Charlie Kirk dead after shooting at Utah college, police still looking for suspect

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 31, died after he was shot during an event at a Utah college on Wednesday, according to President Donald Trump.

“The great, and even legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Kirk, a close ally of the president, was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization based in Arizona. He was hosting an event at Utah Valley University in Orem as part of his group’s American Comeback Tour of college campuses when he was shot.

Trump described his late friend as “a martyr for truth and freedom” in a video from the Oval Office posted to Truth Social.

Trump also claimed that the rhetoric from the “radical left” was “directly responsible” for Kirk’s assassination.

“Radical left political violence has hurt too many people and taken too many lives,” Trump said.

Details about the suspect, manhunt following Charlie Kirk assassination

During a Wednesday evening press conference Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said a “person of interest” was in custody.

However, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post that the subject in custody was released after being interrogated by law enforcement.

The shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away, Utah authorities say.

In addition, the FBI’s Salt Lake City office created an online form for anyone with information regarding the shooting. The form asks for the person submitting it to include their first and last name as well as their contact information.

Charlie Kirk and his group’s ties to Arizona

Turning Point USA is based in Phoenix. The group and its affiliates have hosted many events in the Grand Canyon State, including several featuring Trump.

A banner was put up outside the group’s Phoenix headquarters that read, “May Charlie be received into the merciful arms of Jesus, our loving Savior.” The banner also had a picture of Kirk and the Turning Point logo.

Kirk has lived in Scottsdale. He put his house there up for sale last year.

There was a vigil held in Scottsdale on Wednesday night where at least 200 people attended. Kirk’s friend John Yep, president and CEO of Catholics for Catholics, spoke at the event. Yep shared a summary of a text he sent to Kirk earlier in the day after learning of his death.

“I want you to know we’re going to honor your blood, your sacrifice and your tears,” Yep said. “Your little tiny kids are going to know that when their dad was taken from this earth, we came here and prayed.”

Kirk was considered a potential Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona’s 2026 election, but he wound up endorsing U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs.

“We have tragically lost a tremendous leader and a friend. But his most important role was as a loving husband, father, and devout Christian who shared his faith unapologetically,” Biggs said on X after Kirk’s death was announced. “Charlie Kirk was an inspiration to an entire generation and will be remembered as someone who changed the course of our country.”

Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, was among the Arizona leaders who denounced the shooting.

“I am horrified by the violent attack on Charlie Kirk. In a democracy, we solve our disagreements at the ballot box. Political violence is never acceptable,” Hobbs said in a post from her personal X account.

Videos show Charlie Kirk getting shot in Utah

Wednesday’s event had been met with divided opinions on campus. 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 “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

Videos posted to social media show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogan “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching for his neck with his right hand.

Videos on social media show a questioner asking Kirk if he knew “how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years.”

“Too many,” Kirk responded, eliciting cheers from the crowd. Kirk is one of many right-wing activists who have said transgender people should be restricted from owning guns.

The questioner said the answer is five, but that, “five is a lot … I’m going to give you some credit.”

He then asked, “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”

Kirk responded, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” — at which point the gunshot rang out.

Stunned spectators can be heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.

The shooting came amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on 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.

Charlie Kirk helped start conservative activist group when he was 18

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’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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