Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at an event in Utah, President Trump says

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University^[1], President Donald Trump said.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.

Kirk was being treated and for a period in critical condition, a law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA^[2] in 2012 at the age of 18, and soon became a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on then-President Trump.

The person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation and was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by TPUSA^[3]. The event at UVU had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

During college tours in 2021, Kirk seized on the political backlash toward critical race theory, the academic framework that includes the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. society and its legal system.

He also began offering a free alternative curriculum, aimed mainly at homeschooling parents that was described as “quality America-first education.”

At a November 2021 rally in Minnesota, Kirk called George Floyd a “scumbag.” Floyd’s death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020 set off a global reckoning over racial injustice.

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