UPDATE: A suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk has been arrested, the FBI Director Says. The governor of Utah is calling the individual a “person of interest.”
Just before a press conference with law enforcement officials and Utah Gov Spencer Cox began, Director Kash Patel announced on social media that someone has been picked up.
“We have a person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now,” Gov. Cox said Wednesday from Utah Valley University where the “political assassination,” as Cox termed Kirk’s killing, took place today. “There is no information that would lead us to believe that there is a second person involved,” Cox added, surrounded by local police and FBI agents.
“Our nation is broken.”
Before the governor and others went in front of the microphones, Donald Trump took to social media to emphasis that flags will fly at half mast in honor of the Turning Point USA co-founder’s death.
PREVIOUSLY, 12:58 PM: Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA and one of the most influential activists on the right, died Wednesday after being shot at a Utah college rally, President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform. Kirk was 31.
Read that story here.
UPDATED, 12:58 PM: Charlie Kirk is in “critical condition” after being shot at a university in Utah.
With Kirk in a local hospital after apparently taking a bullet to his throat just over an hour ago, the Associated Press is citing a “law enforcement” source for the conservative advocate’s state of health.
The fluid nature of events have been unclear if a suspect was actually taken into custody or not. Utah Valley University itself says the bullets that struck Kirk were fired from a campus building near where the Turning Point USA co-founder and leading MAGA voice was seated Wednesday.
Today’s shooting of Kirk was soon tragically followed by gunfire at a Denver school that has left at least three students injured.
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Cable News reports on shooting of conservative advocate Charlie Kirk
Screenshot/Dominic Patten/Deadline
PREVIOUSLY, 12:13 PM: Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been shot at an event at a Utah university.
Details are scant on what happened, but it seems only one shot was fired and an individual is in custody.
Video circulating online from the scene at the well-attended outdoor gathering at Utah Valley University appears to show Kirk being hit in the neck. His condition is unknown right now.
As more becomes known, already leading members of the Trump administration have expressed their concern over what occurred with the influential voice in the MAGA movement. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance took to social media quickly as Kirk’s shooting became widely covered.
“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot,” said Trump of his MAGA ally on Truth Social. “A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”
Donald Trump walks on stage after being introduced by Charlie Kirk at the Turning Point Action on July 15, 2023 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
VP Vance took a similar stance.
The 31-year-old Turning Point USA co-founder frequently tours college campus’ to debate with audience members across the political spectrum. Wednesday was the opening date of the American Comeback tour, with his “Prove Me Wrong” stance a center piece of the dozen or so stops of the Fall stint.
In fact, Kirk’s tours, debating style and strategic outreach to younger voters have become such a hallmark of the current culture wars that South Park mimicked the events in the opening episode of its current 27th Season. To that, earlier this year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his recent podcast series with a sit-down with Kirk, where the two agreed on a number of issues in which was clearly an attempt by the ambitious Newsom to broaden his brand and reach with conservatives.
Newsom today called Kirk’s shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.”
On a busy news day of Russian drones over Poland and more Jeffrey Epstein cover-up coverage, the Kirk shooting took over CNN, MSNBC and the BBC.
Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz, a former congressman from Utah, told viewers on the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet of witnessing the event and shooting.
Chaffetz said: “First question was about religion. He went on for about 15, 20, minutes. Second question, interestingly, was about transgender shooters, mass shooters, and in the midst of that, the shot rang out. Now I happened to be watching Charlie. I can’t say I saw blood. I can’t say I saw him get shot, but as soon as that shot went out, he fell back … and everybody hit the deck, everybody’s a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running. As you might expect. There was some police presence, but there was no security check going in. Charlie has some security in front of him, but you got the sense that the shot came kind of straight at him. And I don’t think there would be many vantage points too far away, because he was under an awning. It’s a bright, sunny, beautiful end-of-summer summer day in Utah. And I just hope and pray that somehow, someway, he survives this.”
The home invasion and brutality against former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 aside, the past year alone has seen an apparent increase in open violence in the political arena in America. Trump was the subject of one assassination attempt on the campaign trail last year in Pennsylvania, as well as a potential attack on the golf course in Florida. Keystone State Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were attacked with a break-in and arson at official residence in April. More recently and tragically, there was the fatal June shooting of top Minnesota Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark by the conservative leaning Vance Boelter. That shooting also left state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette injured. In August, reportedly angry over vaccine mandates, Patrick Joseph White fired almost 200 shots upon the Atlanta HQ of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and killed police officer David Rose.
Former Congresswoman Gabby Gifford, who was shot in the head in January 2011, offered her own perspective and prayers for Kirk on Wednesday.
Gifford is the spouse of Mark Kelly, the senior Senator from Arizona.
An event set for tonight with Daily Wire co-founder and high profile conservative Ben Shapiro at in Simi Valley’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum has been canceled in light of Kirk’s shooting.
