Charlie Kirk | Pakistan

The man arrested in the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk is not cooperating with authorities, but investigators are working to establish a motive for the shooting by talking to his friends and family, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday. Cox said the accused gunman, Tyler Robinson, 22, will be formally charged on Tuesday. He remains in custody in Utah. Investigators have yet to piece together why Robinson allegedly scaled a rooftop at Utah Valley University during an outdoor event and shot Kirk in the neck at long range on Wednesday. Kirk, a staunch ally of United States President Donald Trump and co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, was killed by a single rifle shot during the event attended by 3,000 people in Orem, about 65 kilometres south of Salt Lake City. @dawn.today US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at Utah University, sparking a manhunt for a lone sniper who the g...

For some Americans on the far right, Charlie Kirk died a “martyr”, and any criticism of the hugely popular conservative activist must be punished. Online vitriol and grassroots persecution have exploded in the wake of the assassination of the 31-year-old who had been an electrifying presence on the US right, with the killing further deepening fraught political divisions in the country. Laura Sosh-Lightsy, assistant dean of students at a university in the southern state of Tennessee, found herself in hot water after posting on social media about Kirk’s death. “Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy,” she said on Facebook after the killing, which happened Wednesday in front of a large crowd at a university in Utah. Republican US Senator Marsha Blackburn quickly called out the comment — and Sosh-Lightsy. “This person should be ashamed of her post. She should be removed from her position,” the Tennessee lawmaker said. Middle Tennessee State University’s president announced that same night an employee’s firing for a “cal...

The Utah trade school student jailed on suspicion of fatally shooting United States conservative activist Charlie Kirk faces formal charges next week, according to the governor, following an act of violence widely seen as a foreboding inflexion point in American politics. Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday night after relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that he had implicated himself in the crime, Governor Spencer Cox said on Friday, opening a press conference with the words, “We got him.” The arrest capped a 33-hour manhunt for the lone suspect in Wednesday’s killing, which US President Donald Trump has called a “heinous assassination”. Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA and a staunch Trump ally, was gunned down by a single rifle shot fired from a rooftop during an outdoor event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 65 kilometres south of Salt Lake City. The sniper made his getaway in the ensuing pandemonium, captured in gr...

A young Utah man suspected of killing influential United States conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university in the city of Orem was in custody on Friday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox told reporters. “We got him,” Cox told reporters. The suspect, identified as Tyler Robinson, had confessed to a family friend or “implied that he had committed the murder” to that friend and that person in turn had contacted the Washington County sheriff’s office on Thursday. A family member interviewed by investigators said Robinson had become more political recently and spoke in a disparaging manner about Kirk, Cox told reporters. Robinson was taken into custody on Thursday night, about 33 hours after Kirk’s murder, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel said at the press conference. Kirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, was killed by a single bullet as he spoke onstage at an outdoor amphitheatre at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Previously, US investigators said they had found the bolt-action ...

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Thursday warned that Washington may take action against foreigners “praising, rationalising, or making light” of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, adding he had directed consular officials to take appropriate action. “In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Landau said in a post on social media platform X. “I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalising, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.” Landau did not elaborate on what such action would mean. Some users replied to Landau’s post with screenshots of accounts and posts, though it was unclear if the accounts they flagged were US visa holders. The State Department’s number two then replied to some of those comments, saying he would direct consular offici...

United States investigators said on Thursday they had found the bolt-action rifle they believed was used to kill influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he gave a talk at a university in Utah, but were still searching for the shooter. Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at Utah University, sparking a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a political assassination. Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, some eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah, during an event attended by 3,000 people. Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 64 kilometres south of Salt Lake City, around 12:20pm MT (18:20 GMT or 23:20 PKT), when a gunshot rang out. Kirk, a staunch defender of gun rights, was answering an audience question about mass shootings when the bullet struck his n...