The shooter who assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday remained at large Thursday morning as a manhunt for the suspect continued.
Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Utah to pay his respects to Kirk’s family on Wednesday as President Trump continues with his regular schedule. Kirk’s casket will be flown from Utah to his home in Arizona aboard Air Force Two, according to the Associated Press. Vance will reportedly travel to Arizona with Kirk’s friends and family.
On Wednesday evening, authorities arrested a suspect in connection with the assassination but that suspect was released from federal custody after an interrogation, FBI Director Kash Patel announced hours after the person’s arrest.
Kirk was shot in the neck on Wednesday while taking questions in front of a large crowd during an event for his American Comeback Tour.
Kirk, a father to two young children, died in the hospital after he was rushed there in a private vehicle.
“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency,” Patel wrote on X above his initial post announcing that the suspect had been arrested.
Addressing reporters during a Wednesday evening press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox declared Kirk’s murder a “political assassination” and confirmed that a person of interest was in custody, though he emphasized that the investigation was ongoing and seemed to allow for the possibility that the person in custody was not responsible.
“Now we have a person of interest in custody,” Cox said. “The investigation is ongoing, but I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this, we will find you, we will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law.”
“I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah,” Cox added.
The shooter wore dark clothing and fired a long-range shot into Kirk’s neck potentially from a roof, Utah Department of Public Safety Director Beau Mason said.
The individual released from federal custody Wednesday night was the second suspect taken into custody and cleared of involvement in a matter of hours. Moments after the shooting, a UVU spokesperson announced that a suspect had been arrested immediately at the scene of the shooting, only to clarify that the individual had been released and that the manhunt was still underway.
Six uniformed police officers were working the event, which had more than 3,000 people in attendance, according to the police chief at Utah Valley University Jeff Long. Kirk’s personal security team also manned the event.
President Trump praised Kirk for his service to the MAGA movement in a Truth Social post announcing his passing.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Trump also announced he would order flags flown at half-mast until Sunday evening in Kirk’s honor.
Kirk, 31, was the co-founder of Turning Point USA. He launched the group, which is a national student movement focused on limited government and free-market principles, in 2012 at the age of 18 with Tea Party organizer Bill Montgomery.
Kirk served as the executive director of TPUSA and the host of The Charlie Kirk Show, a conservative talk radio program.
He was speaking on the Utah campus as part of his 14-city American Comeback Tour. The tour has drawn protests and petitions from student groups who are critical of Kirk and his conservative views.
An online petition calling on UVU administrators to ban Kirk from speaking on campus received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university, for its part, defended its decision to host Kirk, affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
In the moments before the shooting, Kirk had taken a question from an audience member about mass shootings, according to the Associated Press.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience member asked. Kirk responded: “Too many.”
The questioner asked: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked, before a shot rang out.
Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz was at the event and said during an appearance on Fox News that there was a light police presence at the event and that Kirk had some security, but not enough.
“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and his two young children.