Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Wednesday during an outdoor appearance at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, some 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

The founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and a supporter of President Donald J. Trump, Kirk died from a gunshot wound to the neck at Timpanogos Regional Hospital, also in Orem.

Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two young children. The couple married in 2021.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” President Trump wrote on TruthSocial. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Finding the assassin proved more difficult than first imagined Wednesday. Moments after the gunfire rang out, UVU police grabbed a suspect, whom they said was later released.

Hours later, FBI Director Kash Patel said agents had another individual in custody, only to follow soon after with a statement saying that individual had also been released. Law enforcement continues to search for the shooter.

“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination. . . . I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this . . . we will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.”

The shooting took place at a TPUSA event at the UVU campus, where 40,000 students are enrolled. Kirk, seated underneath a large pavilion-like tent, wore a white shirt with the word “freedom” emblazoned on it.

Former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who attended the event with his family, told Fox News that Kirk was about 30 minutes into his presentation and had started to take questions.

The first was “a religious question” that Chaffetz did not elaborate on. The second, on “transgender mass killings,” was still being discussed when gunfire rang out at approximately 12:20 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.

“I can’t say that I saw blood,” said Chaffetz. “I can’t say that I saw him get hit. But I did see him fall immediately backwards to his left.

Multiple reports indicate the shots came from the rooftop of a campus building approximately 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking.

Video showed hundreds of students running from the area. UVU’s campus was placed on lockdown and will now remain closed through Sunday.

After Kirk’s death was announced, President Trump ordered that U.S. flags should be flown at half-staff through Sunday, Sept. 14.

On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, had to gavel the chamber back to order after verbal fighting broke out following a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, for a moment of prayer to memorialize Kirk.

Ironically, Kirk decried what he called “assassination culture” in a post on X just five months ago.

“Assassination culture is spreading on the left,” Kirk wrote on April 7. “Forty-eight percent of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk. Fifty-five percent said the same about Donald Trump.”

He said, “The left is being whipped into a violent frenzy. Any setback, whether losing an election or losing a court case, justifies a maximally violent response.”

Kirk rocketed to prominence in the past decade as an advocate for conservative political positions, dropping out after a brief stint at Harper College, a two-year school, in Palatine, Illinois, to pursue political activism.

He founded TPUSA with a goal of reaching millennial and Gen Z audiences. He is an electrifying speaker who—in this reporter’s presence—evoked massive enthusiasm during a 2024 Trump campaign rally in Las Vegas.

In November 2019, Kirk paired with Jerry Falwell, Jr., then president of Liberty University, to start the “Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty,” a conservative think tank housed at the Lynchburg, Virginia, school. That same year, Liberty conferred an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree on Kirk.

Falwell left the school in August 2020 following a sex scandal, and the university did not renew its one-year contract with Kirk, who started “TPUSA Faith” after that breakup. Its website states, “TPUSA Faith exists to unite the Church around primary doctrine and to eliminate wokeism from the American pulpit.”

Kirk was known as an evangelical Christian, and he was associated with Rob McCoy, pastor emeritus of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, California.

“My friend Charlie Kirk was murdered today by a coward,” McCoy said in a statement. “His life will be remembered for many wonderful things. He built it all with the power of the spoken word. He never used violence but was threatened every day with violence by those who couldn’t contend with logic and truth and now they have done to my friend what evil always does; it takes away life.”

McCoy said, “Charlie called me his pastor, but I prefer to be known as his friend and greatest fan.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly place both Utah Valley University and Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.

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