Authorities are still looking for the person who fatally shot right - wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk at an event at Utah Valley Universityon Wednesday. According to BBC the FBI said Thursday they have found a high-powered rifle and also "tracked the movements" of the suspected gunman.
Kirk, the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on the first stop of his American Comeback Tour. President Trump announced his death and ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff in mourning.
Kirk, described by US media as a close Trump ally, is credited with energizing young Republicans and helping them deliver his electoral victory in 2024. His death has drawn condolences and and condemnation of political violence from both sides of the aisle.
It's also fueled speculation about who is responsible, particularly after FBI announced that two people ware taken into custody. Both have been released. The Utah Department of Public Safety, which says the shooting is "believed to be a targeted attack," said late Wednesday that the investigation and search for the shooter are ongoing.
Charlie Kirk has frequently drawn criticism for remarks and actions viewed as both racially insensitive and discriminatory. He has dismissed the concept of white privilege, claimed Democratic immigration policies aim to reduce the white population, and compared abortion to slavery, suggesting it was even more serious. On gender, he has argued that birth control makes women “angry and bitter” and suggested women over 30 are less desirable. Meanwhile, Turning Point USA has also been accused by former employees of internal racial bias: one African-American woman said she was the only person of color at her level and was fired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
European Reactions
Even though the shooter remains at large and no motive has been established, Europe’s far right has rushed to frame the killing as part of a wider trend, issuing statements that present Charlie Kirk as a martyr for conservative values silenced by political violence.
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders praised Kirk as “100% right” in his battles against the left, while Germany’s AfD co-leader Alice Weidel called him a “fighter for freedom of speech.” Hungary’s Viktor Orbán blamed left-wing rhetoric for fostering violence, and Spain’s Vox leader Santiago Abascal denounced what he described as attempts to justify the murder. The development could not be ignored by Cyprus’ own far-right party, ELAM, which declared the “cold-blooded murder” of Kirk a threat to democracy and free speech, portraying him as a defender of “Homeland, faith and family” and vowing, “We will not retreat. We will win.”
