WASHINGTON, Sept 11 — US right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck yesterday at an event at a Utah university in what the governor described as a political assassination.
Authorities had not yet publicly identified a suspect by yesterday evening, nearly six hours after the shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel said an unnamed "subject" had been detained for questioning and then released.
"Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency," he wrote on social media.
Governor Spencer Cox had said at an earlier press conference that police were interviewing a "person of interest," without providing further details about the person's identity. At the same press conference, however, Beau Mason, the Utah Department of Public Safety commissioner, said the shooter remained "at large".
Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk, 31, addressing a large outdoor crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, around 12.20 pm local time, when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending the attendees running.
In another clip, blood could be seen gushing from Kirk's neck immediately after the shot.
The suspect likely fired from a rooftop at a significant distance, authorities said, adding that there were about 3,000 people gathered at the event. Jeff Long, chief of the university police department, said that he had six officers working the event, and that he coordinated with the head of Kirk's private security team, which was also on site.
Trump ordered all government US flags flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk's honour.
"The 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. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us," Trump wrote on social media.
The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on US political figures, including two assassination attempts of Trump last year, that have underscored a sharp rise in political violence.
"This is a dark day for our state, it's a tragic day for our nation," Cox said at the press conference. "I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination."
Kirk's appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event ‘American Comeback Tour’ at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.
Seconds before he was shot, Kirk was being questioned by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.
"Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?" Kirk was asked.
He responded, "Counting or not counting gang violence?" He was shot moments later.
Kirk and the group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organisation in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in November.
After winning his second presidential term, Trump credited Kirk for mobilising younger voters and voters of color in support of his campaign.
"You had Turning Point's grassroots armies," Trump said at a rally in Phoenix in December. "It's not my victory, it's your victory."
Kirk had 5.3 million followers on X and hosted a popular podcast and radio program, ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’. He had also recently appeared as a guest co-host on Fox News' ‘Fox & Friends’.
At the White House, staff members, many of them young and admirers of Kirk, were ashen-faced as news of the shooting spread. Kirk was married and had two young children.
