Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at an occasion at Utah Valley College, President Donald Trump introduced on social media.
“The Nice, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is useless,” the president wrote on Reality Social. “Nobody understood or had the Coronary heart of the Youth in the US of America higher than Charlie.”
Kirk, a fervent supporter of Trump, was the founding father of Turning Level USA, a gaggle that seeks to unfold conservative concepts to college students on US campuses.
Officers say he had simply begun talking when a single gunshot rang out. Movies verified by BBC present him jolting backwards in his chair as college students scatter in panic.
A spokeswoman for Utah Valley College, Ellen Treanor, mentioned the gunfire got here from the Losee Middle, a constructing about 200 yards away.
One other spokesman, Scott Trotter, instructed the BBC: “A single shot rang out within the quad close to the meals court docket on the Utah Valley College Orem Campus as Mr Charlie Kirk started talking at his deliberate rally.”
“We are able to affirm that Mr Kirk was shot, however we do not know his situation,” he mentioned.
BBC Confirm has confirmed the authenticity of a number of movies of the taking pictures which have been posted on-line.
One video reveals college students crowded round a white tent emblasoned with the phrases, “THE AMERICAN COMEBACK” and “PROVE ME WRONG”.
Charlie Kirk will be seen sitting alone below the tent with a number of others standing close by.
In one other video verified by the BBC, Mr Kirk is seen talking on the rally for round 4 seconds, earlier than a single gunshot is heard.
He then seems to jolt backwards in his chair, earlier than the digital camera pans away and the gang begins to run in panic.
In accordance with CBS, the BBC’s US associate, Mr Kirk was heard discussing gun violence within the US within the moments earlier than he was shot.
“Have you learnt what number of mass shooters there have been in America during the last ten years?” one viewers member asks him.
“Counting or not counting gang violence,” he responds, earlier than the shot rings out.
Because the information broke, politicians from throughout the political spectrum, in addition to right-wing influencers, condemned the assault.
“FBI and ATF brokers are on the way in which. PRAY FOR CHARLIE,” wrote Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, the highest-ranking US regulation enforcement official.
Well being Secretary Robert Kennedy wrote: “We love you Charlie Kirk. Praying for you.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and certainly one of Trump’s high political rivals, known as the assault “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.
“In the US of America, we should reject political violence in EVERY type.”
A former Utah congressman who witnessed the assault described to Fox Information how “everybody hit the deck” and “scattered” after the gunshot was heard.
“The shot got here straight at him,” Jason Chaffetz mentioned, including he had talked to Kirk simply earlier than the occasion began.
On the White Home, a number of of Trump’s press workplace employees reacted with seen shock.
One aide exclaimed, “Oh my god, Charlie Kirk has been shot!” – drawing gasps from colleagues.
