What we know about the killing of Charlie Kirk
America
By
AFP
| Sep 11, 2025
Candles are left in front of a photo of youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk as people attend a vigil in Orem City Center Park, Orem, Utah, September 10, 2025. [AFP]
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event in the western US state of Utah. This is what we know.
At a university
Kirk, the head of the largest conservative youth movement in the United States, which he co-founded in 2012 at the age of 18, was speaking around noon on the campus of Utah Valley University.
Dressed in a white t-shirt with the word "Freedom" across the front, Kirk sat in a chair under a tent as he answered questions from the large audience gathered around him.
READ MORE
Big banks have lowest loan rates: CBK data
Kenya's exports to the US grow as countries' struggle with tariffs
Phone dealers sue Stanbic Bank for allegedly overcharging on Sh100m loan
Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt to benefit from Sh37 billion global fund
Banks defy digital tide to court rural borrowers
Ukraine, tariffs and the oil trap: What Washington is not saying
'You cannot grow an economy through taxation,' experts warn
How mega dam will increase Ethiopia's prominence in Kenya's power sector
Why two, three-bedroom units offer sweeter deal for property investors
Kenya set for first maritime training vessel from South Korea
The event was the first of about 15 scheduled across the country through the end of October.
A gunshot, then screams
Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at the event, told Fox News that Kirk was responding to a question about "transgender shooters, mass shooters, and in the midst of that, the shot rang out."
The 31-year-old collapsed and blood spurted from his neck, according to a video clip shot from a nearby location.
Kirk was then rushed away on a stretcher by his security detail.
"As soon as that shot went out, he fell back," Chaffetz said. "Everybody hit the deck... a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running."
Manhunt for killer ongoing
Authorities have not arrested a suspect in Kirk's shooting, described as a "targeted attack" in a statement from Utah's Department of Public Safety.
"The shooter is believed to have fired from the roof of a building down to the location of the public event in the student courtyard," it said.
Two men were briefly detained and released after being questioned by law enforcement officials as the manhunt continued.
One man, George Zinn, was charged with obstruction.
Neither man has "current ties to the shooting," authorities said.
Trump announces Kirk's death
Trump announced Kirk's death, writing on his Truth Social platform: "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead."
On the other side of the political spectrum, Democratic figures also condemned the shooting, including Kamala Harris, who said that "political violence has no place in America."
Trump vows crackdown
Although a suspect has not yet been identified, Trump linked rhetoric from the "radical left" to Kirk's killing and vowed to carry out a crackdown.
"This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today," he said in a somber four-minute video, seated at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
"My administration will find every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it," the US president said.