The sniper who killed the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk is believed to have jumped off a roof after firing one shot and fled into a nearby neighborhood, and has not been identified, authorities in Utah said on Thursday.
Officials said they had recovered a high-powered bolt-action rifle they believe was used in the attack and are reviewing video footage of a suspect.
The hunt continued on Thursday for the person who shot Kirk on Wednesday afternoon as he hosted an open-air discussion attended by around 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI Salt Lake City field office, said: “A rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.” He added that the FBI laboratory would be “analyzing this weapon”.
Bohls said investigators had also collected a “footwear impression, a palm print and forearm imprints for analysis”.
Later on Thursday, the FBI released two images of a person of interest in connection with the killing, and asked for the public’s help in identifying them.
The pictures posted on X show a person in sunglasses, a baseball cap, a long-sleeved black shirt with a version of the US flag on the front, and dark jeans.
The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the perpetrator.
Kirk, 31, was a provocateur and close ally of Donald Trump, and a divisive figure who drove youth recruitment to the US president’s Make American Great Again (Maga) movement as a co-founder of Turning Point USA.
His killing drew bipartisan condemnation of the rise in political violence in the US.
On Thursday morning, Trump attended an event at the Pentagon commemorating the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and announced he would award the Medal of Freedom posthumously to Kirk. Trump later told reporters he would speak to Kirk’s family on Thursday afternoon.
US vice-president JD Vance had been scheduled to attend the 9/11 memorial in New York City, but according to reports, he was goingto Salt Lake City instead to pay respects to Kirk’s family.
Former Ohio Republican representative Bob McEwen said on CNN on Thursday afternoon that Kirk’s family in Orem and “the vice-president is going to pick the body and the family up and return them to Arizona”, where Turning Point USA is based and the family lives.
“He stood for what is right, he did not fight with people,” McEwen said, despite Kirk’s track record of inflammatory speech.
On Wednesday, officials had detained and questioned two peoplewho were considered suspects in the shooting, but they were both subsequently released.
The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called Kirk’s death a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.
Cox, a Republican, appealed for an end to political violence. “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” he said.
Reuters, from a Wall Street Journal report citinga person familiar with the investigation and an internal law enforcement bulletin, reported that investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of pro-transgender and anti-fascist sentiment inside the rifle in question. The Guardian has not independently verified this report and the ATF said it could not comment on the report as it is “still an active investigation”.
A senior law enforcement official told the New York Times that report had not been verified by ATF analysts, and did not match other summaries of the evidence.
Just hours after Kirk had been declared dead, Trump delivered a video message from the Oval Office, vowing to track down the suspect.
In a highly partisan address, the president said there had never been anyone so respected by young people as Kirk, even though Kirk was a highly polarizing political activist known for his outspoken bigotry.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.
Video footage posted online from the Turning Point event on Wednesday shows Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence moments before he was shot, with footage then showing attendees ducking, screaming and running from the scene.
Kirk was rushed by his security team to an SUV and was declared dead later at the nearby hospital.
Kirk was a strong supporter of the second amendment and opposed gun control in the US, saying at an event in 2023 that a few gun deaths every year were an acceptable price to pay for the right to own guns.
After the shooting, the UVU campus went into lockdown and will remain closed until the 14 September.
On Wednesday evening, people gathered outside the hospital where Kirk died, leaving candles and homemade signs that read “Peacemakers wanted” and “We love you Charlie Kirk”.
CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, were in the crowd for Kirk’s speech and Paxton said he was in front of Kirk as he was shot.
“Charlie Kirk was a major role model and hero for me,” said Paxton, who spoke with a red Make America Great Again cap folded in his hand. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.”
Greg Cronin, a UVU faculty member , said he was working in the building next to where Kirk was speaking and that he hoped the shooting could bring people together in dialogue instead of further political division.
“We won’t minimize actions like this around the world, ever,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize the impact that they are allowed to have.”
Trump ordered flags to be flown at half mast until 14 September to honor Kirk.
On Thursday morning, a bouquet of flowers lay strewn on the sidewalk beneath the university’s large nameplate.
Wendy Lucas, 44, wearing a camouflage cap, walked up, said a prayer and added a small American flag and two small panda action figures to the pile. The pandas were for Kirk’s children, Lucas said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that she agreed with everything Kirk stood for.
Trump blames ‘radical left political violence’ for killing of Charlie Kirk – video
“Every life should be valuable,” Lucas said. “This should not happen.”
Caution tape blocked off the amphitheater at Utah Valley University where Kirk was shot.
Kirk’s “Prove Me Wrong” pop-up canopy tent was still standing, and students’ personal belongings, from backpacks to water bottles, were still where they had been strewn.
Kirk’s appearances on podcasts and across social media brought him fame in conservative circles and on the hard right, and notoriety elsewhere for his brashly presented, extremist, reactionary positions on the American family, equality and the line between civil free speech and hate speech.
Kirk attacked the mainstream media and engaged aggressively with so-called culture war issues around race, gender identity and immigration.
Experts warned Kirk’s death marks a watershed, with fears it could inflame the fractured country and inspire more unrest.
Kirk had engaged in openly homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. As recently as Tuesday he tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
His evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his politics leaning away from the foundational American principle of separation of church and state.
