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Video obtained by Fox News Digital shows the moments before Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Kirk was killed on Wednesday afternoon during a campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
A university spokesperson told Fox News Digital the shooting happened at about 12:20 p.m. The TPUSA founder was taken to a local hospital in critical condition after being shot. He died at the hospital.
While the FBI previously said a subject was in custody, the individual was later released after interrogation.
CHARLIE KIRK, TURNING POINT USA FOUNDER, DEAD AT 31 AFTER UTAH CAMPUS SHOOTING
Prior to the shooting, people could be seen crowding around a white tent with text reading “THE AMERICAN COMEBACK” and “PROVE ME WRONG.” An event organizer told Fox News Digital around 1,400 people RSVP’d for the event, with people from “many states” in attendance.
The video showed people scrambling to leave after the shot was fired.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Joey Gallegos, a Utah Valley University student who was at the event, told Fox News Digital “everyone decided to run like out of the courtyard,” adding that people were “tripping over each other and trying to jump over the barricade.”
Samuel Lino, a volunteer at the event, told Fox News Digital that Kirk met with people working the event before it started and was “super excited to talk to Utah Valley University.”
DEVELOPING STORY: CHARLIE KIRK SHOT AT UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY EVENT
“I heard shots, and I initially thought it was a firecracker. Then I smelled a little bit of gunpowder, and…I was like, OK, that’s not a firecracker,” Lino said. “I helped just get people out of there a little bit.”
“[Kirk] loves what he does, and we love him for it,” Lino said.
Kirk was scheduled to speak at Utah Valley University on Wednesday for his “American Comeback Tour,” which drew protests from some student groups.
The fall 2025 leg of the speaking tour began at Utah Valley University.
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