FBI releases images of person of interest in Kirk killing
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
By JACEY FORTIN, NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS and DEVLIN BARRETT
Authorities released two images on Thursday of a person they are seeking as they investigate the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed while speaking to a large crowd on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
The move indicates that authorities have not been able to identify the person through facial recognition or other technology and were now turning to the public for help.
The grainy images posted by the FBI on social media show a man in a stairwell wearing a black shirt, a baseball cap and dark sunglasses. The authorities have described him as a person of interest. State and federal officials also said they had found a bolt-action rifle used in the attack, as well as imprints of a forearm, a palm and a shoe.
Investigators were able to track the gunman’s movements as he climbed onto the roof of a campus building, Beau Mason, Utah’s public safety chief, said at a morning news conference before the images were released. Mason said at that time that officials would release images of the person they were tracking only if they could not identify him through other means. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the shooter.
The weapon used to kill Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was a “high-powered bolt-action rifle” that investigators said they had found in a wooded area near the university campus, said Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office.
Officials referred to the person they were hunting as a man throughout the news conference on Thursday morning. Mason said the person being sought “blended in well” at the campus because he appeared “to be of college age.”
He arrived on campus shortly before noon and used a stairway to make his way to the roof of a university building overlooking the site of Kirk’s scheduled appearance, according to Mason. After the shooting — a single shot that hit Kirk in the neck — the person jumped from the roof and fled to a nearby neighborhood, the police said.
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, were traveling on Thursday in Salt Lake City, where he was expected to meet with Kirk’s family. Air Force Two will then carry Kirk’s body and casket to Phoenix, where his political organization is based.
Here’s what else to know:
— The weapon: The gun discovered near campus was an older-model Mauser .30-06 caliber high-powered bolt-action rifle, according to three federal law enforcement officials based on a preliminary internal assessment. The weapon and several recovered cartridges are being traced by ATF analysts, but the evidence has not yet led to a person of interest, they said.
— Light security: Witnesses say there was little police presence and many vulnerabilities at the open-air amphitheater where Wednesday’s event was held. While 3,000 people attended, only six police officers were present, said Jeff Long, Utah Valley University’s chief of police. He added that Kirk also had a private security team that traveled with him.
— Heightened fears: Kirk’s killing, the latest in a string of attacks targeting American political figures, intensified fears that political violence was becoming normalized in a highly polarized nation. On the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, a request for a moment of silence for Kirk devolved into bitter partisanship.