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UTAH: Charlie Kirk is in critical condition at a hospital after being shot Wednesday at a Utah event, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
A video captured at the event showed Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, bleeding heavily from an apparent gunshot wound near his neck. Officials said a suspect was in custody.
“We are confirming that he was shot, and we are praying for Charlie,” said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.”
A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
The college said a “single shot” had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was in custody.
President Donald Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.
“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.
Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.
“It seemed like it was a close shot,” Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.
He said there was a light police presence at the event and 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.”
Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.
But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.
Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

FLORIDA: A jury was selected Wednesday in the trial of a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump while he played golf last year in South Florida.
The panel of 12 jurors and four alternates was sworn in on the third day of jury selection at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. The jury has four white men, one Black man, six white women, and one Black woman. The alternates are two white men and two white women.
Ryan Routh’s trial begins nearly a year after prosecutors say a US Secret Service agent thwarted Routh’s attempt to shoot the Republican presidential nominee. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.
Routh is representing himself after US District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to let him dismiss his court-appointed attorneys. They are, however, standing by in the courtroom if needed.
Cannon did not say Wednesday morning when opening statements would begin, though they had been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
Since Monday, attorneys, Routh and the judge have screened about 180 potential jurors, with about 96 left in the pool on Tuesday night. The panel was selected following additional screening Wednesday.