One week after the former “Project Runway” contestant Arthur Folasa “Afa” Ah Loo was the victim of a fatal shooting during a “No Kings” march in Salt Lake City, his friends and family are paying tribute to him in multiple ways.

A public memorial service will be held on Friday at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City and a private funeral is planned for Ah Loo’s family next Saturday. More than 1,000 people are expected at Friday’s open-to-all event, which will feature décor with the bright colors that Ah Loo favored, as well as musical and dance performances, and a video montage about his life, according to Benjamin Powell, who co-founded the nonprofit Creative Pacific with Ah Loo. Friday’s performers will be from Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti and other Pacific Islands.

Moments of silence in Ah Loo’s memory were planned for various festivals in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall also acknowledged his passing during an appearance on Friday. “Throughout the city, there is a lot going on with events that will recognize [Ah Loo’s death] and pay tribute to him,” Powell said.

The initial suspect in the shooting Arturo Gamboa, 24, was released from police custody Friday, according to a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Police Department. As reported, Ah Loo was not the “intended target” in the June 14 shooting amidst a crowd of 18,000 people. The 39-year-old Ah Loo was believed to have been “tragically wounded” by alleged peacekeepers, who were carrying handguns, and had allegedly fired at Gamboa, who was struck and found with an AR-15 style rifle nearby.

As the investigation into last Saturday’s shooting continues, the SLCPD has asked for the public’s help. In an online post, the department is asking that if anyone at the “No Kings” march “captured any footage, particularly from the moments immediately before, during, or after the shooting, or if you have video of the shooting itself, or the person arrested, please share that evidence with us.” And anyone, who witnessed the incident and has not spoken with SLCPD detectives, is being asked to do so.

A press release issued by a spokesperson for Salt Lake City district attorney Sam Gill Saturday read, “After the preliminary review of evidence presented to the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office’s homicide team, it was determined that we will not be able to make an informed decision by Monday at 5 p.m. as to the culpability, if any, as to Mr. Gamboa in relation to the fatal shooting of Arthur Folasa Ah Loo at the ‘No Kings’ Protest on Saturday, June 14, 2025.”

Ah Loo’s designer friends are also helping complete a wedding dress that he had designed for a bride-to-be.  After Natalie Wynn discovered a wedding gown in the design studio that she shared with Ah Loo, she posted an image of the dress on Instagram to try to find its owner, and Tiana Otu came forward. Wynn, who is helping to complete the gown, said via e-mail, “It’s been hard, but I’ve had so many fellow designers reach out to offer help. It’s been amazing to see Afa’s community come together. “

“Devastated” by the loss of Ah Loo, the fashion designer and “Project Runway” judge Christian Siriano described him earlier this week as “a bright light and creative force.” Siriano noted that while protesting against the Trump administration, “Ah Loo was taken from us far too soon, because of guns.”

Creative Pacific is also going forward with its annual fashion show on Aug. 1 at the Natural History Museum of Utah. This week there will be a call-out to other designers to have some of them create designs that Ah Loo had made before his death, Powell said. Ah Loo’s namesake company will go forward, Powell said. A collection that the designer created as part of the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange has yet to be shown on the runway in the U.S. (His work was featured in an exhibition in Buckingham Palace at one point.) “We’ll definitely have a lot to work with [in terms of Ah Loo’s designs], as time proceeds with his collections of the past. With the way things are now, I think that it will grow organically,” Powell said.

The annual Creative Pacific fashion show features the work of local and international AAPI designers, as well as designers of indigenous backgrounds. Ticket sales from the event will be used for a scholarship fund that supports creatives, who are interested in careers in design, merchandising, and cosmetology. Ah Loo and Powell had initially worked with Utah Pacific Fashion four years ago before creating their own nonprofit Creative Pacific the following year.

In 2021, the pair first met at a fashion show that featured Ah Loo’s designs, and Powell produced in San Francisco. The self-taught Ah Loo was inspired to go into fashion because his mother taught him sewing skills. Having visited Samoa with Ah Loo, Powell said, “For him, becoming what he became was probably far from the reality that he knew as a kid. Once he had the opportunity to be on ‘Project Runway’ and do all these things, he took advantage of that and ran with it. He had that drive from the beginning.”

The Fiji-born Powell added, “We are both from the islands. It’s not America. We are used to resourceful lifestyles by making the best with what we have. I wouldn’t say he was poor.  When you come here and see that abundance of materials and modernized machines, you think, ‘Wow, how lucky we are to have these things here.’ Keeping humble and having [once] had a lack of opportunity really pushed him more.”

Powell said that he and Ah Loo had agreed that should anything happen to either one of them, then the other would carry on with the work of Creative Pacific. Reliant on a team of volunteers, Powell said the group’s annual fashion show costs between $80,000 to $100,000 to produce. This year’s event will include a panel discussion and workshop on July 31, and a post- fashion show market day on Aug. 2 to showcase affiliated vendors and support small businesses.

Describing Ah Loo as “a person of service,” Powell said, “He just always said, ‘Yes.’ That’s why we always wanted to work together. We saw the need.”

A few years ago, a pageant-bound woman appealed to Ah Loo after a design that the seamstress she had chosen did not pan out, and he willfully helped. Powell recalled, “That’s just the kind of person he was.”