The FBI announced that it has located the weapon believed to have been used in the murder of Charlie Kirk.
According to the agency's spokesman, Robert Boles, it is a bolt-action sniper rifle, found in a wooded area, along with palm prints and footprints. The FBI said it has been sent to laboratories for analysis.
Beau Mason, head of Utah Public Safety, said the shooter arrived on campus at 11:52 a.m., a few minutes before the event was to begin, climbed onto the roof of an adjacent building and fired once.
He then jumped from the other side of the building and fled to a nearby neighborhood. He stressed that the suspect appears to be of college age and was able to blend in comfortably on campus. Authorities are trying to piece together his movements using video footage of the suspect. We are following his trail, they said.
As FBI representatives said, every available force has been mobilized in the operation to arrest the perpetrator. Citizens have been asked to send the authorities any video they have that may help the investigations. We will not stop until we find him, the FBI representative said.
The cameras caught the perpetrator
New York Times analysis of video shows a person lying on the roof - across from the stage where Kirk was speaking - before the shooting.
It is unclear whether this person was the perpetrator, however from that position there was a clear line of sight to Kirk.
Beau Mason had previously stated that the gunfire that killed Kirk came from a long distance, from a rooftop.
From the beginning, there was information that the gunman fatally shot Kirk from a distance of more than 180 meters.
The videos with the suspect
Friend of a friend spotted the shooter on the roof before Charlie Kirk's assassination
— Chad Feldheimer (@ChadFeldheimer3) September 10, 2025
Video after the murder
Authorities are examining another video, taken immediately after the shooting at Utah Valley University – it shows a man on a roof across from the stage where Kirk was speaking (this is the same spot as the previous video).
According to the NYT, Tanner Maxwell, who was behind the stage where Kirk was speaking, said in a phone interview that he had poor vision and sound, so he moved to film the crowd to show the footage to friends. The moment he pulled out his phone, a shot rang out.
The video, which begins immediately after the shooting, shows people falling to the ground or running for cover.
"It was scary," Maxwell said.
When he later watched the footage again at home, he noticed a figure running onto the roof of the building from where, according to a university spokesman, the bullet that killed Kirk fell.
Manhunt for sniper
US police and federal authorities are conducting an extensive manhunt for the sniper who murdered Kirk while he was answering a question about gun violence at an event at Utah Valley University.
Kirk was shot in the neck in front of about 3,000 people on the university's Orem campus, 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called the killing a political assassination, saying the attack struck at the very foundation of freedom of political expression.
Authorities said the perpetrator remains at large and that investigations are focused on multiple active crime scenes .
Beau Mason, head of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said the shooting came from the roof of a university buildingand that security camera footage shows the suspect dressed in dark clothing.
Two men were temporarily detained, but were released as they were not connected to the crime.
One of them, known locally as a political cartoonist, was charged only with obstruction by university police.
Kirk was married and the father of two. He had just returned from a tour of South Korea and Japan, and the Orem event was part of a 15-show series on American campuses called the American Comeback Tour.
At his rallies, he would challenge members of the audience to a direct confrontation. At the time of the shooting, he was answering a question about gun violence.
Kirk's assassination comes at a time when the United States is experiencing its most widespread political violence since the 1970s. More than 300 acts of political violence have been recorded since the events of January 6, 2021, while Trump himself has survived two assassination attempts in 2024.
In a message from the Oval Office, Trump pledged that the administration would identify and arrest those responsible.
He denounced the poisonous rhetoric of the Left as responsible for political terrorism, saying that for years, radicals on the Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and criminals. This rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism we see today and must stop now.
US Vice President J.D. Vance canceled his planned appearance in New York for the anniversary of September 11 and will travel to Utah to meet with Kirk's family. In a message, he said that many of the achievements of this administration are directly due to Charlie's ability to organize and mobilize.
Moments of panic after the fatal shooting
BREAKING: Suspect in custody after Charlie Kirk was shot at college event in Utah, the university says.
Shots were fired from a building about 200 yards from Charlie, according to a Utah Valley University official.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 10, 2025
Deep political rifts
The moment of silence in the House of Representatives for the murdered American right-wing activist, Charlie Kirk, turned into a tense episode with shouting and counter-screaming, reflecting the divided political atmosphere in the United States.
The murder of 31-year-old Kirk, co-founder of the organization Turning Point USA and ardent Trump supporter, occurred on Wednesday at an event at the University of Utah, with the motives remaining unknown and no suspect arrested.
The news provoked strong reactions: Republican lawmakers blamed Democrats for the climate that led to the murder, while Democrats took a more moderate stance, condemning the violence and reinstating the demand for stricter gun laws.
On the House floor, Republican Lauren Bobert called for a prayer, saying that silent prayers bring silent results. The reaction of Democrats, who wondered why other victims of violence were not given the same mention, led to heated verbal confrontations. House Speaker Mike Johnson called for order, while someone in the room shouted: Vote for a gun law!
Steve Scalise, a Republican congressman who survived a shooting in 2017, said: There is no excuse for political violence in our country. It must end.
However, data shows that gun violence continues to increase: 46,728 deaths were recorded in 2023, the third highest number in history.
The controversy surrounding Kirk adds to previous assassination attempts against Trump and is expected to further exacerbate the political divide.
Conservative commentators initially attributed the attack to a broader attack by the Left against conservatism .
Steven Miller wrote that America lost one of its greatest defenders.
Laura Loomer called for the Left to be crushed with all the power of the state.
Elon Musk called the Democratic Party the party of murder.
Trump, in a video on Truth Social, linked the event to the high-intensity rhetoric: Violence and killings are the tragic consequence of the demonization of those who disagree – day after day, year after year.
On the Democratic side, Barack Obama emphasized that the perpetrator's motives remain unknown, underlining that violence of this kind has no place in our democracy.
Gabby Giffords, who was seriously injured in a shooting in 2012, said that disagreements in democracies are inevitable, but can never be expressed through violence.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker directly blamed Trump for rhetoric that incites violence.
Despite political exploitation, the American public rejects political violence. A 2024 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that just 6% consider threats or intimidation for political purposes acceptable.
However, analysts such as Ruth Brownstein of Johns Hopkins University warn that Kirk's assassination could intensify the already tense political atmosphere.
Christian Hein, chief policy officer at the anti-gun violence organization Brady, emphasized that gun violence does not see party affiliation. It is indiscriminate. And the American people are always the losers.
In recent weeks, the conservative media landscape has focused on the murder of a Ukrainian woman in North Carolina, blaming liberal policies.
Kirk had highlighted the incident, claiming in an interview with Fox News that white people are more often victims of violence than black people.
Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina warned that Kirk's death should not be used as a pretext for further division. Anyone who encourages aggressive reactions instead of political dialogue bears a share of responsibility for this death and for every other one, he said.
