The report comes a week after Kirk’s family argued in a legal filing that UVU failed to take adequate steps to prevent the assassination.
Two weeks before Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Utah Valley University asked Turning Point USA to hold the event inside due to safety concerns, the school’s independent after-action report claims.
The 158-page report comes a week after Kirk’s family submitted a legal filing informing the university, the state of Utah, and other individuals responsible for campus security that they were preparing to sue, alleging they failed to take adequate steps to prevent Kirk’s assassination.
While the report outlines a series of security missteps, including miscommunications between the school’s security team and Kirk’s, it concludes that UVU did not “act in bad faith or in willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others.”
Kirk was shot and killed while addressing a crowd of 3,000 individuals outside at UVU on September 10, 2025.
The report’s account of what went wrong begins weeks before Kirk arrived on campus, with a dispute over where the event should be held. It claims that UVU suggested the even take place in the school’s library or in another indoor location, but TPUSA field representative Maycee Crofts insisted the event be outside. She argued that Kirk had spoken there before and preferred it. “UVU ultimately yielded authority to TPUSA,” the report says.
Last November, the head of Kirk’s private protection team, Brian Harpole, claimed that UVU had forced them to use the outdoor amphitheater during an appearance on Shawn Ryan’s podcast. The report referenced this claim and said it conflicted with evidence and numerous interviews.
Beyond initial disputes on the event’s location, the report addresses security failures from that day.
Text messages between TPUSA security supervisor Dan Flood and UVU Police Department Chief Jeff Long showed they agreed to meet near the event an hour before it began to go over operational concerns, but the meeting never happened. While Flood raised concern about accessible rooftops, no formal line-of-sight risk assessment was made, and no officers were stationed at roof’s entry point.
In a text exchange highlighted in the Kirk family’s legal filing, Flood referenced the roof and said, “It would be nice to have it controlled access or allow one of my guys to be there as well. If possible.”
Long responded, “I got you covered.”
The Kirk family’s attorney, Brett Parkinson, said the report “reaffirms” the facts his team laid out in their lawsuit precursor. “UVU security was woefully understaffed and unprepared to manage the obvious risks associated with an event of this nature,” Parkinson said in a statement. The school “hosted this event, and in doing so, assumed responsibility for the safety of all in attendance, including Charlie.”
UVU’s new president Jon Anderson said the report’s findings “will guide our continued safety efforts as we move forward together with care, civility, and resilience,” in a statement accompanying the document’s release.
As of the end of August, UVU had spent at least $440,657 on the report.