Trump ally Charlie Kirk dies after being shot at Utah university event

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed at a Utah college event in an act that drew renewed attention to the threat of political violence across the United States.

Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was shot and killed as he was speaking at Utah Valley University. The shooting quickly drew reaction from leading political figures, including some victims of political violence.

“I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah,” Mr Trump said in an address to the nation.

No one was in custody late on Wednesday, though authorities were searching for a new person of interest, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter, who was not authorised to discuss the situation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two people were detained earlier in the day, but neither was determined to have had any connection to the shooting and both have been released, Utah public safety officials said.

“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox.

“I want to be very clear, this is a political assassination.”

Videos posted to social media show Mr Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone at the university’s Sorensen Centre courtyard, sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans, “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong”.

A single shot rang out and Mr Kirk reached up with his hand to a wound in the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasped and screamed, with some people running away.

Immediately before the shooting, Mr Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Mr Kirk responded, “Too many.”

The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Mr Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out. The shooter, whom Mr Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away.

Authorities took one man, George Zinn, into custody but later released him after determining he was not the suspect, Utah’s Department of Public Safety commissioner Beau Mason said.

The police booked Zinn into the county jail on allegations of obstructing justice, he said.

A voicemail message left at a number listed for Zinn was not immediately returned. Zinn pleaded guilty in 2013 to making terrorist threats after police said he emailed Salt Lake City Marathon organisers asking to place bombs at the finish line.

The death was announced on social media by Mr Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Mr Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organisation Turning Point USA, as “Great, and even legendary.”

Later on Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Mr Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for the killing.

“This is a dark moment for America,” Mr Trump said. “Charlie Kirk travelled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever.”

The event, billed as the first stop on Mr Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarising campus reaction.

An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Mr Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures.

The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

Last week, Mr Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges, which sparked controversy. He wrote: “What’s going on in Utah?”