UPDATE: FBI Director Kash Patel, on his official X account on Wednesday, indicated that a suspect is in custody, and that details will be forthcoming as they are available.
The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with @fbi.
We will provide updates when able.— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 10, 2025
We’ll be watching for further developments.
Original story: Utah authorities do not, as of this writing, yet have a suspect in custody in the killing of Charlie Kirk at a Turning Point USA event, where he was speaking. But some details are starting to be released; late Wednesday afternoon, Ellen Treanor, Associate Vice President of Strategic Communication Management at Utah Valley University, where Charlie was speaking, spoke with Fox News Digital and described what they know so far.
While a school spokeswoman initially said campus police had a suspect in custody, she later indicated he wasn’t the gunman.
The school had more than 46,000 students as of last fall. Campus authorities ordered a lockdown, have been escorting people to safety and are urging anyone still on school grounds to call them to be escorted to safety.
“To the best of my knowledge, that individual has been released,” Ellen Treanor, the associate vice president of strategic communication management at Utah Valley University, told Fox News Digital. “Our campus police are currently investigating in conjunction with the Orem police.”
Orem authorities declined to confirm an active manhunt for the gunman but told Fox News Digital a shelter-in-place order was in effect.
We should bear in mind that any information, at this time, is very preliminary. There is too much that is yet unknown; as far as we’ve been able to determine so far, the Utah authorities don’t even have an identity for the shooter.
This statement, though, yields some relevant details – again, this is very tentative.
“We had a speaker, Charlie Kirk, who was invited by a student group, Turning Point USA, who was speaking on campus today at noon,” Traenor said in a statement. “At about 12:20 shots were fired from a building about 200 yards from the speaker. To the best of our knowledge, the individual was hit and was taken away immediately by his security personnel.”
If this statement is accurate – and that’s anything but certain – this would indicate that the shooting was not a spontaneous act, or a spur-of-the-moment impulse. This would indicate that it was planned. Also, a 200-yard shot on a human-sized target would not be easy to carry out for someone inexperienced with firearms. What is described here would indicate either a practiced rifle shooter or someone who made the shot through sheer luck.
Read More: UPDATE: Charlie Kirk Has Died
Absolute Depravity From MSNBC After News Broke of Charlie Kirk’s Shooting
Again, we just don’t know much at this juncture.
Following the shooting, the campus was locked down, and law enforcement was still escorting students and other event attendees off campus. Classes have been canceled for the rest of the day.
This remains a developing story. We’ll keep you updated.
