(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Medical personnel attend to an injured man after a reported shooting during a demonstration in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Salt Lake City police say they have taken a person of interest into custody after a shooting near the No Kings march downtown Saturday evening.
One injured man was seen collapsed on State Street with emergency responders providing care. Another person was seen being loaded onto a stretcher by Salt Lake City Fire; he appeared to be the same man officers had handcuffed.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Police arrest a man after a reported shooting during a demonstration in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 14, 2025.
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 and 200 South on State Street.
A video shared with The Salt Lake Tribune by witness Kris Pendleton captures the sounds of shots being fired and the crowd’s frightened reactions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugHoGsYbQA (
archive.ph)(
PreserveTube)
Organizers were yelling instructions telling people to move north of the federal building. On X, Salt Lake City police said, “We are asking people to leave to leave the demonstration safely and orderly.”
The Salt Lake City Police Department estimated there were 4,000 people gathered at Pioneer Park the park before the march to the Bennett Federal Building began. The department had increased that estimate to 10,000 during the march.
‘We need to run’
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A man lays injured on the street as police respond to a reported shooting during a protest march in Salt Lake City, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
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 and my wife grabbed my arm and said, ‘We need to run,’” he said.
They ran toward a parking garage and saw another man with a gun running past them toward the shooting.
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 coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday.
Britt Miller, president of Teamsters Local 222, was one of the first speakers i Pioneer Park. “Nonviolence is critical,” he stressed to the crowd. Everyone 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 and Capitalism is the disease,” they said.
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 if they stand up to the Trump regime,” she said.
(Brock Marchant | The Salt Lake Tribune) Heather Shelley and her son joined Utahns who marched from Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building as part of a No Kings demonstration, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
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,” Munoz said.
The evening march in Utah’s capital follows more than a dozen peaceful No Kings rallies across the state during the day.
As of 4 p.m., No Kings national organizers said over five 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.
Gov. 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, we will arrest you and hold you accountable and break up the disturbance,” he said.
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 person was arrested.
