Conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot dead Wednesday while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in what authorities believe was a political assassination.
Trump announced the death of Kirk, the 31-year-old cofounder of activist youth group Turning Point USA, in a social media post on Wednesday.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“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 said he had ordered flags across the US to be lowered to half-mast until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In a video address from the White House later on Wednesday, Trump blamed rhetoric from the “radical left” as a factor in Kirk’s murder.
“It is long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonising those with whom you disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said.
ANN earlier reported that the shot came from a nearby building about 200 yards away and struck Kirk in the neck during an open outdoors debate as part of his “The American Comeback Tour.”
Governor Spencer Cox of Utah described the killing as “tragic” and called it a dark day for the nation. With the suspect still at large, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are investigating.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, some eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah, during an event attended by 3,000 people.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk, 31, apparently from a distant rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.
State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were subsequently released.
“There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the statement said. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”
In a video message taped in the Oval Office and posted to Trump’s Truth Social online platform, the president vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.
Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, around 12:20 p.m. MT (1820 GMT), when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
(Al Jazeera, Reuters, ANN)
