OREM, Utah (AP) 鈥 Authorities searched on Thursday for the shooter who with one gunshot from a distant rooftop killed conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk as he spoke at a Utah college event.
Whoever fired the gun on Wednesday then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Federal, state and local authorities were searching for an unidentified shooter early Thursday and were working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”
鈥淭his is a dark day for our state. It鈥檚 a tragic day for our nation,” said. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.鈥
Two people were detained Wednesday, but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said.
Authorities did not immediately identify a motive behind the killing of Kirk, who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters. But the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans 鈥淭he American Comeback鈥 and 鈥淧rove Me Wrong.鈥 A gunshot rings out, and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.
Kirk was taking questions about gun violence
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.
鈥淒o you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?鈥 the person asked. Kirk responded, 鈥淭oo many.鈥
The questioner followed up: 鈥淒o you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?鈥
鈥淐ounting or not counting gang violence?鈥 Kirk asked.
Then the shot rang out.
The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.
Madison Lattin was watching only a few dozen feet from Kirk鈥檚 left when she heard the bullet hit Kirk.
鈥淏lood is falling and dripping down, and you’re just like so scared, not just for him but your own safety,” she said.
Lattin said she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced immediately by cries. She ran while others splashed through decorative pools to get away. Some fell and were trampled in the stampede. People lost their shoes, backpacks, folding chairs and water bottles in the frenzy.
When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died, she wept, she said, describing him as a role model who had showed her how to be determined and fight for the truth.
Trump calls Kirk a 鈥榤artyr for truth鈥
About 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The university police department had six officers working the event, along with Kirk’s own security detail, authorities said.
Trump announced Kirk’s death on social media and praised the 31-year-old, who was co-founder and CEO of , as 鈥淕reat, and even Legendary.鈥 Later Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Kirk a 鈥渕artyr for truth and freedom鈥 and blamed the rhetoric of the 鈥渞adical left鈥 for the killing.
Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated after the shooting, with officers escorting people to safety. The campus will be closed until Monday.
Meanwhile, armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting. Helicopters buzzed overhead.
Wednesday’s event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s 鈥淭he American Comeback Tour,鈥 had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its 鈥渃ommitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.鈥
Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on in Utah?鈥
Condemnation from across the political spectrum
The shooting drew across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.
鈥淭he attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,鈥 Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.
鈥淭he murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,鈥 said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was in her Arizona district.
The Kirk shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties. The attacks include at their house in June, and , who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is .
Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at Wednesday’s event, told the Fox News Channel that he didn’t believe Kirk had enough security.
Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.
But Kirk鈥檚 zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
Despite early misgivings, enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president鈥檚 eldest son, during the general election campaign.
Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
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Richer and Sherman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; Michael Biesecker, Brian Slodysko, Lindsay Whitehurst and Michelle L. Price in Washington; Jesse Bedayn in Orem, Utah; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
