Popular conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk, was fatally shot while speaking to a large crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on 10 September. He was 31.
"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth 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 go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"
A spokesperson for Turning Point USA, an organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school and university campuses, confirmed that Kirk died following the shooting. "Charlie went to his eternal reward with Jesus Christ in Heaven," the group, which Kirk cofounded, said in a statement.
Kirk, who was a prominent conservative activist and Trump ally, was speaking at a planned open-air rally at the school when a single shot rang out, striking him in the neck.
An unnamed person of interest is in custody, but authorities are not yet referring to them as a suspect, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Wednesday afternoon. A possible shooter dressed in dark clothing was captured on surveillance footage firing from a rooftop, according to Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety. Authorities are trying to determine if the person of interest they have taken into custody is the same person spotted on the CCTV footage, he said.
The university had initially reported that a suspect was in custody shortly after the shooting, but that person was released after being booked for obstruction of justice, Mason said.