Featured Image Credit: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Charlie Kirk
Anish Vij
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Charlie Kirk
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a Utah Valley University (UVU) event as police are still hunting the killer.
The right-wing influencer, 31, was sat under a white gazebo with the slogans 'The American Comeback' and 'Prove Me Wrong' while addressing a 3,000-person crowd on Wednesday (10 September).
As Kirk was speaking into a handheld microphone, he was hit by single shot as blood gushed from the left side of his neck.
His security team took him in a private car to a hospital where he was declared dead.
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No one else - including Kirk's family - was injured at the event. The university will remain closed until Monday (15 September).
The popular podcaster was an ally of Donald Trump, who took to Truth Social to confirm the news of his death.
Trump said the father-of-two was a 'great, and even legendary' figure who was 'loved and admired by all, especially me'.
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In a video message, the US president later called it 'a dark moment for America', promising to address 'political violence'.
"I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk," the 79-year-old added.
"He inspired millions and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror."
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Two individuals were arrested and later released by police after confirming that they had 'no ties' to the crime.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called it a 'political assassination', as Beau Mason, the commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, said the shooter targeted just one person.
The shooter is still at large.
The university confirmed that a 'single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker', while footage shared by OSINTtechnical showed, what looked like, a person lying on the roof moments prior.
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BBC Verify examined the clip and could not confirm if the figure on the roof was an actual person.
Officials have said that the shots fired by an attacker 'dressed in dark clothing', and that they did come from a roof.
Student Porter Lafeber who attended the event told the BBC that he 'was filming him' and cut the video just before Kirk was shot.
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"Initially you don’t really realise what's happening until it’s happened," he said on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. "Charlie falls off his stool, everyone starts panicking, running in different directions."
"It was just uncertain," Lafeber added. "You don’t know whether outside is safe or inside is safe - if there’s a shooter looking for more victims.
"There’s people hiding in every corner, every elevator shaft – it’s a really terrifying moment."
Also in attendance was Emma Pitts, a reporter for Deseret News, who told The Guardian: "There was blood, immediately a lot of blood
"After the shots were fired, everyone immediately took to the ground. Me and Eva [her colleague] just hugged each other as tight as we could as we were just trying to stay hidden.
"I don’t know how quickly it was, probably within a minute, everyone started running away… Since then the university has been completely evacuated."
Just before he was shot dead, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member who asked: "Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?"
"Too many," the activist replied.
In a follow-up, the person asked: "Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?"
Kirk replied: "Counting or not counting gang violence?" before he was shot in the neck.