A 39-year-old shot and killed the NO Kings protest on the weekend, Salt Lake City was a successful fashion designer and a former participant in the project Rug and Land Trail, who dedicated his life to celebrating artists from the Pacific Isles.
Arthur Foloa Ah Loo was killed when a man who is believed to be part of the peace support team for a protest shot at a man who has accidentally strikes AH LOO. Ah Loo later died in hospital, authorities said.
Detectives do not yet know why a suspected rifle pulled out a weapon or ran from peacekeeping staff, but they accused him of murder and accused him of creating a dangerous situation that Ah Loo died, Salt Leiko City Police Chief Brian Redd said at a Sunday press conference.
AH LOO leaves his wife and two young children, according to Gofundme for his family, who collected more than $ 100,000 in 48 hours.
Born in Samoja, a “self-taught” fashion designer, known to many as AFA, devoted his life to “good things to their neighbors and community,” said State spokeswoman Verona Mauga.
Mauga was the No Kings Protest for several blocks where Ah Loo was shot. She said she only had a feeling that something was wrong with seeing a crowd fleeing.
As tragic, as his death, she said Ah Loo would be proud that his last moments were spent fighting for what he believed in.
“If AFA is going to go out otherwise than natural reasons, she should give up separated and vulnerable communities and make sure people have a voice,” Mauga said on Monday.
Although he was usually not openly political, Ah Loo was working hard to combine “culture and diversity and ministry” and bring together people, Mauga said.
Benjamin Powell, a hair salon innovator from Fiji, together after they met four years ago. The organization lifts artists from the Pacific Islands.
Both artists had a rare creative synergy, Powell said. AH LOO vibrant work subtly weaves the traditional Pacific Island outfit with modern silhouettes and design. He used local flowers, local Samoa as a motif, and often included traditional Pacific island art, called “IV”, a fabric traditionally made of wood bark, into his own clothes.
Powell admired the careful attention to the details that made Ah Loo the work exceptional.
“You would immediately know that it was Ah Loo Design,” Powell said.
Ah Loo and Powell worked at the upcoming August fashion show when he died. Powell said “the show will continue” and honor the unwanted vision of Ah Loo to his community.
Ah Loo portfolio has won many praise over the years. 2017 He was a “Bravo” Project Runway, a reality TV show where fashion designers compete in front of a celebrity judgment to create a runway.
Recently, Ah Loo designed clothes for Disney Channel’s Moan 2 star, Hawaii actor Auli Cravalho.
Cravalho wore an outfit that combined the traditional and modern aesthetics of its culture before the film’s red carpet premiere in Hawaii last November.
“It was the first time I was so actively helping to design a custom look, and AFA surpassed what I imagined,” Cravalho told the magazine at the time.
But not all of his work were high, Mauga said.
Ah Loo would voluntarily allow their time and resources to apply clothes for people who needed help, often refuse to allow people to compensate for his job, Mauga said. Occasionally, Ah Loo playfully criticized the outfit that the newly elected Democratic representative, portable on a campaign trace, would invite her to his studio to make her a new set of jackets. He will also make her dresses for events, sometimes in just a couple of hours.
“AFA was part of the community,” she said.