A candlelight vigil is held for Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk Wednesday in Seattle, Washington. Kirk was shot dead while speaking at Utah Valley University.David Ryder/Getty Images
Charlie Kirk, the right-wing youth organizer, influencer and prominent ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was shot to death Wednesday during a public event in the quadrangle of Utah Valley University as he engaged in a debate over gun violence.
Mr. Kirk, 31, was speaking before a crowd of about 3,000 people at 12:20 p.m. local time. Videos showed him, microphone in hand, sitting under a white tent when a single shot rang out. Blood poured from the left side of Mr. Kirk’s neck as he reached up with his right hand and toppled over.
The killing follows a steady stream of assassinations, attempted assassinations and other acts of violence in U.S. politics in recent years. The identity of Mr. Kirk’s killer and their motive were not clear Wednesday as police solicited the public’s help in identifying the shooter.
Right-wing youth organizer Charlie Kirk was shot during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday.Tess Crowley/The Associated Press
People run after Mr. Kirk was shot at the Utah Valley University event on Wednesday.Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribu/Reuters
Mr. Trump, who initially called on Truth Social for his followers to pray for Mr. Kirk, posted an hour later to announce his death. The President ordered flags lowered to half-mast at the White House, public buildings, military facilities, naval vessels and diplomatic missions.
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”
Mr. Kirk was the head of Turning Point USA, a right-wing group he founded in 2012 that organizes on university and high-school campuses. He also helped shape MAGA public opinion through a podcast and social-media presence. The event in Utah was one of his regular visits to universities for speeches and question-and-answer sessions with students.
Police said Wednesday they had a “person of interest” in custody and were trying to determine whether that person was the shooter. Beau Mason of the Utah Department of Public Safety told reporters that there was security camera footage of the killer dressed in dark clothing and that the shooter may have fired from a rooftop. FBI Director Kash Patel said later that the person of interest had been released after an interrogation.
A second person, 71-year-old George Zinn, was arrested at the scene but officers later determined he did not match the shooter’s description. The Salt Lake Tribune identified Mr. Zinn as a “gadfly” with a history of disrupting political events. Police said he faced a possible obstruction of justice charge.
The shooting, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Orem, unfolded in a grassy area shaped like an amphitheatre and surrounded by buildings. The videos captured part of an exchange between Mr. Kirk and a participant from the audience.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” asked a man debating him. “Too many,” Mr. Kirk replied, to cheers from the crowd. “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” the interlocuter asked. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Mr. Kirk said, before he was shot and audience members screamed and ran from the scene.
U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday at an event at a Utah university.
Reuters
One video showed a group of men who appeared to be Mr. Kirk’s security guards carrying him to an SUV. Police said he was driven to hospital in a private vehicle.
Political figures from across the spectrum condemned the killing.
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vice-President JD Vance wrote on X, where he also praised Mr. Kirk for holding events that allowed “open and honest dialogue between left and right.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the shooting of Mr. Kirk as “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.” The Democrat wrote: “In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he is appalled. “There is no justification for political violence and every act of it threatens democracy,” Mr. Carney posted on X.
I am appalled by the murder of Charlie Kirk. There is no justification for political violence and every act of it threatens democracy.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) September 11, 2025
My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and loved ones.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, who himself started his political involvement as a student organizer, called for everyone to “strongly denounce” the shooting of Mr. Kirk. “Political violence is NEVER justified. The attacker must be brought to justice. And free speech must be upheld,” he wrote on social media.
Ben Edtl, an Oregon Republican who calls himself the state’s MAGA leader, told The Globe he was “in pain” after hearing the news about Mr. Kirk.
“This is someone who has made a difference in the lives of the most important thing we’ve got, and that’s our kids,” he said. He credited Mr. Kirk with “trying to combat what history will probably see as one of the most evil things that’s happened in the United States, the indoctrination of our kids.”
Mr. Kirk was killed less than three months after Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state legislative leader in Minnesota, was assassinated in an attack that also killed her husband and left another lawmaker and his wife injured.
Other acts and plots of political violence in recent years included two failed attempts to kill Mr. Trump during last year’s presidential campaign; an arson at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s official residence in April; the storming of the Capitol in 2021; and failed attempts to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Our nation is broken,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox said at a news conference, in which he lamented the violence. “Nothing I say can unite us as a country.”
A native of the Chicago area, Mr. Kirk started Turning Point at age 18 and campaigned for Mr. Trump in all three of his presidential races. Along the way, Mr. Kirk backed Mr. Trump’s most contentious positions, including his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the spreading of COVID-19 misinformation.
Mr. Kirk developed a particularly close relationship with Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son.
“I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on social media on Wednesday.
Mr. Kirk married Erika Frantzve in 2021 and the couple had two children.
At one 2023 event, Mr. Kirk articulated his opposition to gun control as accepting a trade-off between gun deaths and the right to bear arms in the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said. “That is a prudent deal.”
With a report from Nathan VanderKlippe in Portland, Ore.