OREM, Utah — Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in what the state’s governor called a political assassination carried out from a rooftop. A person of interest was in custody, officials said.
“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”
Authorities did not immediately identify the person in custody, a motive or any criminal charges, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The Associated Press was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. 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 Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away.
The death was announced on social media by Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, as “Great, and even Legendary.”
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated and remained closed. Classes were canceled until further notice. Those still on campus were asked to stay in place until police officers could safely escort them off campus. Armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for information on the shooter.
Officers were seen looking at a photo on their phones and showing it to people to see if they recognized a person of interest.
The event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for 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.”
Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”
The shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.
Maine politicians also condemned the killing of Kirk, who made an appearance in Old Orchard Beach on Aug. 2, speaking at a Maine Civic Action event held at Dunegrass Golf Club.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said political violence has no place in the United States, and there’s “no justification for such acts of pure evil.”
“Charlie Kirk dedicated his life to sharing the importance of free speech and teaching young people across our nation to talk about the issues they care about in a productive and respectful way,” Collins said in a statement. “This assassination is a repudiation of the free and safe America he was fighting for. Let us pray for Charlie’s two young children and his wife, Erika, as they grapple with this unfathomable loss.”
Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, also condemned the shooting Wednesday in a post on the social media site X.
“If someone can be shot for views you detest, then they can be shot for views you hold dear. That’s why a free nation cannot tolerate political violence,” Golden wrote. “My prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his family, and I am grateful for the speed and heroism of first responders.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, also criticized political violence in a statement, saying it has “no place in our country.”
“Our college campuses should be places where open dialogue, debate, and mutual respect are upheld,” Pingree wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “This kind of intimidation and violence must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
Sen Angus King, I-Maine, decried Kirk’s killing as “against the democratic values of our nation” in a statement.
“This isn’t about Democrats & Republicans. It’s about protecting the ideals in our Constitution to peacefully assemble & exchange ideas,” King wrote on X. “We can challenge each other’s views without violence. It’s common sense.”
Consistent with Trump’s directive, Maine Gov. Janet Mills ordered the United States and State of Maine flags be lowered to half staff until sunset on Sunday.
“America, differing views — regardless of who holds them and how much you may detest them — should never be met with violence,” Mills said in a social media post. “I am horrified by what has happened to Charlie Kirk.”
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who is seeking Golden’s seat, said in a post on X that he is praying for Kirk and his family. “The violence must stop,” LePage wrote.
The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major parties. 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.
Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at Wednesday’s event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.
“It seemed like it was a close shot,” Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.
He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.
“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”
Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.
But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.
Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.