Powerful right-wing activist Trump Ally and Charlie Kirk, executive director of TPUSA, were shot dead while hosting an event in Utah on Wednesday and in critical condition at a hospital.
In video posts circulating on social media, Kirk can be seen being hit while speaking and sitting under a tent in the Utah Valley University courtyard. Kirk is part of the American comeback tour, hosted by the TPUSA chapter in Utah Valley. There are also videos of middle school students staying away from gunfire on campus.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Kirk is in critical condition at the hospital. A TPUSA official told CBS Kirk that it “looks bad” and confirmed that he was shot.
“The UVU campus is closed. Courses are cancelled. On campus, make sure it is in place until the police can safely escort you out of campus. We ask you to be patient throughout the process. We provide updates as much as possible. This is an ongoing event and an event that unfolds.”
A spokeswoman at Utah Valley University told The New York Times that Kirk was attacked by a suspect who opened fire from a building about 200 yards away.
University spokesman Scott Trotter also told the Times that “the person detained after the shooting was not actually the shooter,” despite earlier reports that the suspect was detained. No suspects were detained.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox released on X that he will “continue to share updates” and “the person in charge will be fully responsible.”
He wrote: “Violence has no place in our public life. Every politically persuasive American must unite to condemn this act. Our prayers are with Charlie, his family, and all those affected.”
Utah Senator Mike Lee posted on X shortly after reports of Kirk being shot dead, saying he “stalked closely at Utah Valley University.
Donald Trump wrote in “Social Truth”: “We all have to pray for Charlie Kirk who was shot. A good man from top to bottom. God bless him!”
Vice President JD Vance tweeted: “Pray for the real good man and young father, Charlie Kirk.” These emotions were responded by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Pray for Charlie Kirk. An incredible Christian, American and human. May the healing hand of Jesus Christ be on him.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI “closely monitors reports of tragic shootings involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University… Agents will be on the scene quickly, with the FBI fully supporting the ongoing response and investigation.”
Witnesses told The Guardian that Kirk was asked about the mass shooting when he was shot in the neck.
Emma Pitts, a news reporter who participated in the event, said Kirk was “about mass shootings” on his second question.
“The people he debated asked him if he knew how many mass shootings were there in the trans shooters Kirk responded to,” Pitts said. Then, “he asked how many mass shootings there were,” he asked. [there] In the past few years, we heard gunfire before he could not even answer, and we just saw Charlie Kirk’s neck turn to the side, and it seemed he had been shot. ”
“There is blood, there’s a lot of blood right away,” Pitts said. “After shooting, everyone fell to the ground immediately…we just wanted to hide.”
Then, Pitts said, “Everyone started running away.”
Eva Terry, another Deseret news reporter who participated in the event, told The Guardian that the direction of the camera looked “from the middle of the audience to the right.”
Terry said in describing the suspect that he looked like “an elderly gentleman who probably wore clothes that looked like a worker’s uniform, probably in the late 1950s and 1960s.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom quickly condemned the shooting, saying the “attack on Charlie Kirk” was “disgusting, mean and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in all forms.”
Shortly before the shooting, Kirk tweeted: “We.
