Witnesses recounted a chaotic scene as law enforcement continued searching for a person of interest.
OREM, Utah—The assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 has reverberated across the United States and beyond.
On Thursday, in Orem, where Kirk was killed while speaking to students, shock, sadness, and even anger were palpable under the high desert sun. So too was appreciation for the 31-year-old’s faith in God and his commitment to peaceful political debate.
Law enforcement patrolled Utah Valley University, the scene of the crime.
Though new photos and video trickled in throughout the day, the FBI’s person of interest in the case remained at large.
As midday approached, the entrance to the campus was quiet. A pile of flowers beside the university’s sign continued to grow.
“I woke up today kind of hoping I woke up from a nightmare,” Koby Herrera told The Epoch Times.
The UVU sophomore witnessed the moment when a shot rang out. Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was struck in the neck.
Police said they recovered a bolt-action rifle, thought to have been used by the assassin, in a wooded area nearby.
Herrera said the law enforcement presence at the event—six officers for an American Comeback Tour event that attracted 3,000 people—had been inadequate.
“Do I feel safe? I don’t know. Was he [a] student here?” he asked about the shooter.
Indicating the MAGA hat on his head, he wondered aloud if it jeopardized his safety.
Despite the reasons for anxiety, Herrera seemed neither fearful nor defeated.
Kirk’s message, he said, had not died with him.
“I think what he did was put Charlie in his grave for sure, but [also] to give him a bigger mic,” he said.
America, he said, should be “a place for open dialogue,” the sort of conversations Kirk modeled.
Nearby, a man named Neil, who did not share his last name, held an upside-down American flag, a signal of distress.
The UVU alumnus had stopped by on his way to work.
“His message to the young people was just, let’s start bringing God back into our lives,” he said of Kirk.
Neil said his son attends the school and that he knew three people who had attended the event.
He said those witnesses were in “disbelief, shocked.”
Like Herrera, he believes major security failures contributed to what took place.
“The school president wasn’t prepared. The police chief wasn’t prepared. Charlie’s own security team wasn’t prepared. Why?” he said.
Neil was optimistic that the assassination of an influential political debater would not silence dialogue.
“I do believe this situation is going to allow for people to have a more open conversation, because they’re going to be able to exchange their feelings of what they were feeling that day,” he said.
At a Hospital, a Shrine
A few miles north of campus, more flowers, flags, and signs marked a busy street corner. Speakers played patriotic and Christian music.
A shrine to Kirk was taking shape outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where Kirk was taken after he was shot.
Jeremy King, who witnessed the shooting with his wife, Amy, spoke with The Epoch Times under the shade of a nearby tree.
One day after the killing, he said he was “exhausted at what we went through.”
“I wasn’t immediately thinking [of a] gunshot,” he said of the moment when Kirk was struck. “It took me just that extra half second or second to realize what had happened,” King added.
“His eyes closed, and he immediately fell back in his chair, and it felt like that was it. I mean, the feeling was, if that was a gunshot, he’s out cold. I don’t know if he’s going to make that.”
He recalled the pandemonium after the shooting, a scene captured on cell phone video, including one that he recorded.
“People were definitely running, and there was screaming, and it was everything you can imagine at a shooting event,” King said.
At that moment, he said, “It was just about getting out of there.”
He, too, reflected on the relative lack of security, saying no one checked his tickets or screened him as he entered the event.
King believes the event will change things.
“Yeah, Charlie was controversial, but there’s 100 Charlies out there doing events like this all the time,” he said.
King said he thought the killer would soon be caught.
“You watch Jason Bourne, you think, hey, maybe if it’s that level, they can get him out of the country. But I don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with,” he said.
Eric Wright and Cheyenne Gambier were among the mourners touched by Kirk’s life and death.
Wright summed him up as “a guy who believed in God.”
Gambier wondered about those celebrating Kirk’s demise on social media.
“Where’s our sense of humanity anymore?” she asked.
“We’re all human,” Wright said. “We all should be entitled to our own opinions.”
He said the daughter of someone he knew was there, describing her experience as “very traumatic.”
Another mourner, who chose to remain anonymous, said he thinks the killing was an act of radical terrorism.
He said he hoped the event would lead Americans to work to understand each other’s views.
“It’s time for this country to find its normalcy and its roots and where we belong. And I think a lot of people would agree with that statement,” the anonymous mourner said.
Candlelight Vigil
Elsewhere in America, not all events honoring Kirk were free from ideological conflict.
A fight erupted at a candlelight vigil in Boise, Idaho, when a person allegedly shouted a derogatory message about Kirk.
Orem’s candlelight vigil, ringed by law enforcement, was peaceful.
An American flag hung from the back of an old white pickup truck. Behind it, the Wasatch Range sharpened against the sky, pale blue ebbing into pink.
Mourners, many teenagers or young families, processed along a line of American flags to a stage. Many laid flowers and placed candles under an image of Kirk.
A few feet away, children shouted and romped through a playground.
Logan Ott covered his face as he reflected on Kirk’s young son and daughter.
“Nobody deserves to go out like this,” he said, saying he hoped the young man’s death would bring people closer to God.
He said Kirk was “one of the biggest reasons why I saw politics as something important to understand and for people to have dialogue and talk to each other about different ideas.”
Violence in place of words is “not going to help anything or anybody,” he added.
The vigil eventually ended, but the shock of Kirk’s violent death still reverberated through the city.
At almost 10 p.m., people were still visiting the shrine outside the hospital.
The suspect was still on the run. Orem, slowly cooling through the night, was still in mourning.
If you found this article interesting, please consider supporting traditional journalism
Our first edition was published 25 years ago from a basement in Atlanta. Today, The Epoch Times brings fact-based, award-winning journalism to millions of Americans.
Our journalists have been threatened, arrested, and assaulted, but our commitment to independent journalism has never wavered. This year marks our 25th year of independent reporting, free from corporate and political influence.
That’s why you’re invited to a limited-time introductory offer — just $1 per week — so you can join millions already celebrating independent news.
