What we know so farFor those just joining us, here’s a recap of the day’s events as we’ve been bringing you the news of the killing of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday. Photograph: Tess Crowley/AP
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
With news agencies
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Closing summaryThis blog will be closing shortly but our live coverage will continue here:
Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:
Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.
Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has shared a message on X about the shooting of Charlie Kirk. He said “we must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear”.
Starmer wrote:
My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.
It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has called the shooting of Charlie Kirk a “tragedy” and a “sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument”. He also said that now “the world has a shining new martyr to free speech” as he described the views of the rightwing activist Kirk as “simple common sense”.
Johnson wrote on X:
The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument.
Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views – because he didn’t. He has been killed for saying things that used to be simple common sense. He has been killed because he had the courage to stand up publicly for reasonable opinions held by millions and millions of ordinary people both in the US and Britain.
The world has a shining new martyr to free speech. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said on X that he is “appalled” by the murder of Charlie Kirk and added that there is “no justification for political violence”.
Carney wrote:
I am appalled by the murder of Charlie Kirk. There is no justification for political violence and every act of it threatens democracy.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and loved ones.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States.
In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.
He said:
Before I begin, I do want to take a moment to address the horiffic political assassination that just occurred today in Utah. Charlie Kirk is dead – yet another victim of gun violence in a nation where what should be a rarity has turned in to a plague.
It cannot be a question of political agreement or alignment that allows us to mourn. It must be the shared notion of humanity that binds us all.
… It reminds us that this news is not just that of the murder of a prominent political figure, but also the news of a wife who grieves her husband [and] of a one-year-old and a three-year-old who will grow up without a father. And the fact that there are families who are feeling that same anguish right now in Colorado as they wait for their children, also shot at a school, to emerge from surgery is the same anguish that too many across our city and our nation reckon with in silence every day as we contend with an epidemic of suffering.
We can and must do more to challenge the status quo that has allowed this pain to become routine, that has allowed the question of ‘which mass shooting?’ to respond to the news of one that is shared. And it is incumbent on all of us to repair the tears in our shared civic fabric and to make our nation one that is worthy of its greatest ideals. With that, I wish that Charlie rest in peace as well as every other victim of gun violence from this day and before in our country.
Reporting by Cy Neff in Orem, Utah.
On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance.
At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Charlie Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people were holding a vigil – one of several taking place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.
The mourners draped the hospital sign in American flags and surrounded its base with a thicket of candles and homemade signs, including “Peacemakers wanted” and “we love you Charlie Kirk”. When the hospital’s lawn sprinklers abruptly turned on, gatherers smothered them with grocery bags and cut-off plastic bottles to keep the memorial dry.
CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, were in the crowd for Kirk’s speech, and said they watched the shooting unfold.
Paxton said he was right in front of Kirk, and watched his body go limp. “Charlie Kirk was a major role model and hero for me,” said Paxton, who spoke with a red Make America Great Again cap folded in his hand. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.”
Greg Cronin, a faculty member at UVU, said that he has stood on the street corner, with a flag in hand, for the past seven hours. He said he was working in the building next to where Kirk was speaking and watched students flood through its halls after the shooting. Cronin said he hoped the shooting could bring people together in dialogue instead of further political division.
“We won’t minimize actions like this around the world, ever,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize the impact that they are allowed to have.”
Here is a graphic showing the site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus and also the reported location of the shooter:
Site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus.What we know so farFor those just joining us, here’s a recap of the day’s events as we’ve been bringing you the news of the killing of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday. Photograph: Tess Crowley/AP
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
With news agencies
The killing of Charlie Kirk has particular resonance for US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves. Here’s reaction from some of them, care of the Associated Press.
Nancy PelosiThe former House speaker’s husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer. Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”
Gabrielle GiffordsThe Democratic former US representative suffered a serious brain injury from a 2011 shooting while meeting with constituents at a shopping centre in Arizona. She posted on social media that she was “horrified” to hear of Kirk’s shooting, saying: “Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”
Steve ScaliseThe House majority leader, a Republican, was shot at practice for a charity baseball in Virginia in 2017. He asked people on X to “please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk after this senseless act”.
Josh ShapiroThe Democratic Pennsylvania governor was evacuated with his family from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke in and set a fire that caused significant damage. “We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”
Gretchen WhitmerThe Michigan governor, a Democrat, was the subject of a failed kidnapping plot by rightwing extremists who hoped to ignite a civil war. She posted: “We should all come together to stand up against any and all forms of political violence.”
Robert F Kennedy JrThe health and human services secretary appeared to invoke his family’s losses as he reacted to Kirk’s killing. Kennedy’s father, for whom he was named, was assassinated in 1968. RFK Jr wrote on social media that “once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era”, calling Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech”.
The Utah university where Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking to students is the state’s largest public university after years of rapid enrolment growth.
Utah Valley University, located about 40 miles (64km) south of Salt Lake City, has grown fivefold over the past three decades. It now has nearly 47,000 students, according to the university website.
The university was founded under a different name in 1941 as a vocational school focused on providing war production training, the Associated Press reports. Nearly nine out of 10 students at the school in Orem are from Utah, and 18% of them are aged 25 or older.
Utah is one of 14 US states that allow some level of concealed carry of firearms on public college and university campuses.
In the days before Charlie Kirk’s killing, he debuted his conservative message in Asia.
The rightwing activist cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned in Tokyo about a “globalist menace” on his first speaking tour of Asia, Reuters reports.
In Seoul on Friday he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference that has previously featured speakers including Donald Trump Jr.
“The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents,” Kirk told the audience, who chanted “USA” as he entered the stage to a pyrotechnic display.
It is not unique to the US, which is why it deserves more attention. That is why I chose South Korea as my first Asian destination.
After Seoul, Kirk went Tokyo and spoke at a symposium hosted by the Sanseito party, which made its political breakthrough in a July upper house vote warning about a “silent invasion” of immigrants.
“I’m excited … to learn and to hopefully invigorate the people of your great nation to keep fighting this globalist menace,” Kirk said in an interview with a Sanseito legislator posted on YouTube before the event.
The party’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, said on X he was “stunned and heartbroken” at the news of Kirk’s death, calling him a “comrade committed to building the future with us”.