Demonstrators protest the suspension of the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where the show is performed, in Los Angeles earlier this month. While Kimmel has returned to the air, dozens of public workers have been fired across the country for comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Suzanne Swierc shared two thoughts on her private Facebook page — that the killing of the right-wing activist was wrong, and that his death reflected “the violence, fear and hatred he sowed.”

The post upended her life.

Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita soon obtained a screenshot of the post by Swierc, an administrator at Ball State University, and added it to an official website naming and shaming educators for their comments about Kirk.

Libs of Tik Tok, a social media account dedicated to mocking liberals, shared her comments with its 4.4 million followers on X. A week after the post, the university fired her.

“The day that my private post was made public without my consent was one of the worst days of my life,” Swierc told reporters this past week. She said she received calls, texts and other harassing messages, including one suggesting she should be killed, that left her terrified.

A wave of firings and investigations has swept through academia and government in the wake of Kirk’s death, as state agencies, colleges and local school districts take action against employees over comments perceived as offensive or inappropriate. Dozens of workers in higher education alone have lost their jobs.

A Texas State University student was expelled after he publicly reenacted Kirk’s assassination; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans had called for the student’s expulsion. Clemson University in South Carolina fired one worker and removed two professors from teaching. The University of Mississippi fired an employee. An Idaho Department of Labor employee was terminated.

The purge is driven in part by Republican elected officials who are encouraging Americans to report co-workers, their children’s teachers and others who make comments seen as crossing the line. They have been egged on by the Trump administration, with Vice President JD Vance urging listeners of Kirk’s podcast to call the employer of anyone “celebrating” his killing.

President Donald Trump has threatened to expand the crackdown beyond Kirk, warning falsely in the Oval Office last week that negative press coverage of him is “really illegal,” despite constitutional protections for freedom of the press.

Trump headlines Arizona memorial service for Charlie Kirk at packed stadium

At Kirk’s memorial service, Trump said, “I hate my opponent.” His choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission threatened ABC over comments about the reaction to Kirk’s death made by the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel and the network pulled his show for several days.

Mark Johnson, a First Amendment attorney based in Kansas City, Missouri, who has been practicing law for 45 years, said he had never seen a moment like the current one.

“Not even close,” Johnson said. “What’s been happening in the last month is astonishing.”

In Indiana, Rokita is using his office’s “Eyes on Education” webpage to publicize examples of educators who have made controversial remarks about Kirk. The page, billed as a transparency tool, housed a hodgepodge of submitted complaints about teachers and schools in the past. Now, it also includes 28 Kirk-related submissions as of Thursday afternoon.

Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden threatened to strip an entire town of federal funding after a high school math teacher noted on her personal Facebook page that Kirk had in the past said some gun deaths are worth it to have the Second Amendment. The teacher has been suspended.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who is leaving his job next month to head up a conservative teachers organization, has launched investigations of school employees in response to tips submitted to Awareity, an online platform that allows parents and others to report concerns. Last week the Oklahoma State Department of Education said it had received 224 reports of “defamatory comments.”

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Fine has urged people with information about anyone celebrating Kirk’s death who works in government in Florida to contact his office. And South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace wants federal funding cut off for any school that fails to fire or discipline staff who “glorify or justify” political violence.

“It’s at a scale never before seen and I think it’s completely unhinged,” Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said of the rush to fire higher education faculty.

Free speech consequences?

Kirk, who founded the campus conservative activism organization Turning Point USA and was close to Trump, was a hero to many Republicans. They saw a charismatic family man and a Christian unafraid to take his hard-right vision onto liberal college campuses.

But many Democrats and liberals experienced Kirk as a provocateur with a record of incendiary remarks about people of color, immigrants and Islam. While many of Kirk’s opponents have condemned the assassination, some have also emphasized their disagreement with his views or suggested his death arose out of what they saw as his hateful rhetoric.

“I have faculty who are getting fired, who have tenure and are getting fired, for saying things like ‘I condemn political violence but the words that Charlie Kirk used, he sort of reaped what he sowed,’” Wolfson said. “All things told, I may not agree with that statement, but that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for somebody to say. Certainly not something to be fired for.”

MSUN professor on leave as influencers targeted Montanans in wake of Charlie Kirk’s death

Some Republicans have long denounced what they view as past Democratic censorship, including Biden administration efforts to pressure social media companies to censor content during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also criticized firings and pushed back on perceived political correctness run amok during the height of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, moments of ascendant progressive influence.

But as the current round of terminations plays out, some conservatives argue public employees who speak out about Kirk are facing the consequences of their actions. Oklahoma state Rep. Gabe Woolley, a Republican, said individuals in a taxpayer-funded role who work with children should be held to a high level of accountability.

“I think the most important factor to consider … is that these people chose to enter the public square on public social media accounts and to mock and celebrate the death of an American patriot who was a Christian martyr who was killed for his faith doing what God called him to do,” Woolley said.

Woolley added that “if you choose to make something public, you should not be shocked or surprised by any type of public pushback.”

Swierc described a relatively restricted Facebook account. It was private and couldn’t be found by searching for her name; only individuals with mutual Facebook friends could request to add her as a friend. She did not list her employer on her profile.

Swierc’s post on Kirk could only be seen by her Facebook friends. At some point, someone — Swierc doesn’t know who — made a screenshot of the post. It was then circulated publicly and ended up on Indiana’s “Eyes on Education” page.

On Sept. 17, Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns fired Swierc, who had been director of health promotion and advocacy within the Division of Student Affairs. In a letter informing Swierc of her termination, Mearns wrote that many current students had written to the university to express concern and that her post had caused unprecedented disruption.

Swierc filed a federal lawsuit against Mearns on Monday, alleging he violated her First Amendment rights. Swierc, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, wants a court to order Mearns to expunge her termination from her Ball State University personnel file, along with unspecified damages.

“I do not regret the post I made, and I would not take back what I said,” Swierc said during a virtual news conference organized by the ACLU of Indiana. “I believe that I, along with every person in this country, have First Amendment rights to be able to speak on a number of things.”

Ball State University declined to answer Stateline’s questions, citing the lawsuit. In an unsigned public statement on the day of Swierc’s firing, the university said the post was “inconsistent with the distinctive nature and trust” of Swierc’s leadership position and had caused significant disruption to the university.

Swierc’s lawsuit is one of a growing number of legal challenges to firings and employee discipline over comments about Kirk. On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the University of South Dakota to reinstate an art professor who had placed on administrative leave after calling Kirk a “Nazi” but later deleted the post and apologized.

Aggressive state attorney general

Swierc didn’t name Rokita, the attorney general, as a defendant in her lawsuit, but the official has loomed over the situation.

Two days after Kirk’s assassination, Rokita urged his followers on X to submit to him any evidence of educators or school administrators celebrating or rationalizing the killing. He wrote that they must be held accountable and “have no place teaching our students.”

But Rokita has also said the Indiana Attorney General’s Office isn’t investigating individuals submitted to his “Eyes on Education” page — suggesting the effort is mainly intended to generate public pressure against employers. Each example on the page lists contact information for the school’s leadership and in some instances information about the next local school board meeting.

“For a government official, especially of that caliber, to be creating a database and doing this has an incredibly chilling effect on speech,” said Ashkhen Kazaryan, a senior legal fellow at The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University that promotes the values of free speech and free expression.

Rokita didn’t agree to an interview. “Our goal is to provide transparency, equipping parents with the information they need to make informed decisions about their children’s education,” Rokita said in a news release.

On Monday, Rokita sent a six-page letter to school superintendents and public university administrators, providing guidance on the legal authority to fire and discipline teachers for speech related to Kirk. The letter suggested that speech occurring on social media is a factor that weighs in favor of the authority to fire an employee because it carries the risk of being amplified and disrupting school operations.

Rokita also analyzed comments about Kirk by a U.S. history teacher in Indiana who had said the assassinated activist can “suck it” and referred to comments made by Kirk in 2023 that some gun deaths every year are the cost of Second Amendment rights. The district’s employer had chosen not to terminate the teacher, but Rokita laid out a legal justification for firing the employee.

He concluded the letter by writing that many schools would be within their legal authority to fire teachers “who have similarly contributed to the divisive and, for many, painful eruption of controversial discourse on social media and elsewhere concerning Charlie Kirk.”

Joseph Mastrosimone, an employment law professor at Washburn University, said private employers have broad discretion to fire workers over speech. But the government is different, he said, with the First Amendment providing at least some level of protection to employees.

Decades of court cases have established the core principle that if a public employee is speaking in their capacity as a citizen on a matter of public concern, then the government can only take action if the speech causes significant disruption to the delivery of the public service and that disruption outweighs the employee’s interest in the speech, he said.

Mastrosimone said if a teacher’s message made in his or her own time is causing community outrage and pandemonium, “that’s probably going to count as some disruption.”

“And there might be sufficient disruption to outweigh whatever interest the employee has in the speech,” Mastrosimone said. But the closer the teacher’s message is to core political speech — such as voicing support for a candidate for office — the more the scales tip in favor of the employee being able to speak without fear of discipline.

“It is certainly a matter of public concern, what’s going on here with the Charlie Kirk assassination. The interests are probably pretty high, I would think,” Mastrosimone said.

Push to honor Kirk

As some Republican officials have called for action against public employees who have made comments about Kirk, they have often drawn a line at what they see as celebrating or glorifying his assassination. Walters, the outgoing Oklahoma state superintendent, has gone further and is investigating districts for “refusing to honor his memory.”

The Oklahoma State Department of Education last week said in addition to reports on individual teachers, it was investigating 30 reports of schools that didn’t observe a moment of silence. Three reports alleged schools weren’t flying their flags at half-staff.

On Tuesday, Walters announced an official push to start a Turning Point USA chapter in every Oklahoma high school. Later that day, he announced he would resign as superintendent to become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a new group that casts itself as a conservative alternative to teachers’ unions.

Walters’ Turning Point effort comes after Oklahoma state Sen. Shane Jett, a Republican, filed three pieces of legislation to honor Kirk, including one that would establish “Charlie Kirk Free Speech Day” and another requiring public colleges and universities to develop a “Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza” on their campuses.

Walters and Jett didn’t respond to interview requests.

“Charlie Kirk inspired a generation to love America, to speak boldly, and to never shy away from debate. Our kids must get involved and active,” Walters said in a news release on Tuesday. “We will fight back against the liberal propaganda, pushed by the radical left, and the teachers unions. Our fight starts now.”

Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.

Eleven Democratic senators, including Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, have written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, shown here at an event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in July. The senators' letter criticizes Carr for his comments about taking action against ABC Television in response to Jimmy Kimmel's comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Democratic senators including Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) have written to the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to criticize the agency’s chairman’s attacks on late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel.

ABC television, part of Disney, suspended Kimmel’s show indefinitely Wednesday after criticism of the comedian’s remarks that FCC Chair Brendan Carr made on a right-wing podcast.

On his program, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday and Tuesday, Kimmel made several comments about last week’s shooting of Charlie Kirk, including the statement that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”

The Associated Press reported the suspension was announced after a group of ABC affiliates said they would not air Kimmel’s program and after Carr suggested on the Benny Johnson podcast Wednesday that the FCC was considering taking action against the network.

In a letter Thursday, 11 Democratic senators, including Baldwin, told Carr, “You proceeded to threaten that the FCC ‘can do this the easy way or the hard way,’ and telegraphed that ‘there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead’ unless ABC affiliates ‘find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel . . .’”

“It is not simply unacceptable for the FCC Chairman to threaten a media organization because he does not like the content of its programming — it violates the First Amendment that you claim to champion,” the senators wrote.

“The FCC’s role in overseeing the public airwaves does not give it the power to act as a roving press censor, targeting broadcasters based on their political commentary,” they added. “But under your leadership, the FCC is being weaponized to do precisely that.”

The letter calls Carr’s statements “a betrayal of the FCC’s mission,” suggesting that he was trying to police speech and “force broadcasters to adopt political viewpoints that you favor,” and “requiring them to act in ‘Trump’s interest’” rather than in the public interest, as called for in the Federal Communications Act.

The letter notes that Nextar — which operates 23 ABC affiliates according to the AP and has a merger pending before the FCC — announced it would take Kimmel’s show off the air. Disney then announced it was suspending Kimmel’s show indefinitely.

“This is precisely what government censorship looks like,” the senators wrote.

Carr’s comments were an about-face from a 2022 post on X, when he defended late-night comedians and political satirists and “rightly rejected government censorship as a threat to our First Amendment protections,” the senators wrote. “But as FCC Chairman, you now have apparently forgotten these principles.”

The letter demands that by Sept. 25, Carr answer three questions in writing: about the FCC’s public interest standard and its definitions of political bias; whether the agency has communicated with Disney, ABC or their affiliates about Kimmel and his show; and what he meant by “the hard way” and “the easy way” in his podcast remarks.

The letter was led by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts). In addition to Baldwin it was signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Ben Ray Lujan (D-New Mexico), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota). 

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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he is “very confident” in the Capitol police force and noted that many of the incidents that have occurred were not located in Capitol buildings. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner).

Wisconsin leaders condemned political violence and said they are continuing to discuss security in the Capitol on Thursday following the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.

Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at a university event in Orem, Utah. The search is still underway for the shooter.

During a floor session Thursday, the Wisconsin State Assembly held a moment of silence for Kirk as well as one to honor the 24th anniversary of 9/11.

“Mr. Kirk’s family are in our thoughts today,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at a press conference. “We are still sad about the assassination of Representative Melissa Horton in Minnesota. Political violence and violence is never the answer — whether it’s the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the attempt on President Trump’s life or the university and college shootings that are happening all across our nation. Violence is never the answer.”

Hesselbein also acknowledged the shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado that happened Wednesday afternoon.

“This was another senseless act of political violence unfortunately against Charlie Kirk, and I want to express my deepest condolences to his loved ones,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said. “We all condemn political violence in the strongest possible terms. No one should fear for their lives because of their jobs.”

Security and safety concerns have been at the forefront of lawmakers’ minds this year, especially after the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. The names of several Wisconsin politicians were found on a list of targets belonging to the Minnesota shooting suspect.

“Given the recent rise in political violence, of course, this is top of mind for many of our colleagues, and of course, the staff who work in the Capitol as well as the press, the guests, the children that come through this building on Capitol visits,” Neubauer said. “It’s an ongoing conversation, and we hope to continue that with our Republican colleagues, who of course control the safety in our chambers, as well as the other entities in the Capitol.” 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he is “very confident” in the Capitol police force and noted that many of the incidents that have occurred were not located in Capitol buildings. 

“When you look at Minnesota, it was in their homes. If you look at what happened yesterday to Charlie Kirk, it was in a public venue on campus, so the idea that we’re somehow going to fortify a single building to make people feel safer when the reality is that most of the violence that has occurred has not been inside of the buildings, but outside of people’s home.

In a video Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump condemned the assassination and listed acts of violence that have occurred against right-leaning figures, including the attempt on his own life last year, but neglected to mention the murder of the Hortmans. He blamed the incidents on “radical left political violence.” 

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” Trump said. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence.”

Asked about Trump only recognizing violence against conservatives, Vos said he didn’t see the comments. But Vos said he knows that in Trump’s “heart” he believes that “assassination is 100% of the time wrong.”

“When Melissa Hortman, who was clearly a liberal Democrat, I didn’t hear anybody on the right celebrating the fact that she was assassinated. It was awful, and that’s what it should be,” Vos said, adding that he condemned anyone celebrating Kirk’s death.

During the moment of silence, Vos said Kirk was a man “who represented free speech” and “was silenced in the most horrific way possible.” He said that the country is “rapidly deteriorating” as “many see the other party as their mortal enemies out to destroy the country, not just good-hearted political rivals that we should be.”

Wisconsin’s congressional delegation and other state leaders also condemned political violence on Wednesday, though one Republican has taken the route of blaming others for the violence. 

Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said that “there is no two ways about this: political violence has no place in America. I am keeping Charlie and his family in my thoughts in this truly horrifying moment.”

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied called Kirk “a true American Patriot” and said “his legacy will live on for generations to come.” 

“There is absolutely zero place for political violence in our country,” Wied said. 

“Violence against anyone because of their political beliefs is wrong. Violence against others is wrong.  Violence is never the answer for resolving our differences or disagreements,” Gov. Tony Evers said. “Wisconsin joins in praying for Charlie Kirk and the Utah Valley community and first responders.”

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, has been posting consistently since news broke about the assassination, blaming reporters and Democrats for the violence. 

“The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war. And they want it,” Van Orden wrote in one post. In another, he said reporters and Democrats were “directly culpable.” 

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker said in a statement that Van Orden was encouraging violence. 

“His terrifying statements, which are inviting civil war and encouraging violence against Democrats and the media, are being completely ignored by Republicans in Wisconsin and in D.C.. They have a responsibility to tell Derrick Van Orden to stop pouring gasoline on an open flame, and I implore them to do so immediately,” Remiker said.

Remiker had already condemned the violence in a statement Wednesday, saying, “this sort of violence will continue until all of us, regardless of party, condemn these sorts of heinous actions.”

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Founder and executive director of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk speaks at the opening of the Turning Point Action conference on July 15, 2023 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday. 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon that a person of interest was in custody, but that he could not elaborate. Soon after, at 6 p.m., FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that the “subject in custody had been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.” 

Officials suspect that the shooter shot Kirk from a rooftop as he spoke at an outdoor event on the college campus, but they had little additional information other than that the person appeared to be wearing dark clothing. They said the investigation is ongoing. 

“We are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any possible information related to the shooter,” Cox said. 

Cox called the shooting a “political assassination” and called for anyone who had celebrated Kirk’s death to “look in the mirror.”

“The investigation is ongoing, but I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this, we will find you, we will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law,” Cox said. “And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here.”

The suspected shooter was dressed in all dark clothing, but other than that, officials couldn’t provide much detail Wednesday. Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the “only information we have on the suspect, the possible shooter, is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus.”

Mason said that footage is currently being analyzed. Asked whether the suspect on the security camera footage and the person of interest they have in custody match, Mason said, “that’s what we’re trying to decipher right now.” 

Officials also said there is no information that suggests there was a second person involved in the shooting. One shot was fired, Kirk was the only victim and police confirmed it was a targeted attack.

Videos circulating on social media show students scattering after a popping sound is heard, Kirk appears to be impacted by something, and begins bleeding from his neck. Witnesses say he was answering a question about mass shootings in the moment he was shot. 

In a statement, Utah Valley University confirmed Kirk had been shot at about 12:20 p.m. while speaking to the crowd. 

Mason later told reporters that Kirk had been shot in the neck. He was then taken by a private vehicle to Timpanogos Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

The Utah Department of Public Safety and the FBI will be “co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer,” Mason said. 

Campus was closed down following the shooting, with the university later announcing the closure will remain in place until Sept. 15. For hours after the shot rang out, dozens of police vehicles and some armored vehicles swarmed the university campus and blocked off roadways. SWAT teams and military personnel carrying long guns — some with K-9s — could be seen searching buildings. 

Several students told Utah News Dispatch they were told to wait outside, unable to retrieve their belongings from classrooms or access their dorms, until after law enforcement completed their searches. 

Adelaide Condie, an 18-year-old Utah Valley University student, was standing on a trash can trying to see Kirk as he answered a question about gun violence when he was hit.

“All of a sudden he got shot … It looked like it was to the chest from where I was, but people are saying it was to the neck … then he went down,” said Condie as she was leaving campus. “Everyone started running, then we all got on lockdown.” 

The university initially reported a suspect was in custody, but officers determined he didn’t match the shooter’s description. Law enforcement officials identified him as George Zinn, a local political gadfly known for his disruptive behavior. While not suspected in the shooting, Mason said Zinn was booked into Utah County Jail for investigation of obstruction of justice.

‘A police chief’s nightmare’

There wasn’t a heavy police presence or extensive security measures in place for Wednesday’s event. Deseret News reporter Emma Pitts, who was on scene when the shooting happened, told the outlet that students weren’t scanned and bags weren’t checked when they entered the outdoor venue.

When asked about the event’s security, Utah Valley University Police Chief Jeff Long first told reporters that what happened was “a police chief’s nightmare.” 

“We’re a small police department. We have a very large campus. We have over 40,000 students. We love our students. We love our visitors. And we’re devastated by what happened today,” he said. 

The chief said Wednesday’s event took place at an “open venue” outdoors, with more than 3,000 people estimated in attendance. He said six officers staffed the event, along with some officers in “plain clothes” in the crowd. He added that UVU police also partnered with Kirk’s security team. 

“We train for these things. You think you have things covered, and these things, unfortunately, they happen,” Long said. “You try to get your bases covered, and unfortunately today we didn’t.”

Utah Valley University says on its website that it complies with state law regarding weapons on campus, which restricts people from possessing a dangerous weapon, firearm, or sawed-off gun on campus except under certain circumstances. However, the university allows concealed weapons to be carried by legal permit holders. 

Shooting follows No Kings protest shooting, national political violence

The shooting on the college campus in Orem, about 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City, follows violence this summer in Utah and beyond. In July, shots rang out as more than 10,000 people marched in Salt Lake City as part of the “No Kings” protest of the Trump administration and its policies.

A self-described “volunteer peacekeeper” fired with a handgun after seeing a man with an AR-15-style rifle, winging him in the side and striking a protester in the head as he walked by. Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo, a fashion designer and fixture of the Polynesian community in Utah, died from the wound.

On the same day in Minnesota, House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman was assassinated in her home, along with her husband, Mark Hortman. Police say the accused gunman, Vance Boelter, disguised himself as a police officer. Boelter is also charged with shooting Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, both of whom survived, in their Champlin home. 

Kirk’s visit to Utah drew criticism; his killing invoked condemnation, sadness 

Kirk is a founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that advocates for conservative politics in educational institutions, and a close ally of President Donald Trump. He is a widely known internet personality who takes his signature “prove me wrong” debates to college campuses.

His Utah visit wasn’t without controversy. In a Change.org petition, students at Utah State University, where Kirk was scheduled to make a second appearance in the state on Sept. 30, said Kirk’s polarizing rhetoric is at odds with the inclusive atmosphere they want to preserve on campus. The petition had more than 6,800 signatures.

Matt Bailey, a UVU student who was in class when the shooting happened, told Utah News Dispatch as he was leaving campus that “it’s pretty sad that it had to come to this, that someone was willing to do this.” 

“Regardless of what you believe about Charlie Kirk, he does come and just wants to talk to everybody,” he said. 

Another UVU student, John Bryant — a film student who raced to campus from his home in Orem after he heard of the shooting — said while Kirk could be a “pretty polarizing” character, “it’s a whole different story to take out an act of violence against (him).”

“Personally, I don’t agree with his views, but violence is not the way to make change,” Bryant said. “That’s not going to change him, because now he’s gone. … Violence is not the answer.” 

Trump orders flags lowered

The president was among the first to announce Kirk’s death.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Trump ordered U.S. flags throughout the country to be lowered in the wake of Kirk’s killing, describing him as “a truly Great American Patriot” on Truth Social. 

Cox echoed that order, requiring U.S. and Utah flags to be flown at half staff at all state facilities in acknowledgement of Kirk until Sunday.

In a statement posted to social media, Cox said he had spoken on the phone with Trump about Kirk’s death and is now working with the FBI and state law enforcement to “bring to justice the individual responsible for this tragedy.”

“Abby and I are heartbroken. We are praying for Charlie’s wife, daughter, and son,” Cox said.

In an earlier statement, Cox warned those involved in the shooting would be held accountable and that “violence has no place in our public life,” he wrote.

Before it was announced that Kirk had died in the shooting, dozens of congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill offered prayers for Kirk, with whom many GOP members have personal relationships.

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, paused the panel’s consideration of a bill and held a moment of silence after Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene informed the committee of the shooting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement the news of Kirk’s death is “utterly devastating.”

“Charlie was a close friend and confidant. He will be sorely missed by so many. Every political leader must loudly and clearly decry this violence,” Johnson said. “Our prayers go out to his wife and young children. May he rest in peace.”

Utah News Dispatch editor McKenzie Romero and States Newsroom reporter Jacob Fischler contributed to this story.