Charlie Kirk, CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, has died after he was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University.
“It's a tragic day for our nation,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
Speaking alongside law enforcement officials as they gave an update on the investigation, the governor was emotional and direct at times as he spoke about the shooting. He made references to the spate of political violence the country has experienced, including political assassinations in Minnesota and the attempt on the governor of Pennsylvania.
“I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this, we will find you, we will try you and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law,” Cox said.
The governor added a reminder that, as a state, Utah still has the death penalty.
At 12:20 p.m., a single shot was fired as Kirk began to speak at his planned rally. The shooting, UVU said, was in the Sorensen Center courtyard on the Orem campus. The campus was closed and classes were canceled. Police went building to building to escort those sheltered in place off campus.
Officials said a person of interest was in custody and being interviewed. Their statement clashed with a social media post from FBI Director Kash Patel, who said the shooter was in custody. Earlier in the day, after the shooting, local law enforcement arrested another individual, George Zim. Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety, said Zim did not match the shooting suspect and was released. He was, however, booked for obstruction of justice.
No details on the person of interest being held have been released. Officials say there is no information at this time that would lead them to believe that a second individual is involved in the shooting.
The information currently available is based on video from closed-circuit television on UVU’s campus. The shooter was dressed in all black, and it was a long-range shot, potentially from a roof, that struck Kirk.
Reflecting on the shooting and the broader discontent in the nation, “Is this what 250 years has wrought on us?” Gov. Cox asked.
“I pray that that's not the case,” he said. “I pray that those who hated what Charlie Kirk stood for will put down their social media and their pens and pray for his family and that all of us, all of us, will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans.”
Kirk’s death was announced by President Donald Trump on social media, and it was later confirmed by Turning Point USA.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump wrote.
In a statement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the state’s leading institution, said, “Our prayers go out to his family at this time.”
“We also pray that we may treat one another with greater kindness, compassion and goodness,” the statement added.
Some of Utah’s top Republican politicians echoed many of the same sentiments after Kirk’s death was announced. Some promised that the person responsible would be found and prosecuted. “May justice be swift,” said Sen. Mike Lee.
By and large, most condemned the act of political violence. On social media, Derek Brown, Utah’s Attorney General, said, “Utah must remain a place where ideas can be debated openly, without fear of intimidation or violence. We cannot let hatred take the place of honest dialogue.” Befitting the state’s dominant LDS ties, nearly all included a call to pray for Kirk’s family and anyone else impacted by the loss.
Kirk was invited to speak at Utah Valley University by a student group. It was the first stop of 15 15-stop planned tour at college campuses across the country. Beforehand, the event had been met with divided opinions. An online petition urging university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
Though no motive has been disclosed, the circumstances of the shooting fueled concerns that it was part of a spike of political violence that has cut across the political spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.
KUER’s Caroline Ballard, Jim Hill, Elaine Clarke, Ethan Rauschkolb and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
