This blog is closing now, you can follow all of the latest developments in our new live blog here:
Security experts interviewed by The Associated Press questioned whether the Charlie Kirk event at Utah Valley University was sufficiently staffed.
While they also acknowledged the limitations of both campus police forces and outdoor venues, they said only the inner ring closest to Kirk appeared to be secure, leaving the outer and middle rings exposed.
Hours after the attack, Jeff Long, the campus police chief, told reporters that six of his officers staffed the debate, and that his department had coordinated with Kirk’s own security team. He said Kirk had been speaking “in a lower area surrounded by buildings” but did not say whether officers had inspected nearby rooftops.
Students and others who attended the event told AP there were no metal detectors or bag checks, though the level of security appeared consistent with other speaking engagements on Kirk’s national tour.
“As soon as I was down by the courtyard in line, I was looking around and I was like ‘I love Charlie, but I have a weird feeling that if something did happen, he would be in a very vulnerable position,’” said Henry Dells, a business owner in Utah County who asked Kirk a question about a minute before the shooting.
Dells said he now can’t close his eyes without seeing graphic flashbacks.
“I just wish they would’ve had more security,” he told AP.
We are now closing this blog. You can follow the latest developments here.
Here are some images coming in via the newswires.
Updated
Summary
In case you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the day’s events as US authorities continue their hunt for the gunman a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in Utah.
US officials have appealed for help from the public for information to help find the shooter, releasing new videos and photos from the scene of the attack at a Utah university.
“We need as much help as we can possibly get,” Utah governor Spencer Cox told a news conference more than 24 hours after Kirk was shot while speaking in front of thousands of people. “We cannot do our job without the public’s help,” Cox said, appearing alongside FBI director Kash Patel – who didn’t speak – and other officials. The FBI had received more than 7,000 leads and tips so far, he said.
Surveillance video newly released by authorities showed a person wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long sleeve black shirt running across a roof, climbing off the edge of the building and dropping to the ground. The suspect is believed to have fled into the local neighbourhood after firing the one shot and has not yet been identified.
Investigators said they had obtained clues, including a palm print, a shoe impression and a high-powered hunting rifle found in a wooded area along the path the shooter fled. But they were yet to name a suspect or cite a motive in the killing. The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person.
Donald Trump agreed with a suggestion from a conservative reporter that his supporters should not respond to Kirk’s death with violence, a day after the president blamed the “radical left” for the killing and pledged a wide-ranging response. Trump said Kirk – a close ally – had been “an advocate of nonviolence” and “that’s the way I’d like to see people respond”. He cited “big progress” in the investigation.
Cox pledged to pursue the death penalty once the killer was found, also saying there was “a tremendous amount of disinformation” online.
Kirk’s casket arrived in his home state of Arizona aboard Air Force Two, accompanied by vice-president JD Vance. Vance’s wife, Usha, stepped off the plane with Kirk’s widow, Erika. Vance helped carry Kirk’s casket with a group of uniformed service members as it was loaded on to the plane.
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The Trump administration has threatened action against any foreigners in the US who praise or make light of Charlie Kirk’s death, Lucy Campbell has reported.
The move comes against the backdrop of an aggressive crackdown on free speech and dissenting views in the US under Trump’s second term, especially in relation to campus protests sparked by Israel’s war on Gaza.
The US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, said on X on Thursday that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country” and that he had directed consular officials to “undertake appropriate action” against those deemed to be “praising, rationalizing or making light of” Kirk’s death on social media.
Landau invited X users to bring such cases to his attention in the comments of his post, which he said would be monitored by consular officials.
A state department spokesperson said:
This administration does not believe that the United States should grant visas to persons whose presence in our country does not align with US national security interests.
The full story is here:
Updated
A Mauser .30-caliber, bolt-action rifle found in a towel in the woods is among the clues found by investigators in Charlie Kirk’s killing.
A spent cartridge was recovered from the chamber, and three other rounds were loaded in the magazine, according to information circulated among law enforcement and described to the Associated Press.
The weapon and ammunition were being analysed by law enforcement at a federal lab.
A news conference earlier today heard that the new video appearing to show the gunman dropping down from a roof, crossing a street and then moving into the wooded area was used by law enforcement to find the high-powered rifle.
Updated
The FBI reward of $100,000 and direct appeals to the public for information appear to signal law enforcement’s continued struggles to identify Charlie Kirk’s killer a day after the shooting, as our new full report details.
In appealing for information, Utah governor Spencer Cox said that “there is a tremendous amount of disinformation” online.
“Our adversaries want violence,” he said. “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world that are trying to instil disinformation and encourage violence. I would encourage you to ignore those, to turn off those streams.”
Cox also vowed to find the killer of Kirk – a close ally of Donald Trump – and pursue the death penalty.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
The campus of Utah Valley University was mainly deserted and silent on Thursday, Reuters is reporting – a stark contrast with the scenes of panic and disbelief 24 hours earlier when Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking in front of about 3,000 young people.
“It’s eerie, tense, quiet,” said McKinley Shinkle, a 25-year-old electrical engineering student, when asked to describe how it felt on campus, which was ordered closed for the rest of the week.
McKinley Shinkle and his cousin Anthony Shinkle, a biology student, said they were walking towards the event when the shot was fired, and people began running towards them.
“People shouldn’t have to be afraid just to speak their mind,” Anthony Shinkle said.
What little activity there was on the campus – about 40 miles (65km) south of Salt Lake City in Orem, Utah – involved law enforcement investigators.
Yellow police tape restricted access to several locations, including a university building that the gunman was believed to have used as a perch to fire down at an amphitheater where Kirk was speaking – about 180 metres (200 yards) away.
Investigators scoured the building for forensic evidence on Thursday.
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Ronald Reagan’s daughter has lamented the loss of “humanity over politics” in the US in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing
CNN reports that Patti Davis said that after then-president Reagan was shot the 1981, there was a “suspension of politics and rancor” as the US showed so much compassion towards her family.
But now there was a very different culture compared with then, she said, telling the network:
This country kind of folded itself around us and remembered how to be compassionate and remembered humanity over politics, and we don’t have that any more. And I’m sorry for Charlie Kirk’s family that they don’t have that, because it mattered.
Vice-president JD Vance has flown to Salt Lake City aboard Air Force Two to pick up Charlie Kirk’s casket and transport it to his home state of Arizona, where the 31-year-old lived and grew his conservative youth movement.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, and second lady Usha Vance were also on the plane.
Vance helped carry Kirk’s casket with uniformed service members on the tarmac when it was loaded on to the aircraft, as we reported earlier.
Vance has said on social media that Kirk advocated for him to become Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, and when he did, “Charlie was there for me … constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers”.
So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.
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An official has also pointed to the shooting suspect wearing a “very distinctive T-shirt” showing a US flag with what appears to be an eagle on it, a baseball cap with a triangle on it, and sunglasses.
Beau Mason, Utah’s department of public safety chief, told the news conference:
All distinctive, all things that we would ask the public to look for and try to identify if they know someone who has those items, who has been seen wearing those items. We’re looking for all that information.
In appealing for public assistance, Utah governor Spencer Cox said that “we cannot do our job without the public’s help right now”.
He told the news conference that people had given more than 7,000 leads and tips.
The FBI hasn’t received this many digital media tips from the public since the Boston marathon bombing.
Cox said 20 state, federal and local law enforcement partners were working closely together to find Charlie Kirk’s killer.
We need as many, as much help as we can possibly get. Any videos or photos that you might have ... should be submitted to our digital media tip line.
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Returning now to the news conference, the head of Utah’s department of public safety said in describing the new footage of the suspect that he had left hand and shoe imprints as well as showing what sneakers he was wearing.
Beau Mason said the surveillance video showed the suspect running on a rooftop and dropping down to the grass area on the ground, and “as he did that he left some palm impressions”.
There’s some smudges, some places we’re looking to collect DNA, there’s a shoe imprint, where we believe the suspect is clearly identified as wearing Converse tennis shoes.
Mason also noted the suspect’s clothing and “there appears to be some white on the soles of those Converse tennis shoes – those are all identifiable items that we’re looking for”.
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Phoenix sports broadcaster fires basketball reporter for criticism of Charlie Kirk
A Phoenix, Arizona broadcaster, PHNX Sports, fired a reporter who covers the Phoenix Suns basketball team on Thursday for viral social media comments he made about the conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk after his death.
The reporter, Gerald Bourguet, wrote on X on Wednesday night:
“Political differences” are not the same thing as spewing hateful rhetoric on a daily basis, and refusing to mourn a life devoted to that cause is not the same thing as celebrating gun violence. Just so we’re 100% clear on that.
“He was a father” Half of y’all didn’t give a DAMN about doing anything to stop gun violence when the victims of mass shootings were LITERAL children. And those kids weren’t bigots spreading genocidal propaganda, or a mindset he directly fed into …
If you’re saddened by today’s “political violence,” horrified by the video, or repulsed by my response, ask yourself why your reaction was different when it came to school shootings, mass deportations or the HUNDREDS of videos of horrific murders in Gaza (which Kirk cheered on)
Truly don’t care if you think it’s insensitive or poor timing to decline to respect an evil man who died. Too many of you are more concerned with being polite and *appearing* to be good people rather than showing some damn backbone and standing on principal to condemn hate
Utah officials show new video of suspect fleeing roof after shooting
At a news conference, Beau Mason, the head of Utah’s department of public safety, just showed surveillance video of the suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk running along the roof of the building from where the shot was fired, jumping down and crossing a street in the direction of a wooded area where officials said they found a rifle.
Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, appealed to the public to share any information about the suspect, but he added, “there is a tremendous amount of disinformation” online.
“Our adversaries want violence,” Cox said. “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence. I would encourage you to ignore those, to turn off those streams.”
Cox also pledged to find the killer and pursue the death penalty.
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Charlie Kirk's body returned to Phoenix, near megachurch where he hosted Trump in 2020
Charlie Kirk’s body has been transferred from Air Force Two to Hansen Mortuary chapel in Phoenix, Arizona, where the motorcade from the airport was followed by local news helicopters.
Donald Trump told reporters earlier that he had heard that the funeral would take place this weekend, and that he expects to attend.
If the funeral is held at the Phoenix megachurch where Kirk worshipped and held political rallies, Dream City Church, the location will be familiar to Trump.
In the summer of 2020, as he attempted to resume his large-scale political rallies despite the pandemic, Trump addressed at a packed indoor rally thousands of young supporters from Kirk’s conservative student group, Turning Point USA, at Dream City.
It was in that setting that the president electrified the crowd by making a racist joke about the virus that had brought global life to a standstill, calling Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China, the “Kung flu”. His use of the racist term was met with cheers and frenzied applause.
Among the attendees at the rally that day was Jacob Chansley, the self-described QAnon Shaman who would later take part in the storming of the Capitol.
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Utah officials hold media briefing on Charlie Kirk shooting – watch live
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Republican lawmaker supports call for statue of Charlie Kirk in the Capitol, equating him to Martin Luther King Jr
Representative Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican, said on Thursday that he supports his colleague Anna Paulina Luna’s call for a statue of Charlie Kirk to be placed in the US Capitol, since, he told a reporter, “we have a statue of MLK in the Capitol, don’t we?”
The Capitol does not, in fact, have a statue of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, but it does have a bust.
Luna, a Florida Republican who got her start in politics working for Kirk’s student group, Turning Point USA, called for a statue to Kirk to be placed in the Capitol in a letter to House speaker Mike Johnson she circulated in draft form on Thursday.
In the letter, Luna repeated the inflammatory false claim that political violence and heated rhetoric only comes from the left, failing to account for recent examples of rightwing violence, like the attack on the CDC campus by an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who fired more than 500 rounds and killed a police officer, or the murder of Minnesota’s former house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June by a gunman with a hitlist of 45 Democrats.
“Hateful rhetoric from the Left has created a toxic environment where one side finds it acceptable to stoke fear and violence to silence civil dissent”, Luna wrote. “We must be clear: They are the hate they claim to fight. Their words caused this. Their gate caused this.”
Clyde is the lawmaker who claimed, during a 2021 hearing on the January 6 riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters who tried to smash their way into the House chamber, that, “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
Clyde was correct that video showed many of the rioters did stream through Statuary Hall in the Capitol stayed within the red velvet ropes set up for tourists, but he failed to account for what they did next: push through police lines in the next room to the main door to the House and try to break it down.
Cyde’s remark equating Kirk to King might not have pleased the conservative activist and influencer. In 2023, Kirk offered this appraisal of the civil right leader to students and teachers at America Fest, a Turning Point USA event: “MLK was awful.”
“I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it,” Kirk added. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
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As the hunt for Charlie Kirk's killer goes on, Trump visits Yankee Stadium on 9/11 anniversary
As his vice-president, JD Vance, escorted Charlie Kirk’s casket from Utah to Arizona on Thursday, before a weekend funeral the president said he plans to attend, Donald Trump attended a baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York to mark the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Video from Fox showed that Trump engaged in some locker room talk with the players before the game, reminding them that he had been good friends with George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the team who was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions in 1972 to one of Trump’s Republican predecessors, Richard Nixon, and then pardoned by another, Ronald Reagan, as he left office in 1989.
The Fox feed then showed that Trump appeared in the Steinbrenner family box before the game, chatting with Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News host who was forced to leave the president’s favorite network after allegations of sexual harassment that reportedly cost his employer $13m to settle.
Social media video showed that Trump was greeted with both cheers and boos from the crowd.
trump getting booed at yankee stadium pic.twitter.com/Jeuu2Jt7Ky
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) September 11, 2025
One night earlier, the Yankees held a moment of silence for Kirk, with his image on the big screen in centerfield.
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Four new images of suspect released in Charlie Kirk shooting
The Utah department of public safety just posted online four new images of the person of interest wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
We're releasing additional photos of the person of interest in connection with the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Please send all tips available to: https://t.co/XXzYBH1GkE pic.twitter.com/DgLOlrU6Cx
— Utah Public Safety (@UtahDPS) September 12, 2025
The images, which appear to be taken from surveillance video, give a clear view of the person’s large, black backpack, blue Converse sneakers and blue cap.
The images also appear to confirm that the person was wearing a black T-shirt with long sleeves that was given to donors to a veterans charity, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.
The social media post includes a link to a digital tip line set up by the FBI field office in Salt Lake City.
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Search update: no suspect in custody, officials say, but FBI is studying rifle and palm print
Police and the FBI confirmed that “no suspect is in custody”, in an update on the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing political activist and commentator, sent to reporters on Thursday evening by Utah’s department of public safety.
The statement added that experts from the FBI were analyzing a “high-powered bolt-action rifle” that “was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.
The officials also acknowledged that “photos of a weapon and various details about that firearm and ammunition, including inscriptions and symbols” are circulating online, but refused to confirm the authenticity of any of those photos.
The statement did, however, appear to indirectly confirm that the weapon had inscriptions of some kind since it added that “we are not able to provide further details on the content of those inscriptions”.
“Investigators have collected a footwear impression, a palm print, and forearm imprints,” the statement said.
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Vance helps transfer Charlie Kirk's casket to Air Force Two
The vice-president, JD Vance, helped transfer Charlie Kirk’s casket from a hearse to Air Force Two on Thursday in Utah, according to Tyler Bowyer, a Republican activist at Turning Point Action, the campaign group founded by Kirk, who posted video on social media.
Thank you for bringing our hero home @VP @JDVance.
— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) September 11, 2025
We are so grateful for you. pic.twitter.com/h5kZgJ2zTd
“Charlie Kirk was a true friend,” Vance wrote in a tribute to Kirk posted on X late Wednesday night.
He added:
I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other’s chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he’d always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.
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Donald Trump’s eldest son Don Jr was one of the people who informed the president about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, according to a radio show interview he gave on Thursday, in a measure of their close relationship and Kirk’s importance in the Trump family orbit.
“I found out that he had passed, and I think I was the one that broke the news to him, and it was a rough day,” Don Jr told Scott Jennings on Jennings’ eponymous show on Thursday.
Several people appear to have separately told Trump about Kirk after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University, including Trump’s youngest son Barron, according to a person familiar with the matter.
But Don Jr’s call underscored the particularly close friendship he and his team forged with Kirk, starting from the early days of the Trump 2016 campaign, when Kirk scored a meeting at Trump Tower and offered advice on how to attract young voters.
That meeting got Kirk hired on the spot as Don Jr’s personal campaign assistant, but Kirk’s closeness with Trump grew in the wake of the 2020 election when he became a leading voice in pushing baseless claims that the election had been stolen.
Kirk was also one of the few political operatives who stuck by Trump when he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago after the January 6 Capitol riot, which Trump remembered as a notable display of personal loyalty at one of the lowest points for the president.
During the 2022 midterms cycle, Kirk encouraged Trump to endorse JD Vance’s Senate campaign – and then two years later urged Trump and Don Jr to select Vance as running mate before the 2024 Republican national convention.
Kirk played an outsize role in the 2024 Trump campaign, too, widely credited by Trump’s team with helping to deliver the battleground state of Arizona through his voter turnout group Turning Point Action after the campaign outsourced field operations.
Speaking on The Scott Jennings Show, Don Jr recounted Trump as being stunned by the news of Kirk’s death.
“I think he was shocked,” Don Jr said. “He got to know Charlie so well. I sort of created that relationship very early on in 16 and he saw that movement grow, and he saw, frankly, I don’t think there was anyone more effective than Charlie Kirk in moving the needle.
“And I think it was truly shocking to my father, because I think he really was amazed at Charlie’s talents, what he was able to accomplish between 20 and 31, the time that I knew him, most people couldn’t accomplish in multiple lifetimes,” he said.
Trump later personally announced the news of Kirk’s death in a social media post, in a rare sorrowful tribute for the president. And on Thursday, Vance cancelled his plans and flew to Salt Lake City to take Kirk’s body home to Phoenix on Air Force Two.
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Trump calls Charlie Kirk 'an advocate of nonviolence' and says his supporters should respond that way
One day after his inflammatory address, blaming “the radical left” for the killing of Republican far-right activist Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump agreed with a suggestion from a conservative reporter that his supporters should not respond with violence.
The exchange came as the president left the White House for New York, where he will attend a game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx tonight.
RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Trump: “How do you want your supporters to respond to this? Charlie Kirk was a big advocate of nonviolence and free speech on campus. How do you want your supporters to respond, sir?”
The president echoed the reporter’s words, saying: “I think that way. He was. He was an advocate of nonviolence. That’s the way I’d like to see people respond.”
The White House quickly posted the exchange on social media, perhaps hoping to tamp down anger that has already spilled into violence, with the beating of a critic of Kirk in Boise, Idaho, during a vigil on Wednesday night.
Earlier on Thursday, Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who is retiring after this term, told NBC News that he wished Trump would unite the country after the shooting, “but he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger”.
“I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota too, right?” Bacon added, in reference to the murder of Minnesota’s former house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June by a gunman with a hitlist of 45 people, all Democrats.
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Person of interest in Kirk shooting wore shirt sent to supporters of Disabled Veterans National Foundation
The black T-shirt worn by the person of interest in the killing of Charlie Kirk, as seen in grainy surveillance-camera images distributed by the FBI on Thursday, appears to have come from a veterans charity, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.
The foundation confirmed to the Guardian that the shirt, with an image of an eagle over the American flag, and the words “Land of the Free” and “Home of the Brave”, taken from the final line of the US national anthem, “was mailed as a gift to potential DVNF supporters over the past few years”.
The foundation adds that it “has never sold this shirt, and it is not currently available for distribution”.
We are asking for the public's help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025
1-800-CALL-FBI
Digital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc
The foundation’s website indicates that, until recently, the shirt was sent to donors.
The shirt is, however, available for purchase on eBay, with either long sleeves or short sleeves.
The person in the images appears to have been wearing a long-sleeved version of the shirt, but, because the images are grainy, it is possible that the person could have been wearing a short-sleeved version over another long-sleeved shirt.
On eBay, a removable sticker on a recently sold version of the shirt has the logo of the foundation and the words: “Show your patriotism and honor our heroes who sacrificed so much so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today by wearing this T-shirt.”
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The FBI director, Kash Patel, who is reportedly en route to Utah to oversee the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing commentator and activist, just posted an update on the bureau’s investigation of a nearly simultaneous school shooting on Wednesday outside Denver.
The FBI’s Denver field office, Patel writes, “continues to work with our partners regarding the investigation of the shooting at Evergreen high school yesterday afternoon in Colorado.”
He adds:
We have deployed our evidence response team and other specialty resources as part of our response to this incident. The suspect is deceased from his self-inflicted injuries and has been identified as a student at the school, 16-year-old Desmond Holly. Most importantly, our thoughts continue to be with the two victims injured in the shooting and all those who have been impacted by this horrific attack. We will share more as we are able.
Patel, a Trump loyalist who had no law enforcement experience prior to being named FBI director, reportedly forced out the vastly experienced, Pakistani American, female head of the bureau’s Salt Lake City field office just more than a month ago without explanation.
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Reuters has released a drone view of the reported location where the shooter fired from at Utah Valley University, killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The rooftop area has a view of the section on campus where Kirk had been sitting while speaking at an event.
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Trump to have bolstered security following Kirk shooting – report
The president’s team will take additional security measures following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal cites a senior White House official, who said that Trump’s remarks at the Pentagon today were moved to “a more secure location”. The report also notes that when the president attends a Yankees game on Thursday, people in and around the stadium “can expect to see increased law enforcement presence”, according to the Secret Service.
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Nicole Ludden in Phoenix, Arizona
Shortly after Turning Point USA shuttered its offices upon learning of Charlie Kirk’s death on Wednesday afternoon, the front doors of the political influence network’s headquarters became a memorial for its fallen founder.
A steady stream of mourners brought flowers and handheld American flags to the office building in Phoenix, Arizona, and placed them in front of a large, black-and-white photo of Kirk.
While a white van and a police patrol vehicle blocked off the main parking lot, employees instructed approaching men, women and children to take about 10 minutes to pay their respects.
Jacob Kaufman, found out about Kirk’s death while working a shift at a nearby In-N-Out Burger. The 24-year-old said he immediately clocked out to buy flowers – he’s been following Kirk since the 2020 election, and follows his college campus debate videos.
“I saw the video of it, it was horrifying,” Kaufman said. “I’m praying for his family, because at the end of the day, two young kids are gonna grow up without a father. He’s not gonna teach his son how to ride a bike. He’s not gonna walk his daughter down the aisle.”
Kaufman stayed at the Turning Point offices for several hours after dropping off flowers and joining a prayer circle with fellow mourners.
Sean Fowler, 41, said he also put work on hold after hearing Kirk was shot, and spent two agonizing hours of uncertainty before Donald Trump announced Kirk died from his injuries.
Fowler’s been following Kirk’s work for more than eight years. He drew parallels to the assassination of President John F Kennedy, which Fowler said demonstrates how “unpopular opinion will be oppressed”.
Hakeem Jeffries says threats to HBCUs are 'despicable', urges justice department to investigate
Per my earlier post, that several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have received threats, forcing their campuses to close and classes to be cancelled, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has issued a statement calling the threats “despicable”.
He added that these were “another indication that the explosion of hateful extremism is out of control”, and urged the justice department and FBI to investigate the threats.
“These attempts to intimidate everyday Americans will not stand. We need leadership at this moment that brings the country together,” Jeffries said.
Florida US representative says TikTok agrees to remove video of Kirk's shooting
Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna has said that TikTok has agreed to remove the video of Charlie Kirk’s shooting from their platform. She shared a statement from the social media app:
We remain committed to proactively enforcing our Community Guidelines and have implemented additional safeguards to prevent people from unexpectedly viewing footage that violates our rules.
Luna added that TikTok have, allegedly, confirmed they will remove all videos of anyone using Kirk’s murder to “threaten others and/or incite violence”.
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Turning Point USA issues statement on Kirk's murder: 'His legacy will endure'
The organisation that Charlie Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, has posted a statement to Kirk’s social media profile.
“All of us have lost a leader, a mentor, and a friend,” the statement reads. “In his thirty-one years, Charlie lived more than of us will in a hundred.”
Turning Point said “above all” Kirk “wished to be remembered for his faith, far more than any political victory”.
They added that “his legacy will endure” and he would remain the “brave young man who inspired tens of millions of Americans to better themselves and take action to better America”.
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As our coverage of Charlie Kirk's shooting continues, here's where things stand for now
The search for Kirk’s killer continues today. The Salt Lake City FBI field office shared two pictures of a person of interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Both images show a person in black sunglasses, a baseball cap, a long sleeved black shirt and jeans. The FBI is asking for the public’s help identifying the person in connection with the attack at Utah Valley University, and is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the people or person responsible.
Donald Trump announced that he will award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Trump called Kirk a “giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people”. He made the remarks at an event to observe the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Trump also told reporters that he would be speaking to Kirk’s family later today.
At a press conference earlier, an FBI official said that investigators have recovered a “high powered bolt action rifle” they believe to be the weapon used to kill Charlie Kirk in yesterday’s shooting. The commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety, Beau Mason, said that shooter “blended in” with the crowd, and “appears to be of college age”.
Mason added that officials have been able to trace the shooter’s movement after the attack: “He moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus into a neighborhood.”
Meanwhile, reactions from both sides of the political spectrum have poured in over the last 24 hours. Notably, far-right commentators have echoed the president’s claims that Kirk’s murder was “an act of war from the left”.
Tina Smith, the Democratic senator for Minnesota – a state which witnessed political violence less than three months ago – said she was assailed with a horrific sense of deja vu on hearing the news of Charlie Kirk’s murder.
“Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind was a sense of ‘Not again! What’s next?’ and asking myself, ‘How do we arrest this cycle of political violence?’” she said, according to the Washington Post. “It is a human reaction to just turn away in horror when you see these kinds of things happen, but it’s just relentless. I’m almost speechless with despair at how often it’s happening.”
Smith’s sense of history repeating itself was a reference to the killing of Minnesota’s former state House speaker, Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, Mark, by a man who came to their house posing as a police officer. The suspect, Vance Boelter, also shot another legislator and his wife. A hitlist containing Smith’s name was later found in his car.
Utah law enforcement suspends press conference citing 'rapid developments' in case
The FBI and Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) were due to hold a press conference in less than an hour to provide updates on their investigation into the shooting of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk – including the identity and location of his killer.
A spokesperson for DPS says they are now suspending the press conference due to the ‘rapid developments’ in the case. An updated time will be announced later today.
Capitol police respond to 'incident' at Democratic National Committee headquarters
We’re getting word that Capitol police are responding to an ‘incident’ at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC.
Various media outlets shared a screenshot of the email from the Senate Operations Center which said that there is police activity in the area.
There have been no further details about the incident itself. We’ll bring you the latest lines as we get them.
🚨Senate staffers just received this email, obtained by @NewsNation
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) September 11, 2025
Capitol Police are responding to an incident at DNC HQ. pic.twitter.com/XLeDxYYpD4
On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, an influential rightwing activist and Donald Trump ally, was shot dead at a university campus in Utah. The US president immediately blamed the ‘radical left’ but failed to mention rising violence against Democrats.
On this week’s episode of our Politics Weekly America podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith, about the increase in political violence in the country.
You can listen here:
South Park pulled a rerun of an episode parodying Charlie Kirk following the conservative personality’s killing on Wednesday.
Hours after Kirk was fatally shot during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon, Comedy Central apparently pulled a rerun of its season 27 episode “Got A Nut” in which character Eric Cartman adopts the mannerisms of Kirk, according to The Arizona Republic and The Hollywood Reporter. Per the Republic, it was swapped with another episode from its most recent season.
In the episode, Cartman finds himself at odds with classmate Clyde Donovan for “stealing my shtick” before he takes over his right-wing podcast and “masterdebates” those who don’t agree with his views. He eventually adopts Kirk’s real-life hairstyle, argues with women at live debates and falls short of winning the “Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters” and a free vacation.
“Now, there’s going to be a lot said about this, but we need to have a good spirit about being made fun of,” Kirk said on 7 August. “This is all a success, this is all a win. We as conservatives, we have thick skin, not thin skin. And you could make fun of us, it doesn’t matter. And until next time, I hope all of you become ‘masterdebaters’ for truth.”
Updated
in Orem, Utah
Koby Herrera, 22 and a Utah Valley University student, attended the rally when Charlie Kirk was shot. Wearing a Make America Great Again hat and a Texas belt buckle, Herrera said that he had followed Kirk online for a decade.
“Ive looked up to him since I was 12, 13, and got into politics,” Herrera said.
Herrera said that his love for Kirk was divisive among his friends and family. Herrera did not point to specific beliefs of Kirk’s that resonated with him, and focused instead on Kirk’s “freedom of speech” and “conviction of Jesus Christ”. Herrera said that for him, and other followers of Kirk, the shooting will likely only further their resolve.
“I think what the assassin did was give Charlie Kirk a bigger platform,” Herrera said. “I think it gave Charlie Kirk a microphone through his grave.”
FBI offers reward for information in Charlie Kirk shooting
The FBI is offering a reward of up to a staggering $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
It follows the Salt Lake City FBI field office sharing pictures of a person of interest in the shooting.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual(s) responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Contact 1-800-CALL-FBI and submit photos and…
— FBI (@FBI) September 11, 2025
Updated
Asked about the rumors of engravings on the ammunition and rifle apprehended in the investigation into Kirk’s fatal shooting, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told the Guardian: “ATF cannot comment on this since it is still an active investigation.”
in Orem, Utah
Campus remained dead silent throughout the sunny Thursday morning, with roads blocked off and law enforcement and media outnumbering civilians. Caution tape blocked off the amphitheater at Utah Valley University where Kirk was shot. His “Prove Me Wrong” pop up canopy tent was still standing, and students personal belongings, from backpacks to water bottles, were strewn throughout the stand, left on the ground mid escape.
In an earlier post, we included a quote from Nancy Mace referring to reporting from the Wall Street Journal that “transgender, anti-fascist things that were engraved in the ammunition and in the rifle that was apprehended” in the investigation into Kirk’s killing.
According to a preliminary internal report circulated inside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, federal and local officials recovered ammunition with the rifle that appeared to be engraved with statements “expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology”.
But the New York Times reports that “a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation cautioned that report had not been verified by A.T.F. analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence, and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted. In fast-moving investigations, such status reports are not made public because they often contain a mixture of accurate and inaccurate information.”
Three historically Black colleges and universities targeted with threats
Three historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been targeted with threats to their campuses.
Virginia State University and Alabama State University have closed their campuses, while Hampton State University has cancelled all classes until 12 September, and advised students living off-campus to enter school grounds.
None of the universities provided further details of the threats in their statements.
In response, other HBCUs, have issued guidance for faculty and students to shelter in place as a precaution.
Updated
Nancy Mace says she won't hold any outside events in wake of Kirk shooting
On the steps of the Capitol today, Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, a vocal conservative and Trump ally from South Carolina, said that she “will not be doing any outdoor events anytime soon”.
“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, any elected official across the country, if you are vocal, your life is at risk,” Mace added.
The representative said “the left owns what happened” to Kirk, shortly after he was shot and killed at campus event on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters today Mace said that she was “deeply concerned” for her safety.
“You guys in the press call me the most transphobic member of congress. Turns out, there were transgender, anti-fascist things that were engraved in the ammunition and in the rifle that was apprehended,” she added, referring to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, which cites an internal law-enforcement bulletin and a person familiar with the ongoing investigation.
Updated
FBI shares photos of person of interest in Kirk shooting
The Salt Lake City FBI field office has shared pictures of a person of interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
Two pictures posted on X show a person in black sunglasses, a baseball cap, a long sleeved black shirt and jeans.
The FBI is asking for the public’s help identifying the person in connection with the attack at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
We are asking for the public's help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025
1-800-CALL-FBI
Digital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc
Updated
Within hours of Charlie Kirk being shot dead at a college event in Utah, he’d been turned into a far-right martyr in the US’s raging culture war. Many prominent rightwing voices and influencers quickly characterized his murder, in no uncertain terms, as an act of war from the left – and have vowed to respond in kind.
“We have to have steely resolve,” said conservative political strategist Steve Bannon on his show War Room. “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”
Even as the suspect – and any information about their motivations or political leanings – remained at large and unknown, incendiary rhetoric from major political commentators spread rapidly online, blaming leftist violence for Kirk’s death. Many called for swift retribution in the form of an aggressive crackdown against their political enemies.
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” wrote Elon Musk on X.
“They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. What are we gonna do about it?” Fox News host Jesse Watters said on air Wednesday night. “Everybody’s accountable… the politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. This can never happen again. It ends now. This is a turning point and we know which direction we’re going.”
“We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell,” wrote commentator and podcaster Matt Walsh on X. “This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”
While all three living former presidents released statements addressing Kirk’s death, condemning political violence while calling for calm, introspection and civility, Donald Trump put out a video statement Wednesday night saying that rhetoric from “the radical left” was “directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today”.
Trump to speak with Kirk's family today
Speaking to reporters after his remarks at the Pentagon today, Donald Trump confirmed that he would speak to Charlie Kirk’s family “later this afternoon”.
“You don’t replace a Charlie Kirk. He was unique,” the president added.
State department vows to 'take action' against 'foreigners' they deem to be praising Charlie Kirk's assasination
In a post on X, the deputy secretary of state Chris Landau has said that he’s directed consular officials to “undertake appropriate action” against any “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred”.
He added that he’s “been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light” of Kirk’s assassination.
Notably, Landau said consular officials would also be monitoring his post to crowd source submissions from users who see posts that aren’t in line with the department’s views.
Updated
Top Trump adviser calls for 'defeat of this wicked ideology' following Kirk shooting
Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff, has said there is “an ideology at war with family and nature”, following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The shooter remains at large, and has not been identified.
Regardless, Miller insinuated that the killer subscribed to “an ideology that looks upon the perfect family with bitter rage while embracing the serial criminal with tender warmth”.
He added that “the fate of millions depends upon the defeat of this wicked ideology”.
Following his tribute to Kirk, Trump shifted his remarks at the Pentagon to the events of 9/11.
“That terrible morning, 24 years ago, time itself stood still,” Trump said. “The laughter of school children fell silent, the rush of our traffic came to an absolute halt, and for 2,977 innocent souls and their families, their entire world came crashing down.”
“Today, as one nation, we renew our sacred vow that we will never forget September 11, 2001,” Trump said, before reading some of the final words exchanged by passengers aboard the hijacked airplanes that day to their loved ones.
“In America, we take blows, but we never buckle, we bleed, but we do not bow, and we defy the fear, endure the flames and emerge from the crucible of every hunch and stronger, prouder and greater than ever before” Trump said.
“Last year, we were a dead country” Trump said, adding that “now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
He also referenced his decision to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War.
“If you attack the United States of America, we will hunt you down, and we will find you” Trump said. “We will crush you without mercy, and we will triumph without question, that’s why we named the former Department of Defense the Department of War.”
“Everybody wanted it” Trump added. “Everybody is so happy to have it back.”
Thursday’s observance ceremony at the Pentagon commemorated the 184 lives lost when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
Updated
European far-right leaders have heaped praise on Charlie Kirk, with several also claiming his death was a consequence of violent leftwing rhetoric.
Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, denounced what he called the “dehumanising rhetoric of the left and its intolerance”, which he said “fuel political violence”. Bardella added: “No one can ignore this poison that is eating away at our democratic societies.”
In Germany, Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, posted that Kirk was “a fighter for freedom of speech” who had been “shot by a fanatic who hates our way of life and discussion”. She sent her condolences to Kirk’s family.
The leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, reposted a rightwing accusation that leftwingers were justifying Kirk’s death because of his “horrible ideas”, adding: “I’ve already lived through it. Some point and others shoot. Since censorship isn’t enough for them, they resort to murder.”
Other far-right leaders praised Kirk’s ideas. In the Netherlands, the anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right Freedom party (PVV), reposted a social media comment by Kirk, in which the activist had called Islam “the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America”.
Wilders, who has a conviction for insulting Dutch Moroccans, added that Kirk was “100% right here. Out of respect for him and his bravery I repeat his true words that are valid for Europe as well: Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of Europe.”
Updated
Trump to award Charlie Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom
Standing outside the Pentagon on Thursday morning for the memorial services marking the 24th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, Donald Trump opened his remarks by addressing the assassination of right-wing activist and close ally, Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
Trump announced that he will be soon awarding Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“The date of the ceremony will be announced, and I can only guarantee you one thing, that we will have a very big crowd,” the president said.
Kirk, Trump said, was a “giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people”.
“Our prayers are with his wonderful wife, Erika and his beautiful children, fantastic people they are,” Trump added. “We miss him greatly, yet I have no doubt that Charlie’s voice and the courage he put into the hearts of countless people, especially young people, will live on.”
Updated
Utah safety officials say suspect 'blended in' and was likely of 'college age'
Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, gave limited information about the suspect that is still at large.
He did say that shooter “blended in” and “appears to be of college age”.
The new pictures of the suspect are an overnight development, after investigators studied the video footage of the event.
Special agent Coles added that he did not believe the wider community to be at risk with the shooter still not in custody. He said they’re treating the attack as a “targeted event”.
Coles said that the FBI has received more than 130 tips, which are being “fully investigated”.
FBI says it has recovered weapon believed to have been used to kill Charlie Kirk
Speaking to the press, Robert Coles, the Special Agent in charge of the FBI Salt Lake Field Office, said that officials have recovered a “high powered bolt action rifle” they believe to be the weapon used to kill Charlie Kirk in yesterday’s shooting.
“A rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled” and the FBI laboratory will be “analyzing this weapon”, Coles said.
He added that investigators have also collected “footwear, impression, a palm print and forearm imprints for analysis”.
Updated
Mason adds that officials have been able to trace the shooter’s movement after the attack: “He moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus into a neighborhood.”
He goes on to say that investigators “do have good video footage of this individual”, but said they would not release the footage at this time. “We’re working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual. If we are unsuccessful, we will reach out to you as the media, and we will push that publicly to help us identify them,” he says.
Updated
Utah officials ask public to be 'patient' as they search for Kirk's shooter
Utah officials are speaking at a press conference now. The commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, Beau Mason, asked the public to be ‘patient’ as they continue for the shooter who killed Charlie Kirk.
He added that the two individuals that were taken into custody, who were later released, “were not suspects” but “people of interest”. Mason said that federal and state officers “do not deserve harassment” as they continue their investigation.
One of the UK’s most prominent far-right activists, Tommy Robinson, has said that a “free speech event”, scheduled for Saturday 13 September is now “more important than ever”, in light of Charlie Kirk’s killing.
“Charlie stood for me, Charlie stood for Britain & on the 13th Britain will stand to honour him,” Robinson wrote.
Earlier, Robinson said that “our sadness and our righteous anger can be seen, heard, and felt everywhere across the world”, a day after Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University.
We’re due to hear updates on the shooting from the FBI and the Utah Department of Public Safety at a press conference, scheduled for 9am ET.
We’ll bring you the latest here.
Updated
The FBI is seeking more information on the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, at the Utah Valley University campus event. The Salt Lake City field office has set up a tip line to encourage people with any details to come forward.
This, after two subjects taken into custody on Wednesday were released, and a manhunt is under way.
Donald Trump, and first lady Melania Trump, are due to attend an event at the Pentagon at 8:45am ET, in observance of the 9/11 attacks.
The press will be present, so we’ll bring you the latest lines as we get them.
Charlie Kirk directed most of his rhetoric at the US political scene, but he also strayed into foreign affairs, drawing both favourable and critical comparisons between life in the US and in other countries on his shows and doing the occasional speaking tour.
In May, Kirk visited the UK, debating students at Oxford and Cambridge universities and appearing on the conservative GB News channel. Days before he was fatally shot in Utah he took his message to relatively new audiences on a tour to South Korea and Japan.
Last weekend he addressed likeminded politicians and activists at a symposium in Tokyo organised by Sanseito, a rightwing populist party that shook up the political establishment in upper house elections this summer.
In Tokyo, Kirk described Sanseito, which ran in July’s elections on a “Japanese first” platform, as “all about kicking foreigners out of Japan”, where the foreign population has risen to about 3.8 million out of a total of 124 million.
Foreign residents and supporters of mass migration were, he claimed, “very quietly and secretly funnelling themselves into Japanese life. They want to erase, replace and eradicate Japan by bringing in Indonesians, by bringing in Arabs, by bringing in Muslims”.
He spoke at length about his trip in a podcast released the day before his death, returning to a familiar theme – criticising women who choose not to have children – that echoed the views of his host in Japan, the Sanseito leader, Sohei Kamiya.
In Seoul, he addressed more than 2,000 supporters at the Build Up Korea 2025 event, which drew predominantly young Christians and students from evangelical schools, representing a self-styled Korean Maga movement that has rallied around the “Yoon Again” slogan, in support of the impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol.
At the event in Seoul, Kirk promoted conspiracy theories, including claims that China had orchestrated “stolen elections” in both the US and South Korea, that Lee Jae-myung’s recent presidential election victory had been fraudulent, and that the current government was persecuting churches and suppressing “patriotic citizens”.
Kirk said he had “learned a lot” from his time in South Korea and Japan, recalling how safe he had felt on the clean and orderly streets of Seoul, where there were “no bums, no one asking you for money”.
In his three-day UK visit in May, he clashed with students at the Cambridge Union debating society, arguing that “lockdowns were unnecessary”, “life begins at conception”, and the US Civil Rights Act was a “mistake”.
The British offshoot of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point UK has failed to match the success of its US equivalent in terms of mobilising right-wing support among students, morphing from a campus-focus to street protests.
Kirk flew to London in 2019 for its launch at a prestigious London social club and Conservative MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel were among those who praised its work. It claimed to have as many as ‘eight chapters’ in UK universities.
However, that support from influential British right-wings melted away and the group has been in the process of reinventing itself as a street protest movement, according to anti-extremism campaign group Hope not Hate.
Its recent activity is some way from the promise of Turning Point UK’s earlier incarnation, when it was chaired by George Farmer, a Conservative donor who is the son of a Tory peer and husband of the US right-wing commentator Candace Owens
But even then, the emergence of the group in Britain was described by the Labour MP, David Lammy, now Britain’s deputy prime minister, as evidence “that sinister forces are taking hold of our country” an that the Conservative Party “open promotes hard right, xenophobic bile.”
At its 2019 launch, Owens reportedly declared “we very much believe that we are in the midst of World War three,” while Kirk spoke of taking he “success story of what we’ve done in America” and applying it to the “defence all throughout Europe.”
We have a graphic which shows the Utah Valley university campus, where Charlie Kirk was killed in a shooting yesterday.
The Google Earth view shows the potential escape route on an elevated walkway.
World leaders, especially those on the far-right of politics, have issued statements on the killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday.
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization.
I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel. Sadly, that visit will not take place. We lost an incredible human being. His boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders said:
Charlie Kirk was 100% right here. Out of respect for him and his bravery I repeat his true words that are valid for Europe as well: Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of Europe.
Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk. Condolences to his family and America.
Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier in this blog, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute to Kirk, saying:
The news of the killing of Charlie Kirk, a young and popular Republican activist, is shocking.
A heinous murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.
My condolences go out to his family, his loved ones, and the American conservative community.
Updated
Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
‘What have we become?’: shock across US political parties after Charlie Kirk shooting
Charlie Kirk’s death by an assassin’s bullet on a university campus in Utah on Wednesday has left the United States, a country already grappling with mounting political anger and polarization, in a state of profound shock bordering on despair.
Kirk, a rising star of Donald Trump’s make America great again (Maga) movement, was struck in the neck by a single shot as he addressed a large student crowd at Utah Valley University. The event had been billed as the grand opening of his 15-stop “America Comeback Tour”, but instead will be marked as the place where he uttered his last words.
The 31-year-old leader of the rightwing student group Turning Point USA was about 20 minutes into a Q&A, ironically engaging with a question on mass shootings in America, when the shot rang out. Within seconds, hundreds of students had scattered screaming from the campus lawn.
Within minutes of that, gruesome videos began to proliferate through social media, apparently undeterred by any algorithm. They showed Kirk being hit, slumping to his left side and profusely bleeding.
Long before Kirk was pronounced dead at 4.40pm – poignantly in a post from his champion, the US president, on Truth Social – the wave of profound shock was breaking over both sides of the US’s political divide.
“This is horrific. I am stunned,” said the Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz, who described Kirk on Twitter/X as a “good friend” since the young activist’s teenage years.
Kirk was unashamedly far to the right of the US political spectrum and had expressed openly bigoted views and engaged in homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. He recently tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
He mixed evangelical Christian beliefs with rightwing politics into a combustible brew. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”
But mourning for Kirk crossed the political aisle.
Charlie Kirk’s killing is a tragic marker of the indiscriminate nature of political violence, writes Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan. You can read the opinion piece here:
Utah Republican senator faces backlash over post condemning Kirk’s killing
The official X account of Mike Lee, a Republican US senator, drew backlash after quickly condemning Wednesday’s killing of influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah – less than three months from when the politician initially responded to the shootings of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers by boosting misinformation about that case.
A post from Lee, who joined the Senate in 2011, denounced Kirk’s murder as “a cowardly act of violence” while hailing the Turning Point USA executive director as an “American patriot” and “inspiration to countless young people”. His post also solicited prayers for the 31-year-old Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their children.
“The terrorists will not win,” Lee said shortly after Kirk’s death while speaking at an outdoors gathering on the campus of Utah Valley University had been confirmed. “Charlie will.”
While some of the platform’s users replied positively to the post, many others immediately alluded to how Lee focused on advancing conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the 14 June shootings that killed Minnesota’s house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, while wounding state senator John Hoffman – her fellow Democrat – as well as his wife, Yvette.
“This is what happens,” Lee wrote in an X post, “When Marxists don’t get their way.” Attached to the post was a picture of the suspect charged in the shooting, Vance Boelter, evidently wearing a latex face mask.
There was no evidence Boelter is a Marxist. Friends have told local media he was right-leaning. And while Minnesota voters don’t list party affiliation, Boelter was registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004.
Separately, under another picture of Boelter, Lee wrote, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” which appeared to be a reference to Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
Lee’s allusion to Walz came as conservative influencers misleadingly suggested an alliance between the governor and Boelter. Walz’s Democratic predecessor, Mark Dayton, appointed Boelter in 2016 to a 60-member voluntary advisory board. Boelter’s appointment was renewed in 2019 by Walz, who did not know him.
‘Despicable’: Republicans and Democrats condemn violence after Charlie Kirk killing
The killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college on Wednesday afternoon prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over the latest act of political violence in the United States, with Donald Trump lamenting the loss of a key ally.
“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,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.
The president ordered flags to be lowered to half mast to honor Kirk, who was prominent in Trump’s make America great again (Maga) movement.
Trump, who survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in July 2024, also blamed the violence on the “radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis” in an evening video address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country,” he said.
The identity and motives of the shooter, who was not in custody early Wednesday evening, are not yet known.
JD Vance called Kirk “a genuinely good guy and a young father” and tweeted prayers.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said he was “heartbroken and outrages [sic] by the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” calling the 31-year-old “an incredible husband and father and a great American”.
Former vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the shooting of Kirk, who organized against her presidential campaign last year.
Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has described the death of Charlie Kirk as “the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left”.
In a post on X, Orbán wrote:
Charlie Kirk’s death is the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left.
This is what led to the attacks on [Slovak prime minister] Robert Fico, on [Czech former premier] Andrej Babiš, and now on Charlie Kirk. We must stop the hatred! We must stop the hate-mongering left!
A UK offshoot of a US conservative group set up by Charlie Kirk is to hold a vigil in London after he was shot dead, reports the PA news agency.
Turning Point UK has said its activists will gather on Friday evening by the Montgomery statue in Whitehall and called on others to “join us in remembering Charlie”.
The group’s chief executive Jack Ross told Sky News on Wednesday:
It’s absolutely shocking, we’re heartbroken over here in the UK.
Political figures in the UK spoke out against political violence after Kirk’s death.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer expressed his condolences online, adding:
My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.
It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who said she is “deeply shocked” by the killing, added:
Political violence has no place in our societies.
Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.
Updated
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has called the shooting of Charlie Kirk “a deep wound for democracy”. In a message posted on X, Meloni wrote:
An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.
My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community.
Manhunt for shooter continues
Police and federal agents mounted an intense manhunt on Thursday for the sniper believed to have fired the single gunshot that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was fielding questions about gun violence during a university appearance.
Kirk, 31, a podcast-radio commentator and an influential ally of Donald Trump, is credited with helping build the Republican president’s base among younger voters. He was shot on Wednesday in what Utah governor Spencer Cox called a political assassination.
The shooting, captured in graphic detail in video clips that rapidly spread around the internet, occurred during a midday event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, about 40 miles (65km) south of Salt Lake City.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that struck Kirk in the neck, apparently from a rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.
Security camera footage showed a person believed to be the assailant dressed in all-dark clothing, Mason told reporters. But eight hours after the killing, authorities said they still had no suspect in custody, reports Reuters.
State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained, and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were released.
“There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the statement said. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”
Updated
Charlie Kirk, the founder of rightwing youth activist group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and a close ally of Donald Trump, was fatally shot while speaking at a university campus event in Utah.
Beau Mason, the head of the Utah department of public safety, said the suspect was still at large. “While the suspect is at large, we believe this was a targeted attack,” he said.
Here is a graphic showing the site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus and also the reported location of the shooter:
What we know so far
Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:
Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.
Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.
Analysis: Kirk’s death shows political violence is now a feature of US life
The shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah marks another example of ongoing political violence in the US, now a feature of American life.
Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that Kirk had died, saying: “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
Kirk, on campus at Utah Valley University as part of a speaking tour called “American Comeback”, was asked a question by an audience member about mass shootings, including how many involved trans shooters, when he was shot in the neck.
The political leanings and goals of the shooter, who is not in custody, are not yet known. Kirk is one of the highest-profile allies of the US president, and his organization, Turning Point USA, has helped turn out voters for Trump and other Republicans. He is also known for his inflammatory, often racist and xenophobic commentary, particularly on college campuses.
The shooting comes as a series of incidents over the past year show an increased level of violence related to political disagreements or intended to achieve political goals.
Trump faced two assassination attempts in 2024. Last December, a shooter targeted and killed the head of United Healthcare. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home was burned in an arson attack in April. Judges and elected officials report increased threats and harassment. Several instances of violence have stemmed from opposition to the Gaza war. In June, a man dressed as a police officer shot and killed a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and wounded another state lawmaker and his wife. A gunman attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in August, killing a police officer.
Surveys have shown increased acceptance of using violence for political aims across party spectrums. Robert Pape, who directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, wrote in the New York Times that a survey his team conducted in May was its “most worrisome yet”. “About 40 percent of Democrats supported the use of force to remove Mr. Trump from the presidency, and about 25 percent of Republicans supported the use of the military to stop protests against Mr. Trump’s agenda. These numbers more than doubled since last fall, when we asked similar questions,” he wrote.
“We’re becoming more and more of a powder keg,” Pape told the Guardian on Wednesday. Pape calls the current moment an “era of violent populism”.
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Profile: Kirk was an influential rightwing activist and trusted ally of Trump
Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Donald Trump among young voters has to understand Charlie Kirk, dubbed a “youth whisperer” of the right, who was shot on Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University and died afterwards.
Kirk was only 31 and had never held elected office but, as a natural showman with a flair for patriotism, populism and Christian nationalism, was rich in the political currency of the era.
In 2012 he co-founded Turning Point USA to drive conservative, anti-woke viewpoints among young people, turning himself into the go-to spokesperson on TV networks and at conferences for young rightwingers.
The activist, author and radio host had used his huge audiences on Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, confrontational Christianity and viral takedowns of hecklers at his many campus events.
An important gravitational tug on the modern Republican party, his career had also been marked by the promotion of misinformation, divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including 2020 election-fraud claims and falsehoods around the Covid pandemic and the vaccine.
Kirk expressed openly bigoted views and was an unabashed homophobe and Islamophobe. As recently as Tuesday of this week 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. He argued that there is no true separation of church and state and warned of a “spiritual battle” pitting the west against wokeism, Marxism and Islam.
During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”
Updated
Charlie Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”
The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.
Then a single shot rang out.
The shooter, who Utah governor Spencer 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.
Search for Charlie Kirk's killer continues as Trump vows to crack down on political violence
Authorities in the US are still searching for a suspect in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hours after the close ally of Donald Trump was killed at a Utah university, sparking condemnation from both sides of politics and grave threats from the president.
“This shooting is still an active investigation,” the Utah department of public safety said in a statement, adding it was working with the FBI and local police departments.
Two suspects were taken into custody, but subsequently released. The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called it a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.
Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and possibly fired “a longer distance shot” from a roof.
In a video message from the Oval Office, Trump vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.
Trump said:
My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it.
Kirk was shot while addressing a crowd of an estimated 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, near Salt Lake City. Video footage posted online showed Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence in the moments before he was shot.
Video footage shows students scrambling to run from the sound of gunfire. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, authorities said. Local officials said the shooting was “believed to be a targeted attack” by a shooter from the roof of a building.
We will bring you all the latest developments on this throughout the day.
