Charlie Kirk was unconcerned about recent death threats and his personal safety before he was shot dead on a Utah college campus, a longtime friend has said.
The person, who remained anonymous, told TMZ that the conservative activist made no mention of safety concerns during a 20-minute phone call Tuesday, the day before he embarked on a campus tour.
Kirk’s friend, who worked with him at his youth organization Turning Point USA, also said the media personality was looking forward to speaking with more young people about conservative policies and values.
Kirk, 31, was shot once in the neck while responding to a question about gun violence during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University Wednesday afternoon. His security detail rushed him to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
The married father of two had employed a security detail due to death threats, according to Robert Draper, a New York Times reporter who met with him recently.
“We had dinner in Washington a month or two ago,” Draper told The Daily podcast Thursday. “I noticed he had security with him, and he told me he had been receiving death threats, but he seemed to just act like that it came with the territory.”
Kirk was a high-profile figure in the Republican world, and had fostered a close relationship with the president and his family. Since co-founding Turning Point USA as a teenager, he had a continuous presence online where he shared contentious views about transgender people, climate change, gun control, abortion, and more.
Kirk was also known to engage in lengthy debates with people in public settings. Videos of his debates, particularly with those who disagreed with him, would often go viral.
Wednesday's event, hosted by Kirk, was under the banner “Prove Me Wrong” – a well-known occasion in Kirk’s college tours where he answers hotly-debated questions. It was the first stop in a nationwide tour of college campuses for Turning Point USA.
Kirk’s death was met by an outpouring of grief from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and calls to address gun violence amid a spate of political attacks across the country in recent months.
Donald Trump was injured in an attempted assassination during an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last July. Weeks later, law enforcement thwarted a second alleged assassination attempt near his Florida golf club.
In June, Melissa Hortman, Democratic leader of Minnesota’s House of Representatives, was assassinated with her husband in their home. Another Democratic Minnesota politician, John Hoffman, and his wife, survived an assassination attempt by the same man.
Law enforcement officials have not determined a motive in the killing of Kirk nor apprehended a suspect, although they said they believe they are looking for a “college-aged” individual. On Thursday, the FBI in Salt Lake City released photos of a “person of interest” in the killing.
Investigators recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle from a nearby wooded area after the shooting. Ammunition inside the rifle was engraved with messages of transgender and antifascist ideology, according to Wall Street Journal.
