From the Associated Press:
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, has died after being shot Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump said.
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rel="nofollow"The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.
Here’s what we know so far:
- The victim: 31-year-old Kirk is the latest victim in a spasm of political violence across the United States. He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 at the age of 18, and soon became a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on President Trump.
- The shooter: Authorities are still searching for the suspect, the mayor says. A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation and was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.
- The location: Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by TPUSA. The event at UVU 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.”
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