his weapon going back” toward the shooting.

Eric Snider drove from Provo to attend Saturday’s protest and was about 75 feet away from the person who was shot. While walking along with the crowd, he recalled, he heard three to four gunshots ring out over the sound of protesters’ chants.

“As I heard them, I looked and saw cops drawing their guns,” Snider said. “People immediately scattered, and the cops rushed over. I could see there was the man lying on the street, close to the curb, and cops were gathered around him to give medical assistance.”

Snider shared a video with The Tribune that he recorded immediately after he heard gunshots. The person who was shot is seen lying on the road next to what appears to be a protest sign the person was holding.

As police tried to clear the area, they initially pushed away a man who approached and shouted, “I’m a trauma nurse.” He held up a backpack that appeared to contain medical supplies, and police allowed him to treat the shooting victim.

“Shooter’s in the garage,” one officer told others, pointing to a parking garage at 151 S. State St., next to the Liberty SKY apartments. Several officers are seen in the video running into the garage with guns drawn.

By the video’s end, five people are attending the man who was shot. “Is this is our f—ing country?” one protester screams while watching the victim receive care.

‘Let’s not let fear rule us’

Snider and other protesters made their way back to Pioneer Park, where the protest began, and he then left for home nearly an hour after the shooting.

Snider doesn’t feel “too traumatized,” he said, since he didn’t see the shooting happen. “Right now, I don’t even know that it was even connected to the march,” he said.

“If people get the idea that it was connected to the march, that the marches are dangerous, then, yeah, I guess it might [impact future protests] but I hope not,” he added.

Morton agreed. Before the shooting, she said, there had been no counterprotesters, and police kept the streets open.

“I just want to say, ‘Hey, these are regular people. I’m a mom. I live in Sandy and I was peacefully protesting the politics that I think are inhuman,’” she said. “… Let’s not let fear rule us. I’ll be at the next protest.”

Before the march

As part of the national “No Kings” movement, Utahns had gathered to oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement and decision to use military force against protests in Los Angeles, as well as a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday — which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.

Britt Miller, president of Teamsters Local 222, was one of the first speakers in Pioneer Park. “Nonviolence is critical,” he stressed to the crowd. All people should be able to work, he added, regardless of their immigration status.

“We are here to protest back and raise our voice” against mass deportation and efforts to quiet protesters by “this authoritarian regime,” said Jiro Johnson, assistant director for Salt Lake County’s public defender office.

Johnson was chosen by Democrats this week to fill the seat on the Salt Lake County Council held by Arlyn Bradshaw, who resigned to join county Mayor Jenny Wilson’s administration. “We must stand with those families,” he added.

Speaker Ermiya Fanaeian, a political organizer with Armed Queers Salt Lake City, emphasized that they see a connection between current immigration enforcement and others they consider oppressed by the United States, including individuals who are without gender-affirming care and Palestinians facing attack.

“We are not free until all of us are free,” Fanaeian said.

Presidents of both parties have enacted deportation policies, they added, stressing the high number of deportations that took place under President Barack Obama.

“Socialism is the cure,” Fanaeian said, “and capitalism is the disease.”

Cars could be heard honking as they passed the park, and a cowbell rang during periods of applause. At least one drone and a helicopter were flying overhead.

As the march began just before 7 p.m., a chant of “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA” broke out.

Marcher Heather Shelley of Salt Lake City said she joined the event as a show of humanity. She also hopes that standing up to Trump will show lawmakers that they have constituents’ backing, she said, if they take a stand against him as well.

“Our lawmakers need to realize how many people would support them,” she said, “if they stand up to the Trump regime.”

Bystanders watched from sidewalks, restaurants and buildings along the route. Many clapped for the protesters, some cheered and whistled and others picked up the chants.

The turnout was an incredible show of support, said Henry Munoz, 33, from Orem. “It’s extraordinary. It’s a sight to see.”

The evening march in Utah’s capital follows more than a dozen peaceful “No Kings” rallies across the state during the day.

[Read more: Utahns gather at “No Kings” protests from Logan to Salt Lake City, St. George to Moab.]

As of 4 p.m., No Kings national organizers said over 5 million people had participated in the movement’s Saturday events.

Tensions throughout the nation were high Saturday after a Minnesota lawmaker was killed and another was injured by a gunman, while leaders nationwide condemned political violence.

[Read more: Here’s how Utah leaders are reacting to killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and shooting of another.]

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has said he wants “Utah to be the best place in the United States to protest” and the “worst possible place to riot.”

“The second you implement violence or property destruction,” he said, “we will arrest you and hold you accountable and break up the disturbance.”

At a separate June 12 protest with over 1,000 participants, marchers went from Washington Square Park to the Bennett Federal Building. The Salt Lake City Police Department reported that while the demonstration was mostly peaceful, they had to break up several small fights and one person was arrested.

Update: June 15, 11:35 a.m. • The story has been updated to clarify where Morton was when the shooting occurred.

[Read more: See what happened at Thursday’s ‘ICE Out’ protest in downtown Salt Lake City.]