Charlie Kirk's event at Utah college was part of TPUSA's "The American Comeback Tour." The Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement Wednesday evening that the event was held at an outdoor bowl courtyard on campus known as the university quad. It is a common spot for campus events.

DeChene and other witnesses said that there were no major security measures or any metal detectors at the event.

Some 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety, which also said the university police department had six officers working the event along with Kirk's own security detail.

Eyewitnesses said moments before his assassination, Charlie Kirk, co-founder of the conservative youth organisation 'Turning Point USA', was sparring with a questioner over who commits gun violence. Then the shot rang out.
Raydon DeChene, who was among the crowd at Kirk's event, told CBS News that she was standing near Kirk's "Prove Me Wrong" outdoor tent, where he invited students to challenge his political and cultural views.

DeChene said Kirk was, "ironically," talking about gun control before he was shot. She said she saw Kirk suddenly grab his neck.

"And there's just blood pouring out everywhere, and his eyes kind of rolled back. At that point, I kind of looked up because it sounded like it came up from behind me, up the hill. It was just one pop, and then we all dropped to the ground. Then they told us all to run. So we all ran out," she said.

Cellphone video clips of the killing showed Charlie Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd at the university when a gunshot rang out. The 31-year-old was speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans "The American Comeback" and "Prove Me Wrong".

A single shot rang out, and Kirk was seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushed from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators were heard gasping and screaming before people started to run away.

US President Donald Trump ordered White Flags to be flown at half mast to honour ally Charlie Kirk.

The Utah college where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot Wednesday is the state's largest public university after years of rapid enrollment growth, but is lesser known than other colleges in the state.

Utah Valley University was founded under a different name in 1941 as a vocational school focused on providing war production training. It didn't begin offering four-year degrees until the 1990s, a move that fueled a fivefold increase in enrollment over the next three decades. It now has nearly 47,000 students, according to the university website.

Nearly nine out of 10 students at the school in Orem are from Utah, and 18% of students are 25 years old or older. Business and psychology are among the most popular majors.

Utah Valley University's campus is right off a major highway about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, where the state's flagship school, the University of Utah, is located.

The assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk marks a watershed moment in a surge of U.S. political violence, one that some experts fear will inflame an already-fractured country and inspire more unrest.

"This event is horrifying, alarming, but not necessarily surprising," said Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, which has tracked such violence in a terrorism database since 1970, in an interview with news agency Reuters.

In the first six months of the year, the US experienced about 150 politically-motivated attacks — nearly twice as many as over the same period last year, said Jensen. "I think we are in a very, very dangerous spot right now that could quite easily escalate into more widespread civil unrest if we don't get a hold of it," Jensen said. "This could absolutely serve as a kind of flashpoint that inspires more of it."

Jensen, the University of Maryland researcher who tracks violence for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, said the future appears grim.

“This is an administration that, whether you agree with it or not, has made profound changes to this country in the eight months it’s been in office,” he said, as reported by news agency Reuters. “Some people love it, some people hate it. The people that hate it are starting to act out. People who love it are going to act out against those people that hate it, and it becomes a vicious spiral that could lead us into something really, really bad.”

Authorities have not arrested a suspect in Kirk's shooting, described as a "targeted attack" in a statement from Utah's Department of Public Safety.

"The shooter is believed to have fired from the roof of a building down to the location of the public event in the student courtyard," it said.

Two men were briefly detained and released after being questioned by law enforcement officials as the manhunt continued.

One man, George Zinn, was charged with obstruction.

Neither man has "current ties to the shooting," authorities said.

Charlie Kirk, the head of the largest conservative youth movement in the United States, which he co-founded in 2012 at the age of 18, was speaking around noon on the campus of Utah Valley University.

Dressed in a white t-shirt with the word "Freedom" across the front, Kirk sat in a chair under a tent as he answered questions from the large audience gathered around him.

The event was the first of about 15 scheduled across the country through the end of October.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at the event, told Fox News that Kirk was responding to a question about "transgender shooters, mass shooters, and in the midst of that, the shot rang out."

The 31-year-old collapsed and blood spurted from his neck, according to a video clip shot from a nearby location.

Kirk was then rushed away on a stretcher by his security detail.

"As soon as that shot went out, he fell back," Chaffetz said. "Everybody hit the deck... a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running."

Utah Governor Spencer J Cox said he is working with the FBI and Utah law enforcement, and will "bring to justice the individual responsible for this tragedy (Charlie Kirk's assassination)."

"Abby and I are heartbroken. We are praying for Charlie's wife, daughter, and son," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Democrat Kamala Harris said she is "deeply disturbed" by the shooting in Utah in which Trump aide Charlie Kirk was shot dead. Ms Harris made it clear that "political violence has no place in America."

"I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence," she added.

In a video message from the Oval Office, President Trump has condemned the “demonising” of political opponents in the US even as he claimed the rhetoric of the “radical left” was “directly responsible” for the assassination of Kirk.

"From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others. Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives."

He claimed that the "rhetoric" of the radical left was directly responsible for the terrorism in America, and "it must stop right now."

"My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country," Trump said.

US President Donald Trump hailed Charlie Kirk, his ally killed by a single shot in a targeted attack at Utah Valley University, as a "martyr for truth" on Wednesday, while assailing the "radical left," suggesting its rhetoric contributed to the death of the conservative activist. He also pledged to carry out a crackdown on "those who perpetrate political violence."

"For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals," Trump said in a video posted on his Truth Social platform.

The President called Kirk's assassination a "heinous" and "dark moment for America."

US right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was part of a constellation of influencers who helped amplify Republican President Donald Trump's agenda, galvanizing conservative youth and rising to international prominence with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on such issues as race, gender and immigration.

Kirk had 5.3 million followers on his X account and drew an audience of more than 500,000 monthly listeners to podcasts of his radio programme, "The Charlie Kirk Show." He also authored or contributed to several books, including "Time for a Turning Point" and "The College Scam."

Amid the Utah horror, Charlie Kirk's recent remarks on Indian migrants, stating "America does not need more visas for people from India", have resurfaced. Kirk said that the US is "full" and it is time the country puts its own people first.

"America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We're full. Let's finally put our own people first," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on September 2.

A person taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has been released, the FBI director said hours after announcing the detention.

Calling Charlie Kirk "the Great, and even legendary," US President Donald Trump led the tributes for his close aide, shot dead at Utah University.

"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," he added.

Extending condolences to the family, the President wrote, "Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"
     

Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at a US university on Wednesday, was the eloquent spokesman for a younger generation of Donald Trump's hard-right Republican movement.

The 31-year-old boasted millions of followers on social media who delighted at his whip-smart edits and provocative takedowns of hecklers and ideological challengers.

Kirk's conservative ideology was closely aligned with Trump: he backed the US president's false claims of fraud when he lost the 2020 presidential election and used his heavyweight influence to lash out at migrants and transgender people.

In speaking gigs at American universities, he invited students to debate with him in quick-fire exchanges that often went viral online -- especially those with progressives opposed to his views.

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in an act that drew renewed attention to the threat of political violence across the United States.

The suspected shooter has not been arrested, Orem, Utah, Mayor David Young said. A person who was taken into custody by law enforcement at the university where Kirk was speaking was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.