Keys to the murder of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk

Some 3,000 people gathered Wednesday morning at Utah Valley University to hear the truths of Charlie Kirk, an ultraconservative, evangelical 31-year-old and an influential debater. The MAGA activist was kicking off his new tour of higher education institutions to debate anyone under the slogan “Prove me wrong.” What the audience actually witnessed in the city of Orem was a horrific political assassination that has shaken the nerves of American society, which is once again seeing political violence incarnated in its most extreme form: gun violence. These are the key points to know about the case.

Who was Charlie Kirk?

In just over a decade, Kirk, 31, had become one of the most influential activists in the Make America Great Again movement, waging a cultural war against woke values in the public spaces of college campuses, and using freedom of speech as a shield. He became one of the most followed provocateurs in the MAGA world, defending the traditional role of women, completely rejecting abortion, defending the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), and opposing reforms favoring minorities.

His influence went beyond opinion. At 18, he founded Turning Point USA, an ultra-conservative political action organization, alongside William Montgomery, a sympathizer of the Tea Party, a far-right populist movement that served as a precursor to Trumpism. Today, Turning Point is a powerful platform with more than 20 million followers on social media and 3,500 chapters at universities across the United States (around 250,000 students, according to the organization itself). But the association is also a significant fundraising force among young activists of the new right: 100% of its donations go to candidates within the Trump camp. Last year, Kirk and Turning Point spent $7 million on the tightest congressional races. Their work was key to Trump’s victory in Arizona, one of the swing states in the presidential election and where Kirk had his headquarters.

Where did the murder occur?

Kirk was shot in the neck seconds after 12:20 p.m. while he was debating with a student about gun violence in the United States. The influencer and activist was surrounded by heavy security in an outdoor amphitheater at Utah Valley University (UVU), the state’s largest public university with 47,000 students. Kirk was taken to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

More than 8,000 students from several state universities had signed a petition to prevent Kirk from holding his event on the university campus, located 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City, the state capital.

This was Kirk’s first date on his The American Comeback Tour, which would have taken him to 14 higher education institutions in Colorado, Virginia, Minnesota, and other locations. Utah is one of the states with the most lax gun regulations, which has led to a gun violence victim rate above the national average. In May, state officials made it easier for employees to carry guns on school property.

What is known about the murderer?

The FBI is leading the manhunt for Kirk’s killer. Local authorities have so far provided few details about the shooter’s identity. It is known only that he was dressed in dark clothing and that he opened fire from the roof of the Losee Center, a building located around 650 feet (200 meters) away from where Kirk was speaking. He was traveling with a large number of armed bodyguards. Local police had also sent six officers to join the security operation. Only one shot is heard in the images recorded by students.

Moments after the murder, investigators questioned George Zinn, an older man who had been present on campus. The suspect was later released but charged with obstruction of justice by local police. Hours later, authorities arrested and questioned Zacharian Qureshi, a Turning Point supporter of Arab origin. As of Wednesday evening, police reported that the two men had no connection to the homicide. “Our investigation continues,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. The agency has set up a website to receive information and tips that could lead to the arrest of the shooter.

Local Utah press has revealed police radio audio claiming that university cameras captured the moment the suspect left the scene. Classes have been suspended at UVU until Monday.

What reactions has Kirk’s death triggered?

Donald Trump, who announced Kirk’s death, said he considered him a friend. The president’s message was followed by hundreds more messages of condemnation, in a nearly unanimous tone shared by Republican and Democratic politicians.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who interviewed Kirk on his podcast in March, said his murder “is sick and reprehensible.” “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” former President Barack Obama posted on X. Former president Joe Biden and former candidate Kamala Harris issued similar statements.

“Our nation is broken. [...] Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken,” Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, reflected this afternoon.

Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, said Kirk’s killing broke her heart. “Attacks against political or ideological opponents are cowardly and un-American, and must be universally condemned,” wrote Giffords, who became a gun control activist after surviving the shooting.

By late afternoon, however, the divisions in American politics had finally prevailed. “Democrats own what happened today,” MAGA Congresswoman Nancy Mace asserted outside the Capitol.

It was the same tone Trump used in a recorded message from the Oval Office. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” he asserted. Trump promised to find the perpetrator as well as the organizations that aided the attack.

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