Authorities search for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killer but provide little about motive
OREM Utah AP Administration searched on Thursday for a sniper who assassinated Charlie Kirk a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump with one bullet and then slipped away in the mayhem resulting from the latest act of political violence to befall America Kirk was killed with a gunshot from a distant rooftop at the Utah Valley University campus where he was speaking on Wednesday leadership declared Federal state and local officials were working what they called multiple evolving crime scenes As the search stretched into a second day they provided little information about the shooter s identity motive location or evidence and were reviewing grainy precaution videos of a mysterious person in dark clothing This is a dark day for our state It s a tragic day for our nation Utah Gov Spencer Cox declared I want to be very clear this is a political assassination Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were circulated residents safety officers revealed 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 options 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 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 gasp and scream before people start running away Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha were set to visit with Kirk s family on Thursday in Salt Lake City According to a person familiar with Vance s plans but not authorized to speak about them publicly the Vances will visit Utah instead of attending an outdoor ceremony to commemorate Sept in New York Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship dating back to initial messages in through Vance s Senate run and ultimately praying after hearing of the shooting Kirk played a pivotal role in setting up the second Trump administration Vance wrote So much of the success we ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie s ability to organize and convene Vance wrote He didn t just help us win in he helped us staff the entire establishment Kirk was taking questions about gun violence Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization Arizona-based Turning Point USA at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus Straightaway before the shooting he was taking questions from an audience member about gun violence Do you know how multiple transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last years the person appealed Kirk responded Too multiple The questioner followed up Do you know how plenty of mass shooters there have been in America over the last years Counting or not counting gang violence Kirk petitioned Then a 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 building roof selected distance away Madison Lattin was watching only a meager dozen feet from Kirk s left when she heard the bullet hit him Blood is falling and dripping down and you re just like so scared not just for him but your own safety she explained She announced she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced right now by cries She and others ran Chosen fell and were trampled in the stampede When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died she wept she reported describing him as a role model who had evidenced her how to be determined and fight for the truth Trump calls Kirk a martyr for truth About people were in attendance according to a announcement from the Utah Department of Population Safety The university police department had six officers working the event along with Kirk s own safety detail administration explained Trump stated Kirk s death on social media and praised the -year-old co-founder and CEO of Turning Point as Great and even Legendary Later he circulated a video in which he called Kirk a martyr for truth and freedom Utah Valley University explained the campus was evacuated after the shooting and will be closed until Monday Meanwhile armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting Helicopters buzzed overhead Wednesday s 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 signatures The university issued a report 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 debate He wrote What s going on in Utah Condemnation from across the political spectrum The shooting drew swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officers joined Trump who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation and other Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart My deepest sympathies are with his wife two young children and friends revealed Gabrielle Giffords the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a shooting in her Arizona district In a joint announcement the Young Democrats of Connecticut and the Connecticut Young Republicans called the shooting unacceptable We reject all forms of political violence they disclosed There is no place in our country for such acts regardless of political disagreements 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 political 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 in June to demand Hamas release hostages and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania s governor who is Jewish in April The preponderance notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a Pennsylvania campaign rally last year Kirk confronted liberals Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in by Kirk then and William Montgomery a tea party activist to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited administration 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 Kirk served as an aide to Donald Trump Jr during the general referendum campaign Soon Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV where he leaned into the practices wars and heaped praise on the then-president Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences Richer and Sherman broadcasted from Washington Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver Michael Biesecker Brian Slodysko Lindsay Whitehurst and Michelle L Price in Washington Jesse Bedayn in Orem Utah Hallie Golden in Seattle and Meg Kinnard in Chapin South Carolina contributed to this review Source
