What we know so far

Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:

• Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.

• Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.

• On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.

• The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.

• Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.

• Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.

Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday. Photograph: Tess Crowley/AP

• Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.

• Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.

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

• In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.

• Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.

• Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.

• New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.

• Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.

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‘What have we become?’: shock across US political parties after Charlie Kirk shooting

Ed Pilkington

Charlie Kirk’s death by an assassin’s bullet on a university campus in Utah on Wednesday has left the United States, a country already grappling with mounting political anger and polarization, in a state of profound shock bordering on despair.

Kirk, a rising star of Donald Trump’s make America great again (Maga) movement, was struck in the neck by a single shot as he addressed a large student crowd at Utah Valley University. The event had been billed as the grand opening of his 15-stop “America Comeback Tour”, but instead will be marked as the place where he uttered his last words.

The 31-year-old leader of the rightwing student group Turning Point USA was about 20 minutes into a Q&A, ironically engaging with a question on mass shootings in America, when the shot rang out. Within seconds, hundreds of students had scattered screaming from the campus lawn.

Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, on Wednesday. Photograph: Tess Crowley/AP

Within minutes of that, gruesome videos began to proliferate through social media, apparently undeterred by any algorithm. They showed Kirk being hit, slumping to his left side and profusely bleeding.

Long before Kirk was pronounced dead at 4.40pm – poignantly in a post from his champion, the US president, on Truth Social – the wave of profound shock was breaking over both sides of the US’s political divide.

“This is horrific. I am stunned,” said the Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz, who described Kirk on Twitter/X as a “good friend” since the young activist’s teenage years.

Kirk was unashamedly far to the right of the US political spectrum and had expressed openly bigoted views and engaged in homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. He recently tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”

He mixed evangelical Christian beliefs with rightwing politics into a combustible brew. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”

But mourning for Kirk crossed the political aisle.

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Charlie Kirk’s killing is a tragic marker of the indiscriminate nature of political violence, writes Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan. You can read the opinion piece here:

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Utah Republican senator faces backlash over post condemning Kirk’s killing

The official X account of Mike Lee, a Republican US senator, drew backlash after quickly condemning Wednesday’s killing of influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah – less than three months from when the politician initially responded to the shootings of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers by boosting misinformation about that case.

A post from Lee, who joined the Senate in 2011, denounced Kirk’s murder as “a cowardly act of violence” while hailing the Turning Point USA executive director as an “American patriot” and “inspiration to countless young people”. His post also solicited prayers for the 31-year-old Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their children.

“The terrorists will not win,” Lee said shortly after Kirk’s death while speaking at an outdoors gathering on the campus of Utah Valley University had been confirmed. “Charlie will.”

Mike Lee, a Utah Republican senator, is facing backlash over his post on Kirk’s killing v his message on Hortman’s shooting. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

While some of the platform’s users replied positively to the post, many others immediately alluded to how Lee focused on advancing conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the 14 June shootings that killed Minnesota’s house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, while wounding state senator John Hoffman – her fellow Democrat – as well as his wife, Yvette.

“This is what happens,” Lee wrote in an X post, “When Marxists don’t get their way.” Attached to the post was a picture of the suspect charged in the shooting, Vance Boelter, evidently wearing a latex face mask.

There was no evidence Boelter is a Marxist. Friends have told local media he was right-leaning. And while Minnesota voters don’t list party affiliation, Boelter was registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004.

Separately, under another picture of Boelter, Lee wrote, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” which appeared to be a reference to Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election won by Donald Trump.

Lee’s allusion to Walz came as conservative influencers misleadingly suggested an alliance between the governor and Boelter. Walz’s Democratic predecessor, Mark Dayton, appointed Boelter in 2016 to a 60-member voluntary advisory board. Boelter’s appointment was renewed in 2019 by Walz, who did not know him.

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‘Despicable’: Republicans and Democrats condemn violence after Charlie Kirk killing

Chris Stein

The killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college on Wednesday afternoon prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over the latest act of political violence in the United States, with Donald Trump lamenting the loss of a key ally.

“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,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.

The president ordered flags to be lowered to half mast to honor Kirk, who was prominent in Trump’s make America great again (Maga) movement.

Trump, who survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in July 2024, also blamed the violence on the “radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis” in an evening video address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country,” he said.

The identity and motives of the shooter, who was not in custody early Wednesday evening, are not yet known.

JD Vance called Kirk “a genuinely good guy and a young father” and tweeted prayers.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio said he was “heartbroken and outrages [sic] by the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” calling the 31-year-old “an incredible husband and father and a great American”.

Former vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the shooting of Kirk, who organized against her presidential campaign last year.

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Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has described the death of Charlie Kirk as “the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left”.

In a post on X, Orbán wrote:

Charlie Kirk’s death is the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left.

This is what led to the attacks on [Slovak prime minister] Robert Fico, on [Czech former premier] Andrej Babiš, and now on Charlie Kirk. We must stop the hatred! We must stop the hate-mongering left!

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A UK offshoot of a US conservative group set up by Charlie Kirk is to hold a vigil in London after he was shot dead, reports the PA news agency.

Turning Point UK has said its activists will gather on Friday evening by the Montgomery statue in Whitehall and called on others to “join us in remembering Charlie”.

The group’s chief executive Jack Ross told Sky News on Wednesday:

It’s absolutely shocking, we’re heartbroken over here in the UK.

Political figures in the UK spoke out against political violence after Kirk’s death.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer expressed his condolences online, adding:

My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.

It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.

We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who said she is “deeply shocked” by the killing, added:

Political violence has no place in our societies.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.

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Updated at 05.22 EDT

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has called the shooting of Charlie Kirk “a deep wound for democracy”. In a message posted on X, Meloni wrote:

An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.

My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community.

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Manhunt for shooter continues

Police and federal agents mounted an intense manhunt on Thursday for the sniper believed to have fired the single gunshot that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was fielding questions about gun violence during a university appearance.

Kirk, 31, a podcast-radio commentator and an influential ally of Donald Trump, is credited with helping build the Republican president’s base among younger voters. He was shot on Wednesday in what Utah governor Spencer Cox called a political assassination.

The shooting, captured in graphic detail in video clips that rapidly spread around the internet, occurred during a midday event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, about 40 miles (65km) south of Salt Lake City.

The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that struck Kirk in the neck, apparently from a rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.

Security camera footage showed a person believed to be the assailant dressed in all-dark clothing, Mason told reporters. But eight hours after the killing, authorities said they still had no suspect in custody, reports Reuters.

State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained, and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were 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.”

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Updated at 05.26 EDT

Charlie Kirk, the founder of rightwing youth activist group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and a close ally of Donald Trump, was fatally shot while speaking at a university campus event in Utah.

Beau Mason, the head of the Utah department of public safety, said the suspect was still at large. “While the suspect is at large, we believe this was a targeted attack,” he said.

Charlie Kirk shooting: suspect still at large after rightwing activist shot and killed – videoShare

Here is a graphic showing the site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus and also the reported location of the shooter:

Site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus.Share

What we know so far

Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:

• Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.

• Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.

• On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.

• The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.

• Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.

• Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.

Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday. Photograph: Tess Crowley/AP

• Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.

• Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.

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

• In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.

• Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.

• Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.

• New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.

• Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.

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Analysis: Kirk’s death shows political violence is now a feature of US life

Rachel Leingang

The shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah marks another example of ongoing political violence in the US, now a feature of American life.

Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that Kirk had died, saying: “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”

Kirk, on campus at Utah Valley University as part of a speaking tour called “American Comeback”, was asked a question by an audience member about mass shootings, including how many involved trans shooters, when he was shot in the neck.

The political leanings and goals of the shooter, who is not in custody, are not yet known. Kirk is one of the highest-profile allies of the US president, and his organization, Turning Point USA, has helped turn out voters for Trump and other Republicans. He is also known for his inflammatory, often racist and xenophobic commentary, particularly on college campuses.

The shooting comes as a series of incidents over the past year show an increased level of violence related to political disagreements or intended to achieve political goals.

Trump faced two assassination attempts in 2024. Last December, a shooter targeted and killed the head of United Healthcare. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home was burned in an arson attack in April. Judges and elected officials report increased threats and harassment. Several instances of violence have stemmed from opposition to the Gaza war. In June, a man dressed as a police officer shot and killed a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and wounded another state lawmaker and his wife. A gunman attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in August, killing a police officer.

Surveys have shown increased acceptance of using violence for political aims across party spectrums. Robert Pape, who directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, wrote in the New York Times that a survey his team conducted in May was its “most worrisome yet”. “About 40 percent of Democrats supported the use of force to remove Mr. Trump from the presidency, and about 25 percent of Republicans supported the use of the military to stop protests against Mr. Trump’s agenda. These numbers more than doubled since last fall, when we asked similar questions,” he wrote.

“We’re becoming more and more of a powder keg,” Pape told the Guardian on Wednesday. Pape calls the current moment an “era of violent populism”.

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Updated at 04.24 EDT

Profile: Kirk was an influential rightwing activist and trusted ally of Trump

David Smith

Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Donald Trump among young voters has to understand Charlie Kirk, dubbed a “youth whisperer” of the right, who was shot on Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University and died afterwards.

Kirk was only 31 and had never held elected office but, as a natural showman with a flair for patriotism, populism and Christian nationalism, was rich in the political currency of the era.

In 2012 he co-founded Turning Point USA to drive conservative, anti-woke viewpoints among young people, turning himself into the go-to spokesperson on TV networks and at conferences for young rightwingers.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in 2024. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP

The activist, author and radio host had used his huge audiences on Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, confrontational Christianity and viral takedowns of hecklers at his many campus events.

An important gravitational tug on the modern Republican party, his career had also been marked by the promotion of misinformation, divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including 2020 election-fraud claims and falsehoods around the Covid pandemic and the vaccine.

Kirk expressed openly bigoted views and was an unabashed homophobe and Islamophobe. As recently as Tuesday of this week 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. He argued that there is no true separation of church and state and warned of a “spiritual battle” pitting the west against wokeism, Marxism and Islam.

During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”

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Updated at 04.17 EDT

Charlie Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”

The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out.

The shooter, who Utah governor Spencer Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.

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Search for Charlie Kirk’s killer continues as Trump vows to crack down on political violence

Jonathan Yerushalmy

Authorities in the US are still searching for a suspect in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hours after the close ally of Donald Trump was killed at a Utah university, sparking condemnation from both sides of politics and grave threats from the president.

“This shooting is still an active investigation,” the Utah department of public safety said in a statement, adding it was working with the FBI and local police departments.

Two suspects were taken into custody, but subsequently released. The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called it a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.

Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and possibly fired “a longer distance shot” from a roof.

In a video message from the Oval Office, Trump vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.

Trump said:

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.

Kirk was shot while addressing a crowd of an estimated 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, near Salt Lake City. Video footage posted online showed Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence in the moments before he was shot.

Video footage shows students scrambling to run from the sound of gunfire. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, authorities said. Local officials said the shooting was “believed to be a targeted attack” by a shooter from the roof of a building.

We will bring you all the latest developments on this throughout the day.

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