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.
“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. "I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.â€
No one was in custody late Wednesday, though authorities searched for a new person of interest, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Authorities earlier provided evolving information on the status of the search, with FBI Director Kash Patel initially saying on social media that a “subject†was taken into custody, only to later say the person was released after being questioned.
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Authorities did not immediately identify the person who had been in custody, a motive or any criminal charge.
Trump announced the death of the 31-year-old Kirk on social media, praising 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 wrote.
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 a large volume of 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 confirmed the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the university's campus.
Utah authorities said the shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away.
Kirk spoke at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, he took 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 audience member 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.
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. 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," polarized the campus. 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."
The shooting drew swift bipartisan condemnation. Democratic officials joined Trump and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.
The circumstances of the shooting fueled concerns that it was part of a spike of political violence that 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 was 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. Eventually, Kirk's zeal for confronting liberals in academia won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
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.
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Richer and Sherman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael Biesecker, Brian Slodysko, Lindsay Whitehurst, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
