Photo: Katie McKellar, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office filed criminal charges against ten people accused in a July 9, 2019 protest at the Utah State Chamber of Commerce building over a planned Inland Port.
Eight people were arrested on the day of the protest; five people were jailed.
The ten people charged today are Amy Kovac, 28, Salt Lake City; Joshua Baker-Cooper, 34, Salt Lake City; Jackson Richman, 18, West Jordan; Ethan Peterson, 25; Nicholas Jones, 30; Kaden Fralick, 21, Salt Lake City; Rosemary Obrien, 25, Oskaloosa, Kansas; Hannah Zivolich, 24, Mexican Hat; Richard Anderson Jr, 31, Salt Lake City; and Randy Navarette, 20, Magna.
Each of the people charged today faces counts of riot and criminal trespass. Other charges faced by some of the individuals include propelling a bodily substance, interference with an arresting officer and assault against a peace officer or military service member.
The protest over the Inland Port planning process began peacefully outside the Salt Lake City-County Building at 200 E. and 400 S. in Salt Lake City. But then police say more than 100 protesters took to the street, blocking traffic and continuing to the Chamber of Commerce building.
That’s where they hurled themselves into the lobby, police say, and into an elevator which took them to the sixth floor of the building.
There, they began shouting outside the Board rooms. Police say the protesters also banged on walls and windows and carried banners.
Salt Lake City police eventually forced the protesters from the sixth floor. The majority of them returned to the building’s lobby and continued to protest.
Police say that police and protesters then started shoving each other and, at one point, members of Utah’s print media were trapped against a wall behind police and protesters.
This story will be updated.