Our live coverage of the manhunt and reaction after the killing of Charlie Kirk has moved here.
Manhunt continues for suspect in Charlie Kirk shooting. Here's what we know
The shooter who killed prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk remains at large, after what police called a “targeted attack” on a Utah college campus.
Only one person is believed to have been involved in the shooting, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who called Kirk’s killing “a political assassination.”
President Donald Trump described Kirk’s death as a “dark moment for America” and blamed rhetoric from the “radical left” for causing political violence.
Here’s what else you need to know about the killing of the Turning Point USA founder.
- Targeted attack: Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, a public university in the city of Orem. The shooter fired once, according to Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason, who said it was “a targeted attack towards one individual.” The department believes that the shooter fired from the roof of a building.
- Last moments: Kirk was shot while answering a question from an audience member about mass shootings. After he was hit, Kirk was taken “by private vehicle” to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he died, authorities said.
- Trump reacts: The president expressed his “grief and anger” about Kirk’s killing in a direct-to-camera video from the Oval Office. “Charlie inspired millions and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” Trump said in the four-minute video.
- Political violence in the US: Kirk’s shooting comes after a string of instances of political violence in the US, including the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in June, an arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor’s house in April, and the assassination attempt against Trump during the presidential election last July.
"Lion-hearted friend of Israel": Israeli leaders mourn Kirk
Israeli leaders mourned Charlie Kirk, a vocal pro-Israel advocate, in posts to social media.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Kirk a “lion-hearted friend of Israel” and said he spoke to the Turning Point USA co-founder two weeks ago and invited him to Israel.
“Sadly, that visit will not take place,” Netanyahu wrote on X, adding, “We lost an incredible human being.”
Kirk, an evangelical Christian, was a staunch supporter of Israel.
Netanyahu’s son Yair said on X he had lunch with Kirk and his wife Erika in Jerusalem a few years ago.
“The Charlie I met was so young, yet wise beyond his years. I met someone deeply knowledgeable in history and geopolitics — someone who understood the importance of Israel to America, to the Christian people, and to the Christian faith,” Yair wrote, alongside a photo of Kirk holding an Israeli flag.
Foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar also mourned Charlie Kirk in a post to X, calling him “an incredible friend of Israel” and a “fearless warrior for truth and freedom.”
CNN investigates: How Charlie Kirk's killing unfolded
Videos from moments before Charlie Kirk was fatally shot show a demarcated space between the tent where the 31-year-old was speaking from and the thousands who came to hear him at Utah Valley University.
While a few security guards stood in front of Kirk, authorities believe a gunman likely shot him from a rooftop.
Using aerial images and video analysis, CNN’s Kyung Lah shows how it unfolded.
"There were gunshots!": See moment students took shelter inside university building
Video from Larissa Olson via AP shows people frantically searching for shelter inside a Utah Valley University building moments after the shooting.
“There were gunshots,” Olson says, as dozens of people are seen rushing inside the building. “It was so loud. I have no idea where it came from,” she continues.
Video: Who was Charlie Kirk?
Charlie Kirk, a Trump loyalist, was an influential young voice in the MAGA universe. He was known for making regular appearances on conservative media and holding debates around controversial topics on college campuses.
FBI urges public to share photos, videos of Utah shooting
The FBI, which is working with local and state law enforcement in Utah to investigate the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, is urging anyone with information, photos or videos related to the incident to share files through an online form, the agency said on X.
Witness to Kirk’s shooting recalls limited security at event: “It was just a normal campus day”
Skyler Baird, one of the thousands of people who went to see Charlie Kirk speak at Utah Valley University, described the moment the activist was shot.
“I was only maybe 15 feet away from him, and I heard a pop, and I said in my mind ‘that was a gunshot,’” he told CNN affiliate KUTV. “I pretty much knew immediately that he wasn’t going to make it.”
Baird noted that while there was security present near Kirk, the event space felt very open.
“He was well guarded against someone running up with a knife or someone who was trying to fight him personally, but security in the general area, it was just a normal campus day.”
Calling the shooting a tragedy, Baird said Kirk was at the university to “have a conversation with both sides of the aisle.”
“He wants that dialogue,” he said.
Vigils honoring Kirk held across US
Vigils are being held across the country in honor of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while speaking at Utah Valley University Wednesday.
- In Arizona, the group Catholics for Catholics hosted a public rosary vigil in Scottsdale, where Kirk has a home, according to the Associated Press. “Charlie was our friend. His family are our neighbors. He attended our Church. We loved him and America loves him too,” the organization said on X.
- A candlelight vigil was planned in Seattle’s Westlake Park Wednesday night in response to “the reprehensible and senseless” killing of Kirk, according to the lead pastor of The Pursuit, a Christian group in Washington State.
- The New York Yankees held a moment of silence for Kirk ahead of Wednesday’s game, the team said on X.
- In Washington, DC, a prayer vigil was held at a church in Capitol Hill, Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke said on X. “I invite Montanans to join us in prayer and spirit praying for Charlie, his family and our divided nation. We must heal,” Zinke wrote.
- The Turning Point USA chapter at Texas A&M announced a prayer vigil for Kirk Wednesday night but later moved the vigil to Thursday, citing “security reasons,” the group said on social media.
- Roughly 100 people attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday hosted by the Turning Point USA chapter at Oklahoma University to honor Kirk, according to campus newspaper OU daily.
Correction: A previous version of this post used the incorrect first name for Rep. Ryan Zinke.
Shooter believed to have fired from building roof, authorities say
Authorities from the Utah Department of Public Safety believe that the shooter fired from the roof of a building near the campus courtyard where Kirk was killed.
“Any additional clarifications cannot be provided to protect the integrity of our investigation,” authorities said in a Wednesday press release.
A video captured by an attendee moments after Kirk was shot shows a figure ducking while running across the rooftop of the Losee Center, a building directly opposite to where Kirk was sat when he was killed.
Trump blames "radical left" for Charlie Kirk's death and promises crackdown on political violence
President Donald Trump expressed his “grief and anger” about the killing of Charlie Kirk and blamed rhetoric from the “radical left” in a direct-to-camera video from the Oval Office.
Kirk, the president said, has become “a martyr for truth and freedom,” going on to express his prayers for the Kirk family.
The president connected Kirk’s death to his own shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and other high-profile instances of violence, including the shooting of a UnitedHealthcare executive in New York in December and the 2017 shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise as he railed against “radical left political violence.”
“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity,” Trump said.
He suggested that Americans and the media need to “confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree.”
Trump vowed further action, previewing a broader plan to crack down on political violence.
“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, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country,” he said.
This post has been updated with additional details.
2 earlier suspects not tied to shooting and released, police say
Two people who were considered suspects in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk were later released as neither have “current ties to the shooting,” the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
One person was charged with obstructing university police, as they previously announced during a news conference, but the department didn’t say why either person was considered a suspect.
“There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter,” it said.
“Emotion was very high in the room”: Johnson describes chaotic scene on House floor following Kirk’s shooting
Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN tonight that the shouting match that erupted on the House floor following Charlie Kirk’s shooting “was a reflection of the emotion of the moment.”
“The emotion was very high in the room,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”
During the tense exchange, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who was close to Kirk personally, began hurling expletives at Democrats, a person who witnessed the exchange previously told CNN.
“You f**king caused this,” Luna shouted across the House chamber, according to another person who overheard her remarks. Democrats then shouted back about a school shooting in Colorado earlier that day and a call for action on gun violence.
“A lot of people will reflect upon things they said and did in that moment, and they probably regret it,” Johnson said.
The speaker also warned that the words of lawmakers could have consequences, such as political violence.
“You’ve had people who have resorted to political violence because they were encouraged along by the dialogue out in the public square, and some of that is put forward by, by elected officials and people with large platforms, large social media platforms,” Johnson said, adding: “This is not who we are. We’re better than this.”
“This hurts because it was so senseless,” Oklahoma Sen. Markywane Mullin says
Oklahoma Sen. Markywane Mullin, who was a close friend of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, said “this hurts because it was so senseless.”
“We all hold a responsibility to this, Republicans, Democrats, news outlets to the left and to the right,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “I hope, be it the rhetoric on the right and the left, that we can reset out of this.”
The GOP lawmaker described Kirk as someone who “broke all norms” in political interaction, and an “unapologetic Christian and an unapologetic proponent for traditional values.”
Speaker Johnson says many lawmakers want increased security following Kirk’s death
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN tonight there has been a “deluge” of lawmakers who are calling for heightened security in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.
“I think many of them are nervous, of course” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, referring to his colleagues in Congress. “They’re public figures. They’re exposed all the time, everywhere. We have great security measures for members of Congress, but there’s a desire on many people’s parts to have more.”
Johnson added on “The Source” that he is looking into that request, saying, “We have to take serious measures for serious times.”
The speaker also echoed the comments some of his colleagues made today, stressing the impact of words and civility.
“At the end of the day, I think the call is that we’ve got to recognize once more that we are all fellow Americans. We are. We should see one another as colleagues and fellow citizens and fellow countrymen and not as enemies. That’s not what Charlie Kirk represented. He genuinely loved the debate because he genuinely loved the people,” he said.
Johnson later added, “We need to be thinking thoughtfully about our language and what we’re saying and how we treat one another,” Johnson said. “This could be a big moment … I feel like something has changed.”
First lady Melania Trump calls for "compassionate awareness" in aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death
First lady Melania Trump called for “compassionate awareness” after the killing of Charlie Kirk, mourning on behalf of the conservative activist’s two small children.
Kirk was a trusted ally of the president but also became a close friend of the Trump family.
Video: CNN spoke to eyewitnesses who described the scene of the shooting on a Utah campus
Charlie Kirk, 31, was killed after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University. CNN spoke to eyewitnesses who described the scene.
“It’s clearly not the Utah way,” Sen. John Curtis says about Charlie Kirk shooting
The shooting that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk is “clearly not the Utah way,” Utah Sen. John Curtis said while speaking with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
This area where the shooting occurred is often jokingly referred to as “happy valley,” he said, adding “you can walk on the streets any time of day and be comfortable.”
“That makes this even more disturbing for those of us who live there,” he said, noting he has a home a couple of miles from the college campus.
Here’s why authorities may be having a hard time finding Kirk’s killer, according to a chief CNN analyst
A manhunt is still underway as law enforcement tries to find the person who fired the shot that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk today.
According to CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller, the shooter’s planning, skill and execution may be complicating the search.
He told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that snipers have been studied closely by the government and they typically are people who are “methodical and patient, self-reliant.”
“This is the kind of person who would have planned to get in silently, try to be invisible, take this shot, accomplish the mission, take the gun with them and leave little evidence behind which is why I think they’re having a very difficult time getting started on this.”
Officials said earlier today that they believe the shooter fired one shot at one person and that it was a targeted incident.
The single fired shot shows that “the person is not new to shooting,” Miller said, which ultimately could help officials get to the bottom of the investigation.
“This is someone who knew exactly what they were doing and is probably known to others, and this may be working to the advantage of law enforcement,” Miller said. “As someone who has a long history in shooting, this wasn’t an amateur.”
Utah Valley University is "shocked and saddened" by Charlie Kirk's death, its president says
Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez says the campus community is “shocked and saddened” by the death of Charlie Kirk, who had been speaking at an event on campus when he was shot.
Kirk was invited to speak by students who are part of the university’s Turning Point USA chapter. The youth organization, which was co-founded by Kirk in 2012, has about 800 college chapters across the country.
Tuminez condemned the killing of the conservative political activist, saying the university “is a place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully.”
“Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here,” she said. “We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus a safe place for all.”
