Images on social media show Kirk sitting in a white tent with a microphone in the courtyard of the university campus. Then a shot sounds and Kirk, sitting in his chair, falls over. There seems to be a large amount of blood flowing from the left side of his neck. Shocked bystanders then flee.

According to the university, only one shot was fired at Kirk from an adjacent building. The shooter would have been 180 meters away. Shortly after the shooting, the university announced that a suspect had been arrested. According to police officials, it was soon clear that it was not the perpetrator, several American media reported. The man was then released.

Hours later, the FBI reported that another suspect had been arrested. However, he also had to be released after interrogation. “As soon as we have more information, we will inform you,” reports the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, on X. It is unclear why the two were designated as suspects.

According to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, authorities assume that only one person was involved in the shooting. He is still on the run.

Trump: ‘He was loved by everyone’

President Donald Trump reported Kirk’s death on his own social media platform Truth Social. ‘The fantastic and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or won the hearts of American youth the way he did. He was loved by everyone, especially me, and now he is no longer with us,” the president wrote. Trump further reported that his thoughts and those of his wife Melania go out to Kirk’s wife and family. He concluded with the words: ‘Charlie, we love you!’

Earlier, Trump had called for prayers for Kirk. Other Republican politicians, such as Vice President Vance, also made a similar call.

In America, but also in the Netherlands, the shooting and the death of Kirk caused a stir. Many American politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, react with horror to the news. Former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, former vice president Kamala Harris and left-wing politician Bernie Sanders, among others, are making themselves heard on social media.

Dutch politicians Thierry Baudet (FvD) and Caroline van der Plas (BBB) are also shocked by the news.

Face of the conservative right in the US

Charlie Kirk has made a name for himself in recent years as a conservative activist, writer and opinion maker. He was best known as the founder and leader of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), an organization focused on mobilizing conservative students and spreading right-leaning ideas on college campuses. Videos in which he debates with students about topics such as abortion are viewed extremely often on social media.

Kirk was a regular guest in conservative media, such as Fox News, and had his own popular podcast. He was often seen as an important (younger) voice within the Make America Great Again movement around Donald Trump. In 2024, he was one of the speakers at the Republican Party convention where Trump was named presidential candidate. Trump has often complimented Kirk for convincing young people that they should vote for the Republican.

Kirk was not completely uncontroversial. He has been repeatedly criticized for spreading misleading or factually incorrect information, including around Covid-19, vaccines, and the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He was also a fierce opponent of the so-called woke culture. Just before he was shot, he was asked how many transgender people are responsible for large-scale shootings in the United States.

Kirk was at the University of Utah for the kick-off of a nationwide tour of several universities. Kirk’s arrival in Utah caused a lot of resistance among students. An online petition to persuade the university leadership to ban Kirk was signed almost a thousand times. Nevertheless, the university decided to go ahead with the event, under the guise of ‘free speech, intellectual research and constructive dialogue’.

Kirk was married and the father of two children.

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