Conservative activist Charlie Kirk killed at Utah Valley University event

In what Utah’s governor called a political assassination, a sniper shot and killed influential conservative Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

The killer remains at large, but Gov. Spencer Cox vowed that federal and state law enforcement officials would capture the shooter.

“The investigation is ongoing but I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this, we will find you,” Cox said. “We will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.”

Kirk was in the middle of answering politically charged questions about mass shootings in America when he was murdered, said Deseret News reporter Emma Pitts, who was covering Kirk’s campus rally.

Gov. Spencer Cox called the assassination a dark day for Utah and a tragic one for the United States of America.

“I want to be very clear this is a political assassination,” Cox said.

Kirk’s rally was held in an open, tiered amphitheater area surrounded by UVU buildings.

Kirk, 31, co-founded Turning Point USA, one of the largest conservative organizations for high school and college students in the country. Wednesday’s event was sponsored by the group’s UVU chapter.

Kirk was a popular podcast and cable news host who attracted 15 billion social media views in 2024 alone. He was married with two children.

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He recently spoke to the Deseret News about his work.

Pitts, the Deseret News reporter, said Kirk appeared at noon. She was five rows from Kirk during the rally. She called it a “terrible irony” Kirk was asked about mass shootings just before she heard a gunshot from behind her at 12:20 p.m.

“The first question was if Kirk knew how many mass shooters were transgender,” she said. The student who asked the question was challenging Kirk, who picked up a microphone on the desk in front of him and said, “Too many.”

Kirk was picking up the microphone to answer a second charged question about the number of mass shootings in America when a bullet appeared to strike him in the neck.

“I’ll never get the image out of my head,” Pitts said. “It looked like a fountain of blood came out of his neck. His body went limp and then his eyes closed.”

Pitts and Deseret News reporter Eva Terry said they grabbed each other and dove to the ground with the rest of the crowd. They said many of what they estimated was a crowd of several thousand were hugging each other.

Pitts suggested to Terry that they pray.

“We said prayers out loud for him and his family and for the safety of everyone there,” Pitts said.

Kirk was taken by personal vehicle to Timpanogos Hospital in Orem, where he was pronounced dead, according to Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety.

Kirk was a supporter of President Donald Trump, who confirmed Kirk’s death on Truth Social.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!,” Trump wrote.

Gov. Cox said university campuses have historically been places where truth is debated and ideas are formulated, and that Kirk believed his tour of college campuses was fostering debates foundational to the nation’s basic constitutional rights.

“When someone takes the life of a person because of their ideas or their ideals,” Cox said, “then that very constitutional foundation is threatened.”

The shooter fired at Kirk from the Losee Center, 200 to 300 yards away, UVU spokesman Scott Trotter said. Grainy security footage showed the shooter running away.

About 30 seconds after the shooting, the crowd started to get up, Pitts and Terry said. UVU Police Chief estimated 3,000 people were on campus for the event.

“We sprinted behind his tent and ran into the nearest building, got under a desk and called our editors,” Pitts said.

Officials swiftly moved to evacuate the campus and more than 80 first responder vehicles descended on the university.

SWAT, ATF Police, Utah County Sheriff deputies, Orem Police and officers from numerous nearby communities conducted a campus-wide manhunt for the shooter.

At one point, a SWAT truck with heavily armed team members hanging off the outside of the vehicle rolled up over curbs and across grass fields from the Keller Building to the campus library.

Officials detained a man named George Zinn shortly after the shooting but released him when they determined he did not match the shooting suspect and was not a person of interest, Mason said.

Zinn was subsequently booked into jail by UVU Police on suspicion of obstruction of justice, Mason said.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media that another person of interest had been detained, but then said the person had been released after interrogation.

Law enforcement officials said a manhunt is underway for the suspect, but said they did not believe there was a risk to the community.

“This incident occurred with a large crowd around. There was one shot fired, and one victim. While the suspect is at large, we believe this was a targeted attack,” said Mason, the public safety commissioner.

Pitts and Terry were assigned to cover Kirk’s UVU rally. They said the crowd was full of energy for his appearance.

The reporters said the campus cleared out quickly after the shooting. They stayed on scene to do interviews with national outlets, including ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, the Guardian, USA Today, the BBC and many more.

They were also asked to fill out statements for Utah County Sheriffs investigators.

Pitts said she was surprised that they weren’t scanned and their bags weren’t checked when they entered the event. She didn’t feel there was a high security presence, which surprised her because Kirk was controversial.

“There’s a part of me that is scared covering events like this because they are so public and people are so angry.”

“Nobody scanned our equipment, nobody scanned our bags, there was no security like that,” Pitts said.

Long, the UVU Police chief, called the shooting a police chief’s nightmare.

He said UVU had six police officers providing security in coordination with Kirk’s traveling security team.

Gov. Cox said the shooting was further evidence the nation is broken.

“Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk,” he said. “Our hearts are broken. We mourn with his wife, his children, his family, his friends. We mourn as a nation.”

The governor asked Americans to see beyond today’s political divide.

“If anyone in the sound of my voice celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere,” he said. “I don’t care what his politics. I care that he was an American.”

Cox called on America’s leaders and citizens to find ways to move forward.

“We need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be, to ask ourselves, is this what 250 years has brought on us?

“I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated what Charlie Kirk stood for will put down their social media and their pens and pray for his family, and that all of us — all of us — will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans."

Gov. Cox ordered U.S. and Utah flags to be flown at half-staff on all state facilities to honor.

“Flags should be lowered to the half-staff position and remain in the half-staff position until sunset on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025,” he said in a statement. “I extend this invitation to all private citizens, businesses and other organizations.”

UVU spokesman Scott Trotter also released a statement.

“On Sept. 10, 2025, at 12:20 (p.m.) a single shot rang out in the quad near the food court on the Utah Valley University Orem Campus as Mr. Charlie Kirk began speaking at his planned rally. We can confirm that Mr. Kirk was shot, but we don’t know his condition. The suspect is not in custody. Police are still investigating. Campus is closed for the rest of the day.”

UVU vice president Val Peterson said the school was mourning with Kirk’s family.

“On behalf of Utah Valley University, we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charles Kirk. We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy,” Peterson said.

The FBI special agent in charge of the Salt Lake field office, Robert Bohls, said the agency would cooperate with local officials in the investigation.

“We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative and intelligence,” he said. “To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside our partners. We are working on setting up a digital media tip line, and as soon as it’s established, we’ll get that information out to everyone.”

At least 60 first responder vehicles were blocking the campus entrance Wednesday afternoon. Police responded from the Utah Highway Patrol, Orem, Provo, Springville, Lehi, Lindon, Spanish Fork and Payson.

“A single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker. Police are investigating now, suspect in custody,” said an alert UVU sent to the campus community.