By Joseph Ax, Brad Brooks and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a 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.

The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk, 31, apparently from a distant rooftop sniper's nest on campus, remained "at large," said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.

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State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were subsequently released.

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"There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals," the statement said. "There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter."

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In a video message taped in the Oval Office and posted to Trump's Truth Social online platform, the president vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.

"My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it," Trump said.

Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, around 12:20 p.m. MT (1820 GMT), when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.

In another clip, blood could be seen gushing from Kirk's neck immediately after the shot.

Jeff Long, chief of the university police department, said he had six officers working the event and coordinated with the head of Kirk's private security team, which was also on site.

Trump ordered all government U.S. flags flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk's honor.

The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on U.S. political figures, including two assassination attempts on Trump last year, that have underscored a sharp rise in political violence.

"This is a dark day for our state, it's a tragic day for our nation," Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox said at the press conference. "I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination."

With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the act of violence.

Trump, who routinely describes political rivals, judges and others who stand in his way as "radical left lunatics" and warns that they pose an existential threat to the nation, decried violent political rhetoric.

"For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals," Trump said in the video.

"This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now."

On Capitol Hill in Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives degenerated into shouting and finger-pointing.

Kirk's appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event "American Comeback Tour" at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.

ASKED ABOUT SHOOTINGS, THEN SHOT

Seconds before he was shot, the married father of two young children was being questioned by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.

"Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?" Kirk was asked.

He responded, "Counting or not counting gang violence?" He was shot moments later.

Kirk and the group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organization in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in November.

After winning his second presidential term, Trump credited Kirk for mobilizing younger voters and voters of color in support of his campaign.

"You had Turning Point's grassroots armies," Trump said at a rally in Phoenix in December. "It's not my victory, it's your victory."

Kirk had 5.3 million followers on X and hosted a popular podcast and radio program, "The Charlie Kirk Show." He had also recently appeared as a guest co-host on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

He was part of an ecosystem of pro-Trump conservative influencers – including Jack Posobiec, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens and others – who helped to amplify the president's agenda. Kirk frequently attacked mainstream media and engaged in culture-war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.

At the White House, staff members, many of them young and admirers of Kirk, were ashen-faced as news of the shooting spread.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON THE RISE

Republican and Democratic politicians alike expressed dismay over the shooting.

Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement: "Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy."

The U.S. is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since supporters of Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In July 2024, Republican Trump was grazed by a gunman's bullet during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. A second assassination attempt two months later was foiled by federal agents, with opening arguments in that suspect's trial set to begin on Thursday.

In April, an arsonist broke into Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence and set it on fire while the family was inside.

Earlier this year, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Democratic Senator John Hoffman and his wife. And in Boulder, Colorado, a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a solidarity event for Israeli hostages, killing one woman and injuring at least six more.

In 2022, a man broke into Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, leaving him with skull fractures and other injuries. In 2020, a group of right-wing militia members plotted unsuccessfully to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Posted by: AAngele