By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MARK SHERMAN, Related Press
OREM, Utah (AP) — Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, was in crucial situation at a Utah hospital Wednesday after being shot at a university occasion, a legislation enforcement official informed The Related Press. A suspect was in custody, the school mentioned.
Movies posted to social media from Utah Valley College present Kirk talking right into a handheld microphone whereas sitting below a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Show Me Mistaken.” A single shot rings out and Kirk will be seen reaching up along with his proper hand as a big quantity of blood gushes from the left aspect of his neck. Shocked spectators are heard gasping and screaming earlier than individuals begin to run away. The AP was capable of verify the movies had been taken at Sorensen Heart courtyard on the Utah Valley College campus.
“We’re confirming that he was shot and we’re praying for Charlie,” mentioned Aubrey Laitsch, public relations supervisor for Turning Level USA.
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Charlie Kirk speaks earlier than he’s shot throughout Turning Level’s go to to Utah Valley College in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret Information by way of AP)
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Charlie Kirk speaks earlier than he’s shot throughout Turning Level’s go to to Utah Valley College in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret Information by way of AP)
Kirk was talking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political group. The occasion had been met with divided opinions on campus. A web-based petition calling for college directors to bar Kirk from showing acquired almost 1,000 signatures. The college issued a press release final week citing First Modification rights and affirming its “dedication to free speech, mental inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
Final week, Kirk posted on X pictures of stories clips exhibiting his go to to Utah schools was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s happening in Utah?”
The school mentioned a “single shot” had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was in custody.
President Donald Trump and a bunch of Republican and Democratic elected officers decried the capturing and supplied prayers for Kirk on social media.
“We should all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A terrific man from high to backside. GOD BLESS HIM!” Trump posted on Fact Social.
The capturing comes amid a spike in political violence in the USA throughout all elements of the ideological spectrum. The assaults embody the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their home in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas launch hostages, and a hearth set on the home of Pennsylvania’s governor, who’s Jewish, in April. Essentially the most infamous of those occasions is the capturing of Trump throughout a marketing campaign rally final yr.
Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was on the occasion, mentioned in an interview on Fox Information Channel that he heard one shot and noticed Kirk return.
“It appeared prefer it was a detailed shot,” Chaffetz mentioned, who appeared shaken as he spoke.
He mentioned there was a light-weight police presence on the occasion and Kirk had some safety however not sufficient.
“Utah is likely one of the most secure locations on the planet,” he mentioned. “And so we simply don’t have all these issues.”
Turning Level was based in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea social gathering activist, to proselytize on school campuses for low taxes and restricted authorities. It was not a direct success.
However Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia ultimately gained over an influential set of conservative financiers.
Regardless of early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a private aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, throughout the normal election marketing campaign.
Quickly, Kirk was an everyday presence on cable TV, the place he leaned into the tradition wars and heaped reward on the then-president. Trump and his son had been equally effusive and sometimes spoke at Turning Level conferences.
Durkin Richer and Sherman reported from Washington.
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