A Fox News contributor on the ground at Utah Valley State University has described the moment Charlie Kirk was shot.
Jason Chaffetz said he was on a higher level of the university’s quad where students had gathered to hear Kirk, a Trump ally, speak when a shot rang out.
“I happened to be watching Charlie. I can’t say I saw blood, I can’t say I saw him get shot, but as soon as that shot went out, he fell back into his left,” Chaffetz said.
President Donald Trump has confirmed that Kirk has died at 31.
“It wasn’t as if there was a whole bunch of gunfire. It was a single gunshot,” he continued, adding, “You got the sense that the shot came kind of straight at him.”
He noted that Kirk had been answering a question about “transgender shooters,” and suggested it was no coincidence that the Turning Point USA founder was fired upon at that moment.
In the moments before the shot rang out, someone who appears to be a student asked Kirk if he knew “how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years,” speaking into a microphone.
“Too many,” replied Kirk, who appeared to be holding debates with students as part of the Turning Point USA event in Orem, Utah.
The person then asked him to give the number of mass shooters in the U.S.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk said, before lowering his microphone. Less than a second later, he was shot.
Trump announced Kirk’s death in a Truth Social post at 4:40 p.m. ET.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” he wrote. “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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Kirk had been on campus as part of his “American Comeback Tour,” and hundreds had signed a petition opposing his appearance ahead of Wednesday’s event.
Chaffetz, a former Utah congressman, said he believes more than 2000 people came out to see Kirk, who shares two children, born in 2022 and 2024, with his wife Erika.
“There was some police presence but there was no security check going in,” said Chaffetz, whose wife, daughter, and son-in-law also attended the event.
“We just don’t have these types of things [in Orem],” he added.
Utah Valley State officials said the suspected gunman opened fire from a building 200 yards away from Kirk.
Police in Orem initially detained a person suspected of being the shooter. However, a university spokesperson has since said that police had determined the person was not actually the shooter. Authorities do not have a suspect in custody.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that agents have been dispatched to the scene.
