The Latest: Conservative activist Charlie Kirk is killed in Utah, 'person of interest' in custody
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3:21 PM on Wednesday, September 10
By The Associated Press
Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot Wednesday at an event at a Utah college, officials said.
President Donald Trump said Kirk was shot and killed as he was speaking at Utah Valley University. The shooting quickly drew reaction from leading political figures, including some victims of political violence.
Videos posted to social media show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone at the university's Sorensen Center courtyard, sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans, “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.”
A single shot rings out and Kirk reaches up with his hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream. Some run away.
A “person of interest” was in custody Wednesday evening, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, though no charges were immediately announced.
Here's the latest:
Retiree Alex Lane said news of Kirk’s killing prompted him to head to the organization’s Phoenix headquarters and hand the organization a $10,000 check.
“I hope and trust that they’re going to continue with the message that he had,” Lane, 54, told The Associated Press while standing outside the headquarters. Lane said he was a follower of Kirk’s and had given to Turning Point before, but never such a large sum.
“It’s a huge loss, there’s no question about it,” Lane said. “But I think the important thing for people to understand is that (Kirk’s message) is going to continue. The assassin didn’t stop it. If anything, I think it will bring more attention to his message.”
Multiple Republicans in Congress knew Kirk personally and were devastated by his death.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida spoke on the Capitol steps, reflecting on his influence on her political journey. Luna said she was planning to go to medical school before Kirk recruited her to work as his national Hispanic outreach director. She attended events where Kirk debated students, like the one he hosted today.
“That conversation needs to happen,” Luna said. “You can’t squelch that.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the killing a “political assassination."
A “person of interest” was in custody Wednesday evening, Cox said, though no charges were immediately announced.
“This is a dark day for our state,” Cox said.
“We are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any information related to the shooting,” he said.
Utah authorities said the shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to invoke his family’s losses as he reacted to Kirk’s killing.
“Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era,” Kennedy wrote on social media. He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”
Kennedy’s father, for whom he was named, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination.
The elder Kennedy was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War before many elected leaders in Washington. He also had been an advocate for civil rights legislation as attorney general during his brother’s presidency and after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
One man delivered flowers and wiped tears from his face as he left. He said he was too broken up to speak to reporters.
On the sidewalk, 14-year-old Samuel Monahan embraced his parents in prayer.
“This is what happens when we’re without God,” said Monahan.
The teenager said he admired Kirk for being a man of God who cared about people. The country is so polarized, he said, “but it didn’t have to be that way because we all bow our heads under one flag and under one God.”
“This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” former President Barack Obama wrote on X.
He said he and former first lady Michelle Obama will pray for Kirk’s wife and two young children.
“It makes me mad. I’m so mad that this happened in our backyard. It’s an embarrassment,” the Utah Republican former member of Congress told Fox News Channel.
Chaffetz was at the event where Kirk was shot.
“We’re better than this, but there’s somebody out there who is evil, absolute total, complete evil and they need to be taken down,” he said.
He was calling it “The American Comeback Tour.” And he was featuring his “Prove Me Wrong Table,” where Kirk sat, as he was Wednesday, and fielded questions from students, including those who disagreed with him.
He also had appearances slated for Colorado State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Virginia Tech University, Utah State University, the University of North Dakota, Montana State University, Indiana University Louisiana State University and the University of Mississippi over the next two months.
Armed officers are walking around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for information on the shooter.
Officers have been seen looking at a photo on their phones and showing it to people to see if they recognize a person of interest.
Mayor David Young of the north-central Utah city of Orem says several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are investigating and that the suspect in Kirk’s shooting remains at large.
Young says police in Orem and at Utah Valley University are among many agencies involved in the investigation.
Meanwhile, authorities have told anyone at Utah Valley University to ‘secure in place’ after Wednesday’s shooting. The campus was closed, and a post on the school’s emergency information page told those still on campus to call officials to be escorted out.
Kirk’s killing follows instances of political violence in the United States in recent months, including the assassination of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in June and the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington in May.
Though little is known about the shooter or the motive in this case, it can’t be ignored that polarization and normalization of violence have become threaded through U.S. politics, said Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor of public communication at American University.
Braddock pointed to data from Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, which shows that threat and harassment incidents against local officials also have been gradually increasing.
“We’re moving in a very dangerous direction, and I think we have been moving in this direction for quite some time,” Braddock said.
The president posted on Truth Social that the conservative activist and his close ally died Wednesday after being shot at a college event in Utah.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he has ordered that all American flags across the U.S. be lowered to half-staff until 6 p.m. ET Sunday.
Charlie Kirk, who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to a top podcaster, culture warrior and Trump ally, was shot and killed Wednesday during one of his trademark public appearances at a college in Utah. He was 31.
Kirk died doing what made him a potent political force — rallying the right on a college campus, this time Utah Valley University. His shooting is one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures, from the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota to last summer’s shooting of Trump, that have roiled the nation.
A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.
Kirk’s evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his political perspective, and he argued there was no true separation of church and state.
He also referenced the Seven Mountain Mandate, which specifies seven areas where Christians are to lead — politics, religion, media, business, family, education and the arts, and entertainment.
Kirk argued for a new conservatism that advocated for freedom of speech, challenging Big Tech and the media, and centering working-class Americans beyond the nation’s capital.
The mayor of Orem, Utah, David Young, says the suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk remains at large.
People at Utah Valley University, where the shooting occurred, have been told to ‘secure in place’ and the campus is closed. A post on the school’s emergency information page told those still on campus to call officials to be escorted from the area by police.
A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.
— Michelle L. Price contributed
A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.
It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.
— By Michelle L. Price
In a phone interview with the New York Post, Trump said Kirk is “not doing well” and “it looks very bad.”
“He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person,” Trump said.
Dartmouth College President Sian Beilock says a bipartisan student group invited Kirk to that Ivy League campus for a Sept. 25 event.
Beilock says the event "was sold out within 10 minutes.”
Beilock made the comment during a media event Wednesday with other college presidents.
Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.” Pelosi’s husband was seriously injured in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who suffered a serious brain injury in a 2011 shooting in Arizona, said she was “horrified” to hear of Kirk’s shooting. “Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” she said on social media.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential national candidate, said, “We must speak with moral clarity. The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.” A fire was set at his house.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was the subject of a kidnapping plot, said on social media that “we should all come together to stand up against any and all forms of political violence.” Two men were imprisoned for their 2020 plot to kidnap the governor during her first term.
A former U.S. representative for Utah’s 3rd congressional district, Jason Chaffetz, says when the shot rang out, Kirk had just been asked a question by someone in the crowd about transgender people and shootings.
“As soon as I saw Charlie go back, you realize that it was a shot,” Chaffetz says. “It wasn’t as if there was a whole bunch of gunfire. It was one shot.”
— Vice President JD Vance: “Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour.”
— Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “Political violence must be always and totally rejected,” Buttigieg wrote on X. “Praying for him and all who may have been injured or impacted.”
— Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker: “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying. Political violence has no place in this country and should never become the norm. I’m sending my sympathies to his family and friends at this time.”
— Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: speaking at a news conference on Everglades restoration Wednesday, said Kirk was known for sparking political debate rather than advocating hate or violence. “The way to resolve political disputes is not through violence. The way to do that is to ask questions, debate,” he said.
— Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper: “Violence is unacceptable. I strongly condemn the attack on Charlie Kirk and political violence in all forms. I’m praying for his swift recovery.”
— New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani: "I’m horrified by the shooting of Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah. Political violence has no place in our country.”
— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Praying for @charliekirk11″
A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told The Associated Press that Kirk is being treated and is in critical condition. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
— By Alana Durkin Richer
With nearly 47,000 students, Utah Valley University has grown to become the largest public university in Utah.
It’s located about 40 miles (65 miles) south of Salt Lake City, the state capital, and was founded in 1941 as a vocation school. From those beginnings, its enrollment has jumped five-fold over the past three decades.
The college is not affiliated or owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and a potential 2028 presidential candidate, called the shooting “chilling & horrific” in an X post.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another Democrat and potential national candidate, said, “We must speak with moral clarity. The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”
Republican Senate Leader John Thune of South Dakota posted: “There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop.”
Giffords, a former U.S. representative for Arizona who suffered a serious brain injury when she was shot in 2011, posted on X about the attack on Kirk.
“I’m horrified to hear that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah,” she wrote Wednesday.
“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”
The event at Utah Valley University had been met with divided opinions on campus.
An online petition urging 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 “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
“A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” the president said in a post on Truth Social.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is “closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk.”
Vice President JD Vance also called for prayers, calling Charlie Kirk “a genuinely good guy and a young father.”
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Attorney General Pam Bondi, and House Speaker Mike Johnson joined the chorus of Trump officials offering their prayers to Kirk.
Support also came from across the aisle.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”
“He is in the hospital, and we are praying for him at this time,” said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.
Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said told Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.
“It seemed like it was a close shot,” Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.
He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.
“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”
