FBI says Charlie Kirk shooter is college age, blended into university as he fled

Orem, Utah – Authorities said in a statement on Thursday, while talking on a Utah College campus, an effective right -wing activist Charlie Kirk with a single bullet, said that there are fresh clues in big human hunting for a university -age shooter.

Robert Bohls, a private agent responsible for the SALT Lake City office of the FBI, said that researchers have saved the weapon they believe to have been used to kill Kirk, a high -power bolt rifle found in a forest area near the campus.

Kirk, a close ally of President Trump, who founded the US Conservative Youth Group, was killed on Wednesday with a single shot from the roof of a nearby building, while he discussed a question about collective shots on a campus of Utah Valley University in Orem.

18 hours after the shooting, no suspect was detained on Thursday, but Bohls said that the inspectors were watching a suspect who appeared to be university age and involved in campus.

Inspectors gathered traces of shoe impressions, a handful of pressure and analysis and said, “They trust our abilities to monitor that individual”.

The video of the crowd captured by a participant shows a black figure on the roof of Losee Center, a building about 150 meters away from where Kirk speaks.

After doing dozens of campus security cameras, the researchers believe that the shooter came to the campus at 11:52 and moved to the Utah Public Security Department Beau Mason from the stairwells to the roof and along the roof.

Mason, “the other side of the building moved to the other side, jumping out of the building and campus and running to a neighborhood we were able to follow the movements,” he said. “Our inspectors worked on these neighborhoods, contacted everyone they could, worked on the door bell cameras, witnesses and communities trying to define any clue.”

Bohls said that researchers have saved what they believe to be the weapons used in the shoot: a high -power bolt action rifle. Bohls did not answer the questions of journalists that the rifle had not seen a rifle.

Utah Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday night of the State Crime Laboratory – Kirk’in herself and the suspects traveled to the place of the Federal Investigation Bureau, Utah District Law Office, Utah District Sheriff Office and local police departments “multi -active crime scenes” said.

After publishing the man of FBI’s director Kash Patel, hope for the quick capture of the faded suspect on Wednesday night in question It was a subject of the investigation. After thanking the local and state officials for detaining the “terrible shooting issue .. announced The man was released by law enforcement officers after a question.

“Our investigation continues, Pate Patel said.

Another man who was detained a few hours ago was released after he was reserved by the Utah Valley University police on suspicion of prevention of justice.

It is believed that the shooter fired for about 20 minutes after he started talking in a grassy campus courtyard on Wednesday, under a white shadow adorned with the slogan “Prove me wrong”. Approximately 3,000 people participated in the event was the first stop in the American return tour of Kirk’s US campuses.

Some experts who see the videos believe that the attacker probably has experience with firearms, given the sensitivity that the single shot is fired from a significant distance.

Videos shared on social media Show that Kirk is sitting in a chair by taking questions in front of a large human crowd.

“Do you know how many mass shooters have been in the United States for the last 10 years?” A viewer asks.

“Considering the intensity of the gang or counting?” Kirk answers.

Almost a short play. Kirk falls back, the blood gushes your neck. Video shows show people screaming and escaping from the event.

The killing in the violent attacks aiming at American politicians on the left and right, the killing of the ideological division led to the rapid condemnation of political violence on both of the two. But it also led to a game of accusation.

After celebrating President Trump as a “Patriotic who has devoted his life to a case of open debate” and “martyr for truth and freedom”, Evening video broadcast “Radikal Left” discourse from the oval office is that “today is directly responsible for the terrorism we see in our country”.

Trump, who has recently been not talking about political violence against democratic deputies, called for pressure on the left groups.

Even if the House of Representatives is still critical on Wednesday, even if a moment of silence observes for Kirk, the floor chaos landed When some democrats return to the request of a republican legislator to manage the group in prayer.

Florida representative Anna Paulina Luna, Kirk’s old conservative influence and close friend, pointed to the democrats angrily. “You all have caused it,” he shouted.

Kirk, 31, was one of the most influential power brokers of the Republican party.

Kirk, the founder of the United States, the Founder of the United States, has a wide access: 1.6 million followers on Youtube, 5.2 million followers on X, and 7.3 million followers in Tiktok.

During the 2024 elections, he gathered his online followers to support Trump and encouraged the conservative podcast presenter Megyn Kelly to say: “It is not enough to say that this man was responsible for helping the Republicans back the White House and the US Senate.”

Immediately after the second election for the presidency in November, Trump was frequently sent to social media from Trump’s Mar-a-lago land in Florida, where he had the first hand called Trump’s Cabinet.

Kirk was known to combine conservative politics, nationalism and evangelical belief, because he used the current political climate as a right -wing wing and a spiritual war between the so -called godless liberals.

In 2023, at a turning point at the Salt Lake City Awaken Church campus, he said that the violence of weapons touched the right to protect the right to carry weapons.

“I think unfortunately every year, it is worth having the cost of some gun deaths, so that we can have the 2nd Change to protect our rights given by the other God,” he said. “This is a cautious agreement. Rational.”

He also declared that God was with the American conservatives of the American conservatives and that he was not the separation of the church and the state ”. In his speech to Trump supporters in Georgia last year, he said, “The Democratic Party supports everything God hated” and “There is a spiritual war around us”.