Charlie Kirk, a staunch supporter of right-wing politics, was shot and killed on Wednesday.
Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA was at an event at Utah Valley University.
Turning Point sponsored a debate on the campus despite a petition that circulated online calling for the school administrators to ban him from the campus had received 1,000 signature, but the administrators cited the First Amendment and said it was committed to free speech and constructive dialogue.
The shooting, which was caught on video, happened during a conversation about mass shootings in the country on the heels of a school shooting in Minnesota a couple of weeks ago.
In the video, someone asked Kirk how many mass shooters have been transgender, to which Kirk responded, “Too many.”
The person he was responding to then asked how many mass shootings have there been in the country, to which Kirk responded, “Including gang violence?”
Right after, a gunshot can be heard along with the crowd gasping, and Kirk can be seen slumping over.
The decedent made his mark as a political force by rallying younger voters to embrace Republican ideals. He was an unofficial adviser on Trump’s 2016 campaign and had grown to be called a friend of Trump.
“He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person,” Trump said.
On Truth Social, where Trump announced Kirk’s death, he said that nobody had the heart of the youth in America better than “Charlie.”
At press time, the shooter still had not been captured and Orem, UT Mayor David Young encouraged people to report anything suspicious, as federal law enforcement investigates the shooting. Students on campus have been instructed to shelter in place.
