{"id":85603,"date":"2025-09-11T10:15:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=85603"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:45:11","slug":"trump-ally-charlie-kirk-fatally-shot-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/trump-ally-charlie-kirk-fatally-shot-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump ally, Charlie kirk fatally shot in Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

UTAH: US far-right activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump<\/a>, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday at an event at a Utah university, Trump said.<\/p>\n

Kirk, 31, had an outsized influence in US politics, helping to fuel Trump\u2019s support among younger voters \u2013 one of the key factors in the Republicans<\/a>\u2019 return to power last year.<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot Wednesday at an event at a Utah college, officials said.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump said Kirk was shot and killed as he was speaking at Utah Valley University.<\/p>\n

The shooting quickly drew reaction from leading political figures, including some victims of political violence.<\/p>\n

Videos posted to social media show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone at the university\u2019s Sorensen Center courtyard, sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans, \u201cThe American Comeback\u201d and \u201cProve Me Wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

A single shot rings out, and Kirk reaches up with his hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream. Some run away.<\/p>\n

A \u201cperson of interest\u201d was in custody Wednesday evening, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, though no charges were immediately announced. That person was later released, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,\u201d Trump posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University when the attack happened.<\/p>\n

Video from the scene showed 31-year-old Kirk speaking under a tent in front of a large crowd when the sound of a single shot rang out.<\/p>\n

The footage showed Kirk appearing to collapse in his chair before the camera swiftly moved and the sound of panic began to erupt in the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday at about 12:10 a shot was fired at the visiting speaker, Charlie Kirk. He was hit and taken from the location by his security. Campus police is investigating, a suspect is in custody,\u201d the university said in a statement on its social media.<\/p>\n

A separate university statement quoted by Fox News said the shot had been fired from a long distance, although this could not be verified immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cShots were fired from a building about 200 yards from the speaker,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe individual was hit and was taken away immediately by his security personnel. Campus is closed for the rest of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He fell back\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at the rally, told Fox News the shooting had happened during a question-and-answer session.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst question was about religion. He went on for about 15-20 minutes. Second question, interestingly, was about transgender shooters, mass shooters, and in the midst of that, the shot rang out,\u201d a shaken Chaffetz told the network.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I happened to be watching Charlie. I can\u2019t say I saw blood. I can\u2019t say I saw him get shot, but as soon as that shot went out, he fell back.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody hit the deck, everybody\u2026 a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk had an outsized influence in US politics, helping the rise of Trump\u2019s support among younger voters \u2013 one of the key factors in the Republicans\u2019 return to power last year.<\/p>\n

With natural showmanship skills, Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, turning him into the go-to spokesman on television networks and at conferences for the youthful hard right.<\/p>\n

He used his enormous audiences on Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, outspoken Christianity, and viral takedowns of hecklers at his many campus events.<\/p>\n

His presence on campuses was viewed on the right as a welcome contrast to the widespread liberal viewpoints in higher education, but it sparked often fierce opposition.<\/p>\n

News of the shooting provoked horror across the political spectrum, with senior figures on the right and left paying tribute.<\/p>\n

Right-wing media figure Tomi Lahren called Kirk \u201cvisionary\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s actually opened the door for so many young conservatives to have a career and have, you know, a voice in this business.<\/p>\n

California Governor Gavin Newsom \u2013 a frequent foil for right-wing figures like Kirk \u2013 called the attack \u201cdisgusting, vile, and reprehensible\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UTAH: US far-right activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday at an event at a Utah university, Trump said. Kirk, 31, had an outsized influence in US politics, helping to fuel Trump\u2019s support among younger voters \u2013 one of the key factors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":85604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31126],"class_list":["post-85603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-charlie-kirk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85603"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85636,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85603\/revisions\/85636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}