Live updates: Officials ask for public’s help in finding Charlie Kirk shooter

USA, Featured3 days ago4 Views

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox held a news conference late Thursday in Orem, Utah, on the investigation into the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, showcasing a new video of a person of interest and asking the public for help identifying them.

“We cannot do our job without the public’s help,” said Cox, adding that the FBI had received more than 7,000 leads and tips so far.

The surveillance video showed a person wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long sleeve black shirt running across a roof, climbing off the edge of the roof and dropping to the ground. The person is believed to have fled into a neighborhood after firing one shot and has not yet been identified, officials said Thursday.

The circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that, in the last several years, has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation from political leaders.

Here’s what we know so far:

Searching for the shooter: Authorities in Utah are working to identify the shooter. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle was recovered from the area where the suspected Kirk shooter fled, the FBI said. Kirk’s killer “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with the college population on the Utah campus where Kirk had drawn a crowd of thousands, an official said.
Kirk’s legacy: The 31-year-old activist personified the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of Trump. An unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about gender, race and politics, Kirk launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread.
Trump declares Kirk a ‘martyr’: During remarks at the Pentagon Thursday, Trump said he would posthumously award Kirk with the honor at a later date. In a video message from the Oval Office late Wednesday, Trump called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” and condemned the “demonizing” of political opponents in the U.S., even as he claimed the rhetoric of the “radical left” was “directly responsible” for the assassination of Kirk. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation.