SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Hundreds of cities had No Kings rallies on June 14 in protest of Trump administration policies, but only one of the rallies turned deadly. Thirty-nine-year-old Arthur Afa Ah Loo was killed while he attended a march in Salt Lake City. Saige Miller with member station KUER has more on his public memorial Friday evening.
SAIGE MILLER, BYLINE: The celebration of Afa Ah Loo's life didn't resemble a traditional memorial as Americans know it. The hundreds of attendees wore vibrant colors, lively, patterned clothing and traditional Pacific Islander regalia.
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MILLER: People clapped throughout the memorial. They laughed, they sang and they spoke in his native tongue of Samoan.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in Samoan).
MILLER: Laura Ah Loo is Afa's wife. She proudly spoke about how he was a wonderful father of two, a fashion designer who was featured on the hit competition show "Project Runway" and a pillar of Utah's Pacific Islander community.
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LAURA AH LOO: Losing Afa feels like losing the sun - our light, our warmth and our comfort. It is more devastating than I can ever put to words because no amount of words can encompass who he was as a person and who he was to me and our babies.
MILLER: Ah Loo was fatally shot by an unnamed safety volunteer while marching in the No Kings protest. Salt Lake City police say Ah Loo wasn't the intended target. He was an innocent bystander. The armed safety volunteer told police he saw another man, identified as Arturo Gamboa, separate from the crowd, pull out a rifle, and begin manipulating it. The safety volunteer fired three shots. One struck Gamboa, the other killed Ah Loo. Gamboa was the only person arrested by police. He has since been released, no charges have been filed and the case remains under investigation.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) With his love...
MILLER: But what happened to Ah Loo wasn't mentioned during the service. Telesia Tonga was Ah Loo's dear friend. She told the crowd the evening was solely about remembering his legacy.
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TELESIA TONGA: His fashion, his kindness, his music, even his food, his unapologetic laughter, and his one-of-a-kind humor, and especially his fearlessness.
MILLER: Everyone had different stories to tell about their time with Ah Loo, but they all reiterated one thing - Afa was larger than life.
For NPR News, I'm Saige Miller in Salt Lake City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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