The FBI said that he is working together with the application of state and local law “to completely investigate and seek justice in the fatal shooting” of Charlie Kirk, founder of the organization of youth activists conservative Turning Point USA, during an event at the University of Utah Valley on Wednesday.
The FBI requested public advice while the human hunt for the perpetrator continued, urging anyone with information, photos and videos of the incident to share it with the researchers.
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, said previously that the agency “has full support for the ongoing response and research.”
Officials must hold a press conference at 9 am et on Thursday. UVU will be closed until September 14, according to a notice published on the University website.
Kirk, a father of two 31 -year -old children, was considered a confidant of President Donald Trump and very influential in the conservative movement of youth.
This Amy King video capture shows the activist and influential youth of the right Charlie Kirk speaking during a public event at the University of Utah Valley minutes before he filmed it in OEM, Utah, on September 10, 2025.
Amy King/UGC through AFP through Getty Images
He founded the Turning Point USA Conservative Group in 2012 at the age of 18, and in the 2024 the elections were accredited with the development of significant support for Trump among young voters.
It was beaten by a single shot during the outdoor event on the Olem Campus of the University shortly after noon. Kirk was taken to the hospital but then was declared dead.
The Utah event was expected to include a “trying wrong” table, according to the tour website.
Before Kirk’s visit to the University of Utah Valley, some students began an online petition asking the university administrators to prevent it.
Although Kirk’s visit was controversial on the campus, the police were not tracking specific or credible threats before the fatal shooting, they told ABC News, sources of application of Utah’s law.
It was estimated that more than 3,000 people were in the event, according to the University Chief of the University, Jeff Long. There were six police officers, along with Kirk’s private security, according to Long.
The Commissioner of the Utah Public Security Department, Beau Mason, described the shooting as a “directed attack” and said the scene is a “very large area.”
Mason said that the “only information” on the possible shooter was taken from CCTV on the campus, and that the person was dressed in all the dark clothes. The shot was triggered on the campus from a “longer distance”, potentially from a roof, he said.
There is no evidence that someone else has been involved, according to the authorities.
Salt Lake City FBI special agent Robert Bohls said the investigation is in the early stages.
On December 22, 2024, right -wing activist Charlie Kirk speaks on the stage of America Fest 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Josh Edelson/AFP through Getty Images
“We are following all potential clients and all tests,” he said during the press conference on Wednesday.
The Utah Security Department of Security Department said in an update on Wednesday night that two people were initially arrested after the shooting, but then was released.
The first was released and then accused of obstruction by the University Police. The second person was arrested and released after an “interrogation” by the police, the department said.
Utah authorities said “there are no current links with the shooting with any of these people.”
Trump was among those who paid tribute to Kirk.
“The great and even legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump said on social networks. “No one understood or had the heart of young people 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 come out with their beautiful wife Erika and his family. Charlie, we love you!”
“It’s horrible. It’s one of the most horrible things I’ve seen,” Trump told the correspondent of the Washington Chief of ABC, Jonathan Karl.
“It was a great guy,” Trump said. “He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody likes it.”
Trump ordered that all US flags throughout the country be reduced to the half -mast until Sunday night in Kirk honor.
The Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, described the fatal shooting as a “political murder.”
The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, on the left, speaks with the chief of police from the University of Utah Valley, Jeff Long, on the right, in the Keller building on the Campus of the University of the Valley of Utah after Charlie Kirk was shot and died during the tour of Turning Point to the University, on September 10, 2025, in OREM, UTAH.
Hannah Schoenbaum/AP
Vice President JD Vance called Kirk “a genuinely good guy and a young father” while urging the prayers after the shooting.
Cox said previously that he was being informed “after the violence aimed at Charlie Kirk” during the visit of the conservative political activist to the campus.
“Those responsible will be fully responsible. Violence does not take place in our public life. Americans of each political persuasion must join to condemn this law,” he said in X.
The conviction came from both sides of the political spectrum.
“There is no place in our country for this type of violence. It must end now,” said former President Joe Biden. “Jill and I are praying for the family and loved ones of Charlie Kirk.”
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrible and this kind of increasing violence cannot afford in our society,” said Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, Democrat, in X.
The fellow Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom in California, said about X that “the attack against Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile and rebuilt. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in all forms.”
Aaron Katersky and Ivan Pere.
