A suspect in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been taken into custody, President Donald Trump said Friday, calling it a major breakthrough in a case that gripped the nation for nearly two days.
“With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump said in a live interview on Fox News Channel. He added that a minister working with law enforcement helped turn in the suspect, whose identity has not yet been released.
“Somebody very close to him said, ‘That’s him,’” Trump said.
The FBI and Justice Department declined immediate comment. Authorities in Utah, where Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday on a college campus in what officials described as a targeted political assassination, scheduled a news conference for later Friday morning.
Kirk, 31, co-founded the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA and was a rising figure in Republican politics. He was killed by a single gunshot, police said.
Authorities recovered a high-powered bolt-action rifle near the scene and said the shooter jumped off a roof and vanished into the woods after the shooting.
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead hours later.
Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday released photos and video of the person they believe was responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at the university in Orem.
More than 7,000 leads and tips poured in, officials said. Authorities have yet to publicly name the suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.
The attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues, was captured on graphic videos that spread on social media.
The videos show Kirk, who was influential in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when a shot rings out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running.
The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a college-age appearance, fired once from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video released Thursday showed the person walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.
“I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the top FBI agent in Salt Lake City.
Trump, joined by Democrats in condemning the violence, said he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, visited Kirk’s family Thursday in Salt Lake City. Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship, from initial messages in 2017 through his Senate run and the 2024 election.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”
Kirk’s casket was flown aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his youth-focused political group is based. Trump told reporters he plans to attend the funeral. Details have not been announced.
Kirk was a conservative provocateur who became a powerful political force among young Republicans and a fixture on college campuses, where he invited sometimes-heated debate on social issues.
One such exchange played out immediately before the shooting as Kirk took questions from an audience member about gun violence.
The debate hosted by Turning Point at the Sorensen Center on campus was billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour.”
The event sparked a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for 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.”
Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was stirring controversy. He wrote: “What’s going on in Utah?”
Some attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms filled with students. They used tables to barricade doors and shielded themselves in corners. Someone wrapped the cord of an electric pencil sharpener around a door handle and tied it to a chair leg.
On campus Thursday, the canopy stamped with the slogan Kirk commonly used at his events – “PROVE ME WRONG” – still stood, disheveled.
Kathleen Murphy, a longtime resident near the campus, said she had been staying inside with her door locked.
“With the shooter not being caught yet, it was a worry,” Murphy said.
Meanwhile, the shooting continued to draw swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republicans in decrying the attack, which unfolded during a spike in political violence that has touched representatives of both major parties.
