U.S. authorities are still looking for a suspect to shoot the conservative activist Charlie Kirk Donald Trump The killing at the University of Utah has triggered condemnation on both sides of politics and a serious threat to the president.
“This shooting remains an active investigation,” Utah The Department of Public Safety said in a statement, adding that it is working with the FBI and the local police department.
Two suspects were detained but were later released. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called it a “political assassination” although the shooter’s motives and identity remain unclear.
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said investigators are reviewing the suspect’s security camera images, who were wearing dark clothes and could have shot “a longer distance” from the roof.
In a video message from the Oval Office, Trump vowed that his administration would track the suspect.
“My administration will find people who contribute to this atrocity and other political violence, including organizations that fund and support it,” Trump said.
Kirk Being shot while speaking to the crowd It is estimated that there are an estimated 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem near Salt Lake City. Video footage released online shows Kirk being asked about gun violence by listeners The moment before he was shot.
Video footage shows students scrambling to run from the gunshots. Authorities say Kirk was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. Local officials said the shooting was “considered as a targeted attack” and was the roof of a shooter.
On Wednesday night, Orem’s UVU campus was still locked, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking each entrance.
At the nearby Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Kirk was taken away and pronounced dead after the shooting, with about a dozen people holding a vigil, several at the entrance to the area.
The mourner draped the hospital logo with the American flag and surrounded its base with a pile of candles and homemade logos, including “The Peacemaker Want” and “We Love You Charlie Kirk.” When the hospital’s lawn sprinkler suddenly opened, the collector suffocated them with grocery bags and cut plastic bottles to keep the memorial dry.
CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, spoke to Kirk in the crowd and said they watched the shooting unfold.
Paxton said he was right in front of Kirk, watching his body move. “Charlie Kirk is my main role model and hero,” Paxton said, folding it with the red American hat again. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.”
Greg Cronin, a UVU faculty member, said he has been standing on the street corner with flags in hand for the past seven hours. He said he worked in a building next to where Kirk spoke, watching students flood the hall after the shooting. Cronin said he hopes the shootings can bring dialogue rather than further political divisions.
“We will never minimize actions around the world,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize their impact.”
Kirk’s death caused anger among Democrats and Republicans, and the president ordered the flag to be lowered to half the mast in memory of him.
“It’s a dark day for our country. It’s a tragic day for our country,” Republican Cox said in a news conference.
Kirk It is the co-founder of the U.S. turning pointThe country’s largest conservative youth group played a key role in pushing young voters to support Trump in November.
His presence on podcasts and on social media throughout has made him famous and notorious as he helped expand the president’s agenda. Kirk often attacks mainstream media and involves cultural issues of race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.
Wednesday’s event in Utah was his first in his “America Comeback Tour” at the National University. He often uses events like this, which often attract a large number of students, inviting attendees to debate him.
Experts warn that his death is a watershed moment, fearing it will anger a broken country and inspire more unrest.
Trump often describes political rivals, while others hinder him as a “radical left madman” and poses an existential threat to the country, condemning violent political rhetoric in a statement Wednesday night.
“Violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing people you disagree with… Over the years, radical leftists compared a brilliant American like Charlie to the Nazis and the worst mass murderers and criminals in the world,” he said.
The president promised to suppress “political violence”, citing recent events, including last year’s attempts toward him throughout his life, the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and 2017 shootings of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise.
The presidential roster specifically does not include violence against the Democratic Party Murder Melissa HortmanMinnesota lawmaker and her husband, or attack on the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
Former President Barack Obama condemned political violence as “despicable” while praying to Kirk’s wife and two children. “There is no place for this kind of violence in our country,” Joe Biden said.
Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic House Minority, expressed a similar view: “Any form of political violence and opposition to any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.”
On Capitol Hill, the moment that attempts to observe Kirk’s moment on the House floor degenerates into shouting and fingertips. Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna, who served as Kirk’s Hispanic engagement director at the American turn point, shouted at the Democrats and told them “You’ve caused it!”
This prompted Democratic representative Jahana Hayes, the leader of the task force for the prevention of gun violence, to yell: “Give some gun laws!”
According to data compiled by Reuters News Agency, the United States is experiencing the most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s, which has recorded more than 300 politically motivated violence since Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, told Reuters that the United States experienced about 150 politically motivated attacks in the first six months of the year, nearly twice as many as the same period.
“I think we’re in a very, very dangerous place right now, and if we don’t master it, it’s easy to escalate into a wider civil unrest,” Jansen said. “This can definitely be used as a flash point that inspires more inspiration.”
With Reuters
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