Trump ally Charlie Kirk shot dead; right-wing activist played key role in US President’s 2024 victory

WASHINGTON - Investigators have recovered the weapon that was used to kill US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Robert Bohls said on Sept 11, describing it as a high-powered rifle that was found in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.

Mr Kirk, an influential ally of US President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Sept 10 while speaking at a Utah university, sparking a hunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a political assassination.

Mr Beau Mason, Utah’s public safety chief, said investigators also had “good video footage of this individual”, but that they would not release it while they are working to identify the suspect through facial recognition technology.

The shooting happened at midday at Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah, during an event attended by 3,000 people.

The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Mr Kirk, 31, apparently from a distant rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large”, said Mr Mason at a news conference four hours later.

State police issued a statement on the night of Sept 10 saying that two men had been detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were subsequently released.

“There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the statement said. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”

In a video message taped in the Oval Office and posted to his Truth Social online platform, Mr Trump vowed that his administration would locate the suspect.

“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it,” he said.

Cellphone video clips of

the killing posted online

showed Mr Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd at the Utah Valley University campus around 12.20pm when a gunshot rang out.

Mr Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending the attendees running.

In another clip, blood can be seen gushing from Mr Kirk’s neck immediately after the shot.

Mr Jeff Long, chief of the university police department, said that he had six officers working at the event, and that he coordinated with the head of Mr Kirk’s private security team, which was also on site.

Mr Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sept 14 in Mr Kirk’s honour.

The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on US political figures, including two assassination attempts on Mr Trump in 2024, that have underscored a sharp rise in political violence.

“This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation,” Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox said at the press conference. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”

Mr Trump, who routinely describes political rivals, judges and others who stand in his way as “radical left lunatics” and warns that they pose an existential threat to the nation, decried violent political rhetoric.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Mr Trump said in the video.

“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

On Capitol Hill in Washington, an attempt at a moment of silence for Mr Kirk in the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting and finger-pointing.

Mr Kirk’s appearance on Sept 10 was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country.

He often used such events, typically drawing large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.

Asked about shootings, then shot

Before he was shot, Mr Kirk was being questioned by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.

“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” Mr Kirk was asked.

He responded: “Counting or not counting gang violence?” He was shot moments later.

Mr Kirk and the group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organisation in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Mr Trump in November 2024.

After winning his second presidential term, Mr Trump credited Mr Kirk for mobilising younger voters and voters of colour in support of his campaign.

“You had Turning Point’s grassroots armies,” Mr Trump said at a rally in Phoenix in December 2024. “It’s not my victory, it’s your victory.”

Mr Kirk had 5.3 million followers on X and hosted a popular podcast and radio programme, The Charlie Kirk Show.

He had also recently co-hosted Fox & Friends on Fox News.

He was part of an ecosystem of pro-Trump conservative influencers – including Mr Jack Posobiec, Ms Laura Loomer, Ms Candace Owens and others – who have helped to amplify the President’s agenda.

Mr Kirk frequently attacked the mainstream media and engaged in culture-war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.

At the White House, staff, many of them young and admirers of Mr Kirk, were ashen-faced as news of the shooting spread.

Mr Kirk was married and had two young children.

Political violence on the rise

While the motive for the shooting is unknown, the US is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s.

Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since

supporters of Mr Trump attacked the US Capitol

on Jan 6, 2021.

In July 2024, Mr Trump was

grazed by a gunman’s bullet

during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. A

second assassination attempt

two months later was foiled by federal agents.

In April,

an arsonist broke into Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence

and set it on fire while his family slept inside.

Earlier in 2025,

a gunman posing as a police officer

in Minnesota murdered state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Senator John Hoffman and his wife.

And in Boulder, Colorado,

a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails

to attack a solidarity event for Israeli hostages, killing one woman and injuring at least six more people.

In 2022, a man broke into Democrat and then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, leaving him with skull fractures and other injuries.

In 2020, a group of right-wing militia members plotted unsuccessfully to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians expressed support for Mr Kirk following the shooting.

“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vice-President J.D. Vance, who was close to Mr Kirk, wrote on X.

“I am shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.

“Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy.” REUTERS