Salt Lake City — Prosecutors announced last week that they would not pursue charges against Arturo Gamboa, an activist in Utah who was arrested in June after a volunteer “peacekeeper” opened fire at a large “No Kings” protest injuring Gamboa and killing Arthur “Afa” Folasa Ah Loo.

The volunteer, tasked with security for the march and later identified as Matt Alder, saw Gamboa assembling a legally owned, legally carried AR-15-style rifle near the march in downtown Salt Lake City on June 14. Alarmed, Alder called for another volunteer security guard before drawing a concealed handgun. As Gamboa tried to rejoin the march, Alder opened fire, hitting Gamboa and killing Ah Loo.

Immediately after the shooting, police arrested Gamboa on a murder charge. The arresting officer claimed that Gamboa’s actions had created the situation that caused Alder to fear for his life and the lives of others, prompting Alder to open fire.

As a result Gamboa was blamed for Ah Loo’s death for having “acted under circumstances that showed a depraved indifference to human life, knowingly engag[ing] in conduct that created a grave risk of death and ultimately caused the death of an innocent community member,” according to a police statement.

Gamboa was held without bail for five days under suspicion of committing a violent felony. Police briefly detained Alder but did not take him into custody.

Related: Protest ‘Peacekeepers’ Shot Two People at a March in Salt Lake City. One Died, the Other Went to Jail.

But nearly six months after the incident, Salt Lake’s District Attorney Sim Gill has decided not to press charges against Gamboa, and instead will pursue a manslaughter charge against Alder.

On Tuesday, Gamboa gave his first public statement on the case since his arrest during a press conference organized by his lawyer Greg Skordas.

Throughout the hour-long press event, Gamboa emphasized that not only was he wrongly blamed for the incident and Ah Loo’s death, but that he had faced significant struggles as a result of how the incident was handled.

“I did not shoot anybody. I did not fire a single shot. I did not have any ammunition in the rifle,” Gamboa said. “However the blame was placed squarely on my shoulders.”

Gamboa described his arrest and the drawn-out process leading to last week’s decision as a scapegoating, and he asserted that he was doing nothing more than exercising his First and Second Amendment rights that day.

“From the moment that everything happened, I was treated as a psychopathic villain,” Gamboa told reporters Tuesday.

The mental and physical tolls that the ordeal have taken on Gamboa have been difficult and long-lasting – from his incarceration to his medical recovery, Gamboa described the struggles he’s faced since his June arrest.

“The very moment that I was put into handcuffs, I was not out of handcuffs until I was in the jail,” save for occasional medical treatment, he said. “The most time that I spent unhandcuffed, outside of chains, was within the confines of a maximum security cell.”

Gamboa has been saddled with tens of thousands in medical debt after his hospitalization and treatment for being shot through the abdomen.

He has also faced difficulty living under the conditions of his release, Skordas told reporters, uncertain about what he was and wasn’t allowed to do while out on bail.

As for who to hold responsible for the incident, Gamboa places the blame on the event’s organizers and Alder.

“We all know the only person who drew their firearm, aimed it and fired it into a crowd of people, who recklessly discharged their firearm, who had the intention of murdering me, and who did murder Mr. Ah Loo,” Gamboa said, alluding to Alder.

Attorneys for Ah Loo’s family said they will file a wrongful death suit against Alder in the coming weeks and that they may pursue civil charges against 50501, the organization behind the No Kings march, as well as Armed Queers, a leftist gun advocacy group who attorneys say helped coordinate security for the June march.

Ah Loo’s family will not pursue legal action against Gamboa, an attorney for the family said.

When asked at Tuesday’s press conference if Gamboa may pursue charges against Alder, Skordas told reporters that they do not want to diminish any damages Ah Loo’s family may be entitled to, and that they will defer to the wishes of Ah Loo’s family and legal representation.

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