FLASH
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Hours after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the search for the perpetrator continues. The 31-year-old conservative activist and Trump supporter was shot dead by a sniper on Wednesday afternoon (local time) during an event at Utah Valley University.
As Reuters reports, the attack occurred at around 12:20 p.m. local time, in front of an audience of 3,000 people. Kirk was speaking when a single bullet fired from a distant building on campus struck him in the neck.
The perpetrator was positioned in a nest on the roof of the Losee Center, about 200 meters from Kirk.
"We heard the shots and people immediately fell to the ground," reported Taylor Dufur, who was standing with his wife just a few feet away from Kirk.
"I saw him fall out of the chair and blood was pouring out of his neck." Videos of the scene are circulating on social media. US President Donald Trump himself announced the death of Charlie Kirk.
Although it was initially reported that a suspect had been arrested, that turned out to be false. As Utah State Police announced Wednesday evening, two men were briefly detained and questioned, but both were later released. "There is no current connection to the shooting involving these two individuals," the official statement said.
Beau Mason, Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, confirmed four hours after the attack that the perpetrator was still “at large.” The investigation and search for the man were ongoing.
Security experts have sharply criticized the lack of risk assessment. Kirk, considered a Trump confidant and founder of the largest conservative youth organization in the US, had been the target of threats in the past.
His events regularly drew thousands of attendees and were highly polarizing. As Reuters reports, only six police officers were responsible for security at the major event. Jeff Long, the university's police chief, confirmed that he had coordinated with Kirk's private security team, apparently without success.
Despite the 3,000 attendees, there were no security checks at the entrance to the event. Eyewitness Tyler McGettigan told NBC News: "I was surprised that I didn't have to go through security. There were no checkpoints. Anyone could come in if they wanted to."
Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, has already spoken of a "political assassination" and called it a "dark day for our state." President Trump, who counted Kirk as a close ally, blamed the "radical left" for the attack in a video message and announced: "My administration will seek out all those who contributed to this atrocity."
Seconds before the fatal shooting, someone in the audience asked Kirk about gun violence in America. His response was, "Does gang violence count or not?" Then the gunshot rang out.
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