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  • Turning Point, moving forward without Charlie Kirk, makes first return to Utah since his killing

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    Turning Point USA’s college tour will return to Utah on Tuesday for its first event in the state since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.‘Nothing is changing’Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.“We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.“My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.“We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.The events have served as tributes to KirkThe events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.“Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.“Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”“The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

    LOGAN, Utah —

    Turning Point USA’s college tour will return to Utah on Tuesday for its first event in the state since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.

    The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.

    The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.

    Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.

    The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.

    And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.

    ‘Nothing is changing’

    Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.

    “We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.

    That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.

    “My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.

    “We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.

    Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.

    Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.

    The events have served as tributes to Kirk

    The events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.

    At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.

    “The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”

    He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.

    “Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”

    He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.

    At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)

    As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.

    Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.

    “Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”

    “The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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  • Trump suggests authorities have apprehended Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

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    OREM, Utah — President Donald Trump said Friday that he believes “with a high degree of certainty” that authorities have apprehended a suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    “I think with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends, noting that someone “very close to him turned him in.”

    Trump praised local and state officials for their work tracking down the suspect who was captured on video on the rooftop of a Utah Vallery University building after Kirk was killed after being struck in the neck with one single shot.

    “Everybody did a great job, you know,” the President said. “You start off with absolutely nothing, and we started off with a cliff that made him look like an ant, that was almost useless. We just saw there was somebody up there. And so much work has been done over the last two and a half days.”

    Trump said he hoped the suspect would be found guilty and get the death penalty.

    “What he did, Charlie Kirk, he was the finest person that, he didn’t deserve this.”

    State and federal officials have scheduled a news conference for 6 a.m. Pacific time.

    Trump’s claims came the morning after Utah authorities pleaded for the public’s help in identifying the gunman and released new video of a suspect in dark clothing lying face-down on the corner of a roof at Utah Valley University. He then ran across the roof and jumped off of it, using his hands to lower himself over the edge.

    Beau Mason, the head of Utah’s Department Public Safety, said in a TV interview Thursday night on MSNBC that “we’re exploring leads for individuals out of state and individuals that live close by.” We literally have persons of interest, tips coming in on the tip line that are spanning far, far and wide.”

    Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said investigators were chasing several leads after the suspect left palm impressions and smudges on the roof that they hoped would allow them to collect DNA. He also left a shoe imprint officials believe is from a Converse tennis shoe.

    Law enforcement is circulating the video as well as photos of the suspect — who was last seen wearing blue jeans, a baseball cap, gray Converse shoes and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that appeared to show an American flag and an eagle. Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward.

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday night they hoped the images and video would get as much attention as possible to help investigators capture “this evil human being.”

    “We are going to catch this person,” Cox said, noting that he had worked with attorneys to get affidavits ready “so that we can pursue the death penalty in this case.”

    With pressure building on authorities, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, took the unusual step Thursday of flying to Utah. But he did not speak at the news conference.

    More than 7,000 tips have been submitted to the FBI, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. But on Thursday evening Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, told MSNBC that authorities still “have no idea” where Kirk’s killer is.

    The suspected murder weapon, a high-powered bolt-action rifle, was recovered in a wooded area near a parking lot, said Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office. Mason said the suspect was seen running to that area after getting down from the roof.

    Kirk was afervant conservative and enormously influential figure in American politics, with a combined 25.6 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

    A provocative figure, Kirk was known for challenging left-wing orthodoxies on college campuses and clung strongly to his Christian faith, arguing that there should be no division between church and state in America.

    Kirk’s assassination sparked fierce backlash from conservative leaders, including President Trump, who blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for his death. On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance traveled from Utah to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two with Kirk’s family to bring the activist’s casket home.

    On Thursday evening, hundreds gathered in a park in Orem, Utah, to remember and honor Kirk.

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    The multi-generational crowd held American flags, pushed children in strollers and donned “Make America Great Again” hats while they prayed and sang together.

    “Come together in light,” Mayor David Young said to the crowd. “Violence has no place here.”

    The mourners sang along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and participated in a group prayer.

    “This is the healing that we needed,” said Klea Harris, whose children helped organize the event.

    More than a hundred people lined up with flowers, candles and flags, waiting for their turn to place them before a memorial that centered on a larger-than-life photo of Kirk.

    “It’s important that we don’t turn on each other in this moment,” said Jason Preston, a conservative podcast host. He received rousing applause when he told the crowd: “This is not a battle of right versus left, this is a battle of good versus evil.”

    Earlier in the day, young conservatives gathered on campus, hanging red banners in honor of Kirk’s Republican ideology and carrying posters with phrases such as “We are not afraid” and “Charlie Kirk, American hero.”

    “I think this kind of woke a sleeping giant,” said UVU student Jillian Green, 20. “People are outraged and very upset that he [was killed] when he was advocating for so many of us.”

    Koby Herrera, a fellow student at the university, also felt that the death could mark a shift in political history, noting that it could further raise Kirk’s influence.

    “He had a voice, and I feel like his voice is bigger now that he’s in the grave,” said Herrera, 22.

    Kirk held huge sway over young Republicans, and key members of the Trump administration credited him with helping them secure the GOP’s 2024 electoral victory.

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  • Admiration for Charlie Kirk — if not his beliefs — cut across political lines

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    Charlie Kirk, the conservative millennial influencer who galvanized young Americans to support the GOP and was assassinated this week in Utah, was the most influential modern-day catalyst of shifting voting trends among fledgling voters, according to Republican and Democratic strategists.

    Kirk founded the nonprofit Turning Point USA in 2012 at the age of 18, and it grew into a force that promoted conservative views on high school and college campuses across the nation.

    “He found something among young people that none of us identified,” said Shawn Steel, a member of the Republican National Committee from Orange County who knew Kirk for nearly a decade and invited him to speak before the RNC’s conservative steering committee.

    “He found an entire movement in America that conservatives were not even aware they could find. Not only that, he nurtured and created an entire new generation of conservative activists,” said Steel, the husband of former Rep. Michelle Steel. “His legacy will endure.”

    The admiration for Kirk’s political organizing skills and mental acuity cut across political lines.

    “Whether you agreed with him or not — and to be clear, I didn’t — he was one of the most brilliant political organizers of his generation, and probably generations before that,” said Stephanie Cutter, a veteran Democratic strategist who served as an advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris. “He could be controversial, but he struck a nerve with people who were likely disengaged in politics prior to Turning Point and built a powerful movement.”

    In addition to appealing to young voters about the economic headwinds they faced as they sought to climb the career ladder and tried to buy a house, Kirk also espoused sharply conservative views.

    Beyond espousing traditional conservative views — being anti-abortion, pro-gun rights and dubious of climate change — Kirk was critical of gay and transgender rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying last year that if he saw a Black airplane pilot, he hoped he was qualified. He was accused of being an anti-Semite because of repeated comments about the power of Jewish donors in the United States, and of being Islamophobic because of comments such as describing “large dedicated Islamic areas” as “a threat to America.”

    Kirk, 31 and a father of two, died Wednesday after being shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University. Kirk’s assassination was the latest instance of political violence in an increasingly politically polarized country.

    In June, Democratic Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, while state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife survived a shooting at their home, roughly five miles away, the same day. In 2022, a home invader bludgeoned the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). In 2017, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot during a practice session for an annual congressional baseball game. In 2011, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) barely survived an assassination attempt as she met with constituents in a Tucson strip mall.

    President Trump survived two assassination attempts in 2024 as he successfully sought reelection to the White House.

    Kirk’s “mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever, to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense on campuses nationwide,” Trump said Wednesday.

    On Thursday, Trump told reporters on the White House’s South Lawn that Kirk was partly responsible for his victory in the 2024 presidential election and repeated that he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Turning Point USA, created a month before Kirk graduated from high school, became the new face of conservatism on college campuses and had chapters at more than 800 schools. Prominent conservatives heavily funded the group; in the fiscal year that ended in June of 2024, Turning Point reported $85 million in revenue.

    Longtime GOP activist Jon Fleischman, the former executive director of the California Republican Party and the former chairman of the state’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom in the early 1990s, said Kirk was pivotal to Trump’s election.

    “Charlie Kirk was probably the single most prominent and successful youth organizer in the Trump movement,” Fleischman said, adding that Kirk superseded any other GOP organizer he knew at increasing conservative prospects among young voters.

    “As somebody who cut their teeth as a youth organizer, I have nothing but awe for the level of sophistication he brought to that field of work,” he said.

    Support for Trump among young voters exponentially increased in the 2024 presidential election, according to data compiled by Tufts University. While President Biden had a 25-point edge over Trump among voters ages 18 to 29 in the 2020 election, Harris had a four-point advantage among this cohort last year.

    “This last election was the best performance Republicans have had with the youth vote, particularly male voters, in 20 years, maybe even going back to the ’80s,” said Steve Deace, a conservative radio host in Iowa who had known Kirk for a decade.

    He gave credit for that success partly to work Kirk did on the ground at colleges across the country, notably being willing to amicably debate with people who disagreed with his beliefs.

    “Charlie was basically a Renaissance man who was comfortable in a lot of settings. He wasn’t hoity-toity,” he said.

    Deace and others added that this moment could be a turning point for the nation’s democracy and the split between the left and the right.

    “We’re going to have a real conversation about whether we can share a country or not. The answer may be we can’t,” Deace said. “We have to decide if we are capable of the fundamental differences between us being adjudicated at the ballot box…. We have to decide if we can share a country. If we truly want to, we’ll figure it out. If we don’t, we won’t. That’s the conversation that needs to happen.”

    Bombastic conservative commentator Roger Stone went further, arguing that modern-day Democrats are a greater threat to the nation than terrorists, drug cartels and foreign spies.

    “The rot is too deep to reverse our course with mere rhetoric,” Stone wrote to supporters. “Sept. 10, 2025 was the day we crossed the Rubicon, lost our innocence and realized only one path remains to ensure humanity’s survival. The time for American renewal is at hand, and the tree of liberty shall germinate in warp speed with Charlie Kirk serving as the martyr of our glorious refounding.”

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  • What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

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    What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

    Good morning. I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. I’d be remiss if we didn’t start off today to recognize the significance of, of the day, um. Historically on 9/11, law enforcement has come together as *** group to recognize and honor those that sacrificed. To preserve the ideals of this country, the freedoms of this country. And instead, we find ourselves today hunting *** murderer. We chose to violate our rights, the rights of an individual within this country. Just to recap yesterday’s events. At around 12:20 p.m. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was in Utah Valley University, participating in *** student sponsored event with Turning Point USA. Charlie was shot at that event. He was transported to *** local hospital where he later passed. Last night, his body was moved to the office, the state office of the medical examiner. We will continue to facilitate movements um to get him home today, um, and with his family. Yesterday during the investigative process we located *** couple of persons of interest. We interviewed those individuals. And after releasing them and after clearing them of being suspects. They face scrutiny. They face threats. We asked the public to be patient with the investigative process. These individuals were not suspects. They were people of interest. We ask that you do not impose into those those people and that investigative process. They don’t deserve that harassment for being subject to that. I’d like to thank all the investigators that are involved in this. They have worked around the clock all day yesterday through the night last night. Investigators from the State Bureau of Investigations, from county, from city agencies, the university, our federal partners with the FBI, the ATF, um, and many others. Those are just *** few of the people that we have involved in this. I’d like to thank all of them for their, for their strong work. Through all that work last night, we were able to make *** few, few breakthroughs. Um, we were able to track the movements of the shooter. Starting at 11:52 a.m. the subject arrived on campus shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through the stairwells, up to the roof, across the roof to *** shooting location. After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus and into *** neighborhood. Our investigators have worked through those neighborhoods, contacting anybody they can with doorbell cameras, witnesses, and thoroughly worked through those communities trying to identify any leads. We do have good video footage of this individual. We are not going to release that at this time. We’re working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual. If we are unsuccessful, we will reach out to you as the media, and we will push that publicly to help us identify them, but we’re confident in our abilities right now and we would like to move forward in *** manner that keeps everyone safe and moves this process appropriately. Last night I communicated with Erica. The family is devastated. As Commissioner of Public safety. As *** father, as *** husband, I can only imagine what that family is going through. The heinous event that happened yesterday is not Utah. This is not what we’re known for. Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen the state come together to help families in mourning, come together as *** community to show what Utah is known for. For *** state of, of character. Of service, of camaraderie, of ***, of *** neighboring field. We will not stand for what happened yesterday. We are exhausting every lead. We have every officer invested in this, every investigator, every local agency. The outpouring of support from the law enforcement community has been astounding. We are, we are investing everything we have into this, and we will catch this individual. Having walked through the crime scene, through the hallways of this school, through the classrooms. I can’t imagine what the people on scene felt as well. *** horrific event where some of them barricaded in classrooms, some of them ran in fear. Can’t over over overstate. The tragedy and the horrific event that yesterday was. And how we will work to, to bring to justice the actions of one individual or any other individuals that assisted in that. Our state has gone through *** lot and we will come out successfully. With that, I’ll turn the time over to Special Agens charge. Good morning. My name is Robert Bows, and I’m the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake Field Office. Following yesterday’s tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk, FBI agents have been working around the clock in coordination with our law enforcement partners. We are and will continue to work nonstop until we find the person that has committed this heinous crime and find out why they did it. This morning, I can tell you that we have recovered what we believe is the weapon that was used in yesterday’s shooting. It’s *** high-powered bolt action rifle. That rifle was was recovered in *** wooded area where the shooter had fled. So the FBI laboratory will be analyzing this weapon. Investigators have also collected footwear impression, *** palm print, and forearm imprints for analysis. I understand there are *** lot of questions about motive. I assure you that all leads, tips, and tips are being fully investigated. As of this morning, we received more than 130 tests. We thank the community for that. The FBI has brought every resource to bear. And we will continue to do so throughout the course of this investigation. The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people. It’s to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Any attack on the First Amendment. is an attack on the very foundation of our democracy. That is why we will, we will relentlessly pursue this case and the shooter until we find him. We also continue to grieve with the family and the community. It’s our community. If you have any video or images from the shooting, we ask you to please submit them to our digital media tip website at www.FBI.gov/Utahvalley shooting. You can also call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. We truly rely on the public’s help in these types of cases, and no tip is too small or insignificant. Thank you. Um, Commissioner James Matthews from Sky News, can I ask, uh, about the shooter? There’s clearly information, uh, about him or her. You say you’re confident at this stage in terms of tracking down who they are. Can you talk to us about their movements, their demeanor? Do you think it’s *** man? And also, can I ask what were the security arrangements in place? Was that move. Being monitored, it’s *** question many people will have particular problem. So what I’ll release about the suspect is uh Suspect blended in well with, with the college institution. Um, we’re not releasing any details right now and then we, we will soon, um, but right now we’re not, but that, that individual um appears to be of, of college age, um. We are confident in our abilities to track that individual. If we’re unsuccessful in identifying them immediately, we will reach out to the public’s help and the media’s help in pushing those photos. That was *** new development overnight working through the night studying those cameras, so that’s something that’s new and that we’re working through right now. As far as the security, I cannot speak to that. Neither the Department of Public Safety nor the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in in the planning or security of this event, and that’ll have to be *** question later for other agencies. I wanted to ask you, you mentioned that you found the gun in *** wooded area. Do you believe that the suspect could be hiding in the woods, and is that suspect possibly still in this area? So that’s *** good question and it’s, it’s *** question that goes to the safety of the community, right? Um, no, not in those woods. We walked through those woods and secured it. Um, as to the community, I can tell you that this was *** targeted event. Um, we don’t believe the community is, is at risk. However, we’re exhausting every resource to find him, uh, and. We will, we will do so on the BBC from the images you have, can you see clearly the suspect’s face? You say he was college age, do you believe he was from this university, and how far do you think he may have gone in this time span? So I can’t comment specifically on his face or any details such as that, uh, as it’s continuing to be *** part of the investigation and, and again we’ll release that shortly. Uh, however, um, we’re, we’re doing everything we can to find him, and we’re not sure how far he’s gone. And you do? We, we have images of the of the suspects that you’ve been able to recover, do you believe you know who this person is, the person that you’re looking for at this point again, as part of the investigation, we’re not releasing any details fingerprints or DNA. We are, we are exhausting all of our resources to be able to collect those, uh, but that’s again part of the excuse me. You said you found the weapon. Have you been able to trace back the owner of that weapon or purchased it? We are working on that but again part of the of the FBI think that’s impacting. We’ve got complete and total support from everyone from the director on down and it’s been an incredible supportive environment so far. tweets like the one where I can say is that we’re working the investigation the best we have right now.

    What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

    Updated: 11:02 AM EDT Sep 11, 2025

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    A manhunt continues Thursday as law enforcement officials search for the suspect responsible for fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday.Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was shot and killed. Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA.What we know about the shooterPolice are still working to identify the shooter.The suspect targeted Kirk, firing a single shot from a distant rooftop, according to Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety Beau Mason. Authorities said the suspect “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the college campus.Authorities said the suspect arrived on campus just before noon. After firing the shot, the shooter jumped from the roof, moved through stairwells and ultimately fled from campus into a neighborhood. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area where the shooter fled, according to the FBI. The shooter is still on the run, and it is not clear how far the suspect may have gotten, but the nearby woods have been secured, authorities said.Officials are reviewing grainy security videos of a person in dark clothing. “We do have good video of this individual,” Mason said.Federal, state and local authorities were working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.” Are there other suspects?A person of interest was taken into custody Wednesday evening after the shooting, but has since been released, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. No charges were filed. Officials have no information indicating a second person was involved, according to Cox. Two other people were detained Wednesday, but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, public safety officials said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    A manhunt continues Thursday as law enforcement officials search for the suspect responsible for fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday.

    Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was shot and killed. Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA.

    What we know about the shooter

    Police are still working to identify the shooter.

    The suspect targeted Kirk, firing a single shot from a distant rooftop, according to Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety Beau Mason.

    Authorities said the suspect “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the college campus.

    Authorities said the suspect arrived on campus just before noon.

    After firing the shot, the shooter jumped from the roof, moved through stairwells and ultimately fled from campus into a neighborhood. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area where the shooter fled, according to the FBI.

    The shooter is still on the run, and it is not clear how far the suspect may have gotten, but the nearby woods have been secured, authorities said.

    Officials are reviewing grainy security videos of a person in dark clothing. “We do have good video of this individual,” Mason said.

    Federal, state and local authorities were working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”

    Are there other suspects?

    A person of interest was taken into custody Wednesday evening after the shooting, but has since been released, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. No charges were filed.

    Officials have no information indicating a second person was involved, according to Cox.

    Two other people were detained Wednesday, but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, public safety officials said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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  • Leaders across the political spectrum denounce Charlie Kirk shooting, political violence

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and the conservative movement were stunned Wednesday by the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a disruptive leader in GOP politics who accomplished what was once thought a pipe dream, expanding Republican ranks among America’s youth.

    Inside the White House, senior officials that had worked closely alongside Kirk throughout much of their careers reacted with shock. It was a moment of political violence reminiscent of the repeated attempts on Donald Trump’s life during the 2024 presidential campaign, one official told The Times.

    “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”

    Kirk, a founder of Turning Point USA, was instrumental in recruiting young Americans on college campuses to GOP voter rolls, making himself an indispensable part of Republican campaigns down ballot across the country. That mission made his shooting on a college campus in Utah all the more poignant to his friends and allies, who reacted with dismay at videos of the shooting circulating online.

    His impact, helping to increase support among 18- to 24-year-old voters for Republican candidates by double-digit margins in just four years, has been credited by Republican operatives as driving the party’s victories last year, allowing the GOP to retake the House, Senate and the presidency.

    Democrats have recognized his prowess, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosting him on his podcast earlier this year in an appeal to young, predominantly male voters lost by the Democrats in recent years.

    “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom said on X in response to the news.

    As videos of the shooting circulated online, a number of prominent Republicans, including senior members of the Trump administration, reacted to the news by asking the public to pray for the young activist.

    “Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X.

    Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said federal agents were at the scene of the shooting in Utah. FBI Director Kash Patel added the FBI will be helping with the investigation.

    Wilner reported from Washington, Ceballos from Tallahassee, Fla.

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    Ana Ceballos, Michael Wilner

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  • College district to study plan for new Santa Paula campus

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    Three years ago, officials with the Ventura County Community College District were in talks to buy property at the east end of Santa Paula for a new college campus.

    That property, owned by the agricultural company Limoneira, is now fallow farmland, no closer to being a college campus than it was in 2023. But it’s still for sale, and the district is now taking the first steps down a road that could lead it to a satellite campus there or elsewhere.

    The college district’s board of trustees met Aug. 21 at the Museum of Ventura County Agricultural Museum in Santa Paula. The only item on the agenda was a discussion of the district’s plans for Santa Paula, Fillmore and the rest of the Santa Clara River Valley.

    This property at the east end of Santa Paula is owned by Limoneira. The agricultural company wants to sell it to the Ventura County Community College District for a new satellite campus, but college leaders say they’re not ready to take that step yet.

    The board didn’t take a formal vote, but at the end of the meeting, the trustees agreed that the district will conduct or commission a study on the feasibility of buying property in Santa Paula for a new campus.

    That might mean the Limoneira property or could be another piece of land. Limoneira’s property is about 20 acres, located just south of Highway 126 and east of Hallock Drive, near the new Harvest at Limoneira residential development. The company has offered to sell 8 to 10 acres of it to the college district, for about $1 million per acre.

    “We know there’s a property available to us for $8 million or $10 million, but we need to look at building a building, and if you know anything about building schools, that’s a $100 million proposition,” said Trustee Lou Lichtl. “When the time is right, I want to cut that ribbon on that land and that property and that building … but we have a lot of work to do.”

    Not enough students for a Santa Paula satellite campus yet

    In the meantime, the district is expanding its current operations in Santa Paula, where it rents space just off the freeway on the west end of town. The 2,800-square-foot expansion underway now will add a classroom and two science labs to the Ventura College East Campus, bringing the facility to seven classrooms and two labs, along with offices, a student lounge and other spaces for students to study and get college services.

    The East Campus budget has more than tripled over the past four years, from $1.5 million in the 2021-22 school year to $4.7 million this year.

    Enrollment is growing, too. The equivalent of 419 full-time students now attend in-person, online or hybrid classes that are based out of the East Campus in Santa Paula, up from 72 four years ago.

    It’s still not enough for a true satellite campus, though. To be certified as a “learning center” by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, a site needs to reach 500 full-time equivalent students and sustain that for a year, and it must also show a “demonstrated ability” to serve at least 1,000 students, said Rick MacLennan, the Ventura County Community College District’s chancellor.

    “We’re on our way, but we’re not there yet,” MacLennan said. “We will be evaluated very carefully by the state chancellor’s office, and we have to have all our ducks in a row.”

    If the Ventura College satellite campus in Santa Paula does get that “learning center” status, it would come with state funding of about $2.3 million a year, MacLennan said.

    How did the college district get here?

    The Santa Clara River Valley has been waiting for a community college campus since 2002, and the Limoneira property has been discussed as its possible home for that long, too.

    That year, Ventura County voters approved a $356 million bond measure for the college district, and a satellite campus in Santa Paula was on the list of projects it was supposed to pay for. But the promises a government agency makes when it asks voters to approve a bond measure aren’t binding, and within a few years the district had abandoned its plan for a Santa Paula campus, citing rising construction costs and dwindling bond funds.

    Residents of Santa Paula, Fillmore and the surrounding areas see this as a betrayal.

    “I’ve watched generations of young people in my city grow up full of potential, but without access to the opportunity they deserve,” said Jose Garcia, a Santa Paula native and a union organizer. “It’s not because they didn’t try. It’s because the opportunities just aren’t there.”

    Santa Paula Mayor Pedro Chavez said the city’s residents are “strong, we are patient, but we’re also angry and frustrated.”

    “We need leadership, and we need vision,” he said. “That land might not be available in the future. … We need to make these decisions now for future generations.”

    College district leaders say improving services in the Santa Clara River Valley is now among their top priorities.

    “We can’t rectify a problem that was created by the board 20 years ago overnight,” said Trustee Joe Piechowski. “As much as that board should have spent that money the way they promised to spend that money, they didn’t do that. None of us were on the board of trustees at that time, and while we have inherited that board’s problems, none of us here are responsible for that problem.”

    The Limoneira property at the east end of Santa Paula is also the planned site of a new county hospital, though that project has stalled, too. The new Santa Paula Hospital would go on the northern portion of the property, closer to Highway 126, with the college campus on the southern end.

    In 2021, the county said it planned to build a new hospital on that site, with a developer lined up to buy the land from Limoneira. But that hasn’t happened yet, and last year county leaders said the plan was still being analyzed.

    “I really want that area to work,” Limoneira CEO Harold Edwards said two days before the college district’s board meeting in Santa Paula. “Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a medical office building and eventually a hospital and a college campus, so the whole thing felt like it was a campus? There would be all kinds of opportunities to collaborate between the community college and the health care industry.”

    Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.

    This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: College district will study plan for new Santa Paula campus

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  • Are colleges facing a free speech crisis?

    Are colleges facing a free speech crisis?

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    Are colleges facing a free speech crisis?

    From the picket lines of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, to social media posts surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict today, expressing free speech — and how to better define it — continues to test higher education decision-makers.

    The increase in student-led protests at U.S.-based colleges and universities surrounding the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict has brought free speech on campus, back into popular discourse. After the actions and suspensions of some student groups led to televised congressional hearings and then the resignation of two elite university presidents, defining and outlining free speech on campus appeared to be at a stalemate. Groups such as, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE are attempting to keep the dialogue going. FIRE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works on a national scale to spread awareness regarding free speech rights on college campuses. “We’re seeing large amounts of students professing self-censorship and the culture of free speech being deteriorated on college campuses,” Zach Greenberg said, the senior program officer within campus advocacy at FIRE. “And so while the law remains solid, we do worry about how it’s being applied and how universities actually are defending students’ free speech rights.” By expressing and exercising their free speech rights, student-led groups have consistently influenced federal legislation especially during the 1960s and 1970s. Most notably, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Nixon signing the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18-years-old at the federal level. In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was amplified by courageous students such as Claudette Colvin, Diane Nash, the Little Rock Nine, and the Greensboro Four, and several student-led and founded groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. However, protests reached a fever pitch on May 4, 1970, with the Kent State Massacre, in which four students were shot and killed by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Less than two weeks later, on May 15, 1970 at Jackson State in Mississippi, law enforcement fired into a crowd, killing a pre-law student and a local high school student, who was on campus at the time. Following these national tragedies, the Nixon administration assembled a task force to study campus unrest on a national scale. What resulted was a 400-plus page magnum opusEditSign titled, “The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest,” which analyzed the Kent State and Jackson State tragedies, the history of campus protests stretching back to the American Revolution, and suggestions for students, faculty, and law enforcement moving forward. Although, the Nixon administration hesitated to implement the commission’s suggestions from the lengthy tome, today’s students aren’t limited by formal case studies to share their thoughts and reach a wider audience. Whether students speak formally through congressional hearings (that are subsequently shared on YouTube to view beyond traditional airtimes) or informally through social media posts, clarifying free speech for students in the digital age may continue to be a challenging, but a necessary, discussion. “Students aren’t really having the kind of discussions that they were having, perhaps 10 or 15 years ago,” Greenberg said. “The first step to defending your rights is knowing your rights.”

    The increase in student-led protests at U.S.-based colleges and universities surrounding the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict has brought free speech on campus, back into popular discourse. After the actions and suspensions of some student groups led to televised congressional hearings and then the resignation of two elite university presidents, defining and outlining free speech on campus appeared to be at a stalemate.

    Groups such as, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE are attempting to keep the dialogue going. FIRE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works on a national scale to spread awareness regarding free speech rights on college campuses.

    “We’re seeing large amounts of students professing self-censorship and the culture of free speech being deteriorated on college campuses,” Zach Greenberg said, the senior program officer within campus advocacy at FIRE. “And so while the law remains solid, we do worry about how it’s being applied and how universities actually are defending students’ free speech rights.”

    By expressing and exercising their free speech rights, student-led groups have consistently influenced federal legislation especially during the 1960s and 1970s.

    Most notably, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Nixon signing the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18-years-old at the federal level.

    In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was amplified by courageous students such as Claudette Colvin, Diane Nash, the Little Rock Nine, and the Greensboro Four, and several student-led and founded groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party.

    However, protests reached a fever pitch on May 4, 1970, with the Kent State Massacre, in which four students were shot and killed by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Less than two weeks later, on May 15, 1970 at Jackson State in Mississippi, law enforcement fired into a crowd, killing a pre-law student and a local high school student, who was on campus at the time.

    Following these national tragedies, the Nixon administration assembled a task force to study campus unrest on a national scale. What resulted was a 400-plus page magnum opus

    Although, the Nixon administration hesitated to implement the commission’s suggestions from the lengthy tome, today’s students aren’t limited by formal case studies to share their thoughts and reach a wider audience.

    Whether students speak formally through congressional hearings (that are subsequently shared on YouTube to view beyond traditional airtimes) or informally through social media posts, clarifying free speech for students in the digital age may continue to be a challenging, but a necessary, discussion. “Students aren’t really having the kind of discussions that they were having, perhaps 10 or 15 years ago,” Greenberg said. “The first step to defending your rights is knowing your rights.”

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