Mr. Charlie Kirk, a close ally of President Trump, was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University. The authorities were still searching for the shooter, with no one in custody.
The authorities in Utah were still searching early Thursday for the person who killed Charlie Kirk, the charismatic founder of the nation’s pre-eminent right-wing youth activist group, after questioning and releasing two people.
No suspects were in custody about 12 hours after Mr. Kirk, a close ally of President Trump, was shot while speaking on a Utah college campus in what the state’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, and Mr. Trump described as an “assassination.”
Hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt.
“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” Mr. Patel wrote on his X account, adding: “our investigation continues.”
People gathered for a vigil outside the Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where Charlie Kirk was taken after the shooting
Michael Mallinson received a harried call from his daughter shortly after Charlie Kirk, the right-wing influencer, was shot in Utah on Wednesday.
She said that his photo was circulating online and that he had been identified — falsely — as the shooter.
President Trump said on Wednesday that rhetoric from the “radical left” contributed to the shooting death of his close ally Charlie Kirk, and he promised to find those responsible for political violence, as well as the “organizations that fund it and support it.”
In a video address from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said that liberal criticism of conservatives was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
The Reagan Foundation in Southern California canceled a book signing and discussion with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro that was scheduled for this evening, the group announced on its website. “Our prayers are with Charlie Kirk’s family and friends,” the announcement said.
The F.B.I. has posted a link to a tipline seeking info on the shooting of Charlie Kirk. “We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative and intelligence,” said Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Salt Lake City office in a post on X.
Gov. Gavin Newsom postponed a virtual campaign rally on Wednesday to promote his push for new congressional districts in California. Earlier this year, Newsom hosted Kirk on the debut episode of his podcast, drawing criticism from many longtime allies when he said he agreed with Kirk that it’s unfair for transgender athletes to play in in girls’ sports.
“I knew Charlie, and I admired his passion and commitment to debate,” Newsom said in a statement. “His senseless murder is a reminder of how important it is for all of us, across the political spectrum, to foster genuine discourse on issues that deeply affect us all without resorting to political violence.”
President Trump released a four-minute video this evening addressing Charlie Kirk’s death. Sitting in the Oval Office, Trump called the killing “an assassination” and remembered Kirk as “a patriot who devoted his life to open debate and the country he loved so much.”
“I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” he said.
Utah Valley University said its campus would remain closed through Sunday and that it was suspending all classes, campus events and administrative operations.
[Culled from New York Times]
