JD Vance, the vice-president, flew with the casket of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk from Utah, where he was fatally shot, to Arizona, where the 31-year-old lived and grew his conservative youth movement, as the search for his killer continued.
Kirk, a close political ally of Donald Trump and a personal friend of Vance, was shot on Wednesday afternoon during an open-air discussion attended by about 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem. The shooting, which the president called a “dark moment for America”, comes as the country grapples with mounting political anger and polarization.
Vance was scheduled to attend the 9/11 memorial in New York City, but traveled instead to Salt Lake City to mourn with Kirk’s family and return his remains to Phoenix. In a video shared by Tyler Bowyer, a Republican activist at Turning Point Action, the campaign group founded by Kirk, Vance is seen helping to transfer the casket of Charlie Kirk from a hearse onto Air Force Two.
As the search entered a second day, FBI director Kash Patel headed to Utah, after the agency released two images of a person of interest in connection with Kirk’s murder and asked for the public’s help in identifying them.
The pictures posted on X show a person in sunglasses, a baseball cap, a long-sleeved black shirt with a US flag on the front, and dark jeans. The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person.
Patel attended a press conference hosted by the governor, Spencer Cox, on Thursday evening in which officials showed new footage of the suspected shooter. In the video, a person can be seen running across a roof, climbing down the edge and jumping onto the ground before fleeing toward a forested area nearby where investigators came across a rifle they believe was used in the attack.
In climbing off the roof, the suspected shooter left palm impressions, said Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety.
Cox urged the public to provide any tips, or videos or photos of the incident.
“We need as much help as we can possibly get,” Cox said. “This is not just a local matter here in Utah. We have people all over the country that are helping to bring this perpetrator to justice for Charlie Kirk and his family.”
He added that the state plans to pursue the death penalty.
Earlier in the day, Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, said investigators had also collected a “footwear impression… and forearm imprints for analysis”.
The black T-shirt worn by the suspect appears to have come from the Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF). The shirt bears a picture of an eagle above the American flag, as well as the words “Land of the free” and “Home of the brave”.
In a statement to the Guardian, the DVNF said: “The shirt in question was mailed as a gift to potential DVNF supporters over the past few years. DVNF has never sold this shirt, and it is not currently available for distribution.”
Kirk was a provocateur and and a divisive figure who is credited with helping bring young people, especially men, into the US president’s Make American Great Again (Maga) movement as a co-founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
In a statement on Thursday, TPUSA wrote: “All of us have lost a leader, a mentor, and a friend. Above all, our hearts are with Erika and their two children. Charlie was the ideal husband and the perfect father. Above all else, we ask you to pray for the Kirks after the incomprehensible loss they have suffered.”
Kirk’s killing drew bipartisan condemnation of the rise in political violence in the US.
On Thursday morning, Trump attended an event at the Pentagon commemorating the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and announced he would award the Medal of Freedom posthumously to Kirk.
Trump said that he had spoken to Kirk’s wife, Erika, who he said was “devastated, absolutely devastated”.
He added that authorities were making “big progress” towards tracking down the suspect and that in regards to a motive, he has an “indication … but we’ll let you know about that later”.
Cox called Kirk’s death a “political assassination”, though the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unknown.
In his remarks on Wednesday the Republican governor appealed for an end to political violence. “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” he said.
In the hours after the shooting, officials had detained and questioned two people who were considered suspects, but they were both subsequently released.
The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the investigation and an internal law enforcement bulletin,investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of pro-transgender and anti-fascist sentiment inside the rifle. The Guardian has not independently verified this report and the ATF said it could not comment on the report as it is “still an active investigation”.
A senior law enforcement official told the New York Times that report had not been verified by ATF analysts, and did not match other summaries of the evidence.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, the Utah department of public safety said it was “not able to provide further details on the content of those inscriptions” and said the agency was “not confirming further details at this time”.
Just hours after Kirk had been declared dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital, Trump delivered a video message from the Oval Office, vowing to track down the suspect.
In a highly partisan address, the president said there had never been anyone so respected by young people as Kirk, even though Kirk was a highly polarizing political activist known for his outspoken bigotry.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.
Video footage posted online from the Turning Point event on Wednesday shows Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence moments before he was shot, with footage then showing attendees ducking, screaming and running from the scene.
Kirk was rushed by his security team to an SUV and was declared dead later at the nearby hospital.
Kirk was a strong supporter of the second amendment and opposed gun control in the US, saying at an event in 2023 that a few gun deaths every year were an acceptable price to pay for the right to own guns.
After the shooting, the UVU campus went into lockdown and will remain closed until 14 September.
On Wednesday evening, people gathered outside the hospital where Kirk died, leaving candles and homemade signs that read “Peacemakers wanted” and “We love you Charlie Kirk”.
CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, were in the crowd for Kirk’s speech and Paxton said he was in front of Kirk when he was shot.
“Charlie Kirk was a major role model and hero for me,” said Paxton, who spoke with a red Maga cap folded in his hand. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.”
Greg Cronin, a UVU faculty member , said he was working in the building next to where Kirk was speaking and that he hoped the shooting could bring people together in dialogue instead of further political division.
“We won’t minimize actions like this around the world, ever,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize the impact that they are allowed to have.”
Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-mast until 14 September to honor Kirk.
On Thursday morning, a bouquet of flowers lay strewn on the sidewalk beneath the university’s large nameplate.
Wendy Lucas, 44, wearing a camouflage cap, walked up, said a prayer and added a small American flag and two small panda action figures to the pile. The pandas were for Kirk’s children, Lucas said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that she agreed with everything Kirk stood for.
“Every life should be valuable,” Lucas said. “This should not happen.”
Caution tape blocked off the amphitheater at UVU where Kirk was shot.
Kirk’s “Prove Me Wrong” pop-up canopy tent was still standing, and students’ personal belongings, from backpacks to water bottles, were still where they had been strewn.
Kirk’s appearances on podcasts and across social media brought him fame in conservative circles and on the hard right, and notoriety elsewhere for his brashly presented, extremist, reactionary positions on the American family, equality and the line between civil free speech and hate speech.
Kirk attacked the mainstream media and engaged aggressively with so-called culture war issues around race, gender identity and immigration.
Kirk had also engaged in openly homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. As recently as Tuesday he tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
His evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his politics leaning away from the foundational American principle of the separation of church and state.
Experts warned Kirk’s death marks a watershed, with fears it could inflame the fractured country and inspire more unrest.
