Conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday during a speaking appearance at Utah Valley University.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” President Donald Trump posted Wednesday afternoon on his social media platform Truth Social.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” the president said. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
At a news conference on UVU’s campus Wednesday afternoon, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
“We are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights,” Cox continued. “The first one of those is life. And today, a life was taken.”
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said Wednesday afternoon that law enforcement had apprehended two people — one as a person of interest, the other for suspicion of obstruction of justice. By the evening, though, his department announced that “there are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals” and that the shooter was still at large.
Mason told reporters that “the only information we have on the suspect, the possible shooter, is taken from closed-circuit TV here on campus. … We do have that we’re analyzing it, but it is security camera footage, so you can kind of guess what the quality of that is. We do know [they were] dressed in all dark clothing. We don’t have a much better description.”
Mason said the shot came from a long distance, potentially a rooftop.
Warning: The video below includes a brief view of the shooting. Viewer discretion advised.
