The Latest: FBI releases photos of a person of interest in Kirk assassination

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Investigators released two images of the person and appealed for tips to help solve the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters.

The unidentified suspect is believed to have jumped off a roof and fled into a neighborhood after firing one shot, authorities said Thursday. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle they believe was used in the attack was recovered, and video recordings of the person they believe was responsible are being reviewed.

Kirk’s assassination renews attention to escalating threats of political violence in the United States that cut across the ideological spectrum. His killing is drawing bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence appears elusive.

The Latest:

That’s according to a source with knowledge of the planning but not authorized to speak publicly about them.

Vance shuffled his schedule Thursday, nixing plans to attend a Sept. 11 commemoration in New York City and heading instead to Utah, where Kirk, his friend, was assassinated Wednesday.

While in Utah, Vance and his wife, Usha, were to meet with Kirk’s family and close friends, the person with knowledge told the AP.

Afterward, Vance will fly Kirk’s casket and family with him aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Arizona, where Kirk made his home.

Temporary flight restrictions were issued earlier Thursday for both areas, indicated movements of a high-profile person, like Vance.

— Michelle L. Price and Meg Kinnard

“We’re just here as a group to say America cannot govern itself this way,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said to open a news conference Thursday, flanked by a mix of Democratic and Republican senators.

GOP Sen. Katie Britt said Kirk has influenced many people, including her children.

“Talking through this with them last night is just unthinkable,” said an emotional Britt. “The time for unity, the time for peace, it is now.”

The news conference was to highlight a bipartisan push to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and included Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar.

Klobuchar highlighted multiple shootings that had happened in her own state of Minnesota this year, including the killing of a top Democratic state lawmaker.

“It has to end. And we have to join together, to condemn it,” Klobuchar said.

The FBI says it’s offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of whoever is responsible for Kirk’s death.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. Officials also published the link for a form where people can upload videos and photos.

Earlier Thursday, law enforcement officials disseminated two photos, seeking the public’s help in identifying the “person of interest.”

Dowd had said on-air that Kirk had made incendiary statements, and that “hateful words” can lead to “hateful actions.” Dowd later apologized, saying he in no way meant to imply Kirk was responsible for the attack, but the damage had been done. MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said the remarks were inappropriate and insensitive.

Meanwhile, a reporter for Floridapolitics.com was suspended for texting a congressman a question about gun control very shortly after Wednesday’s attack. Publisher Peter Schorsch said the timing was inappropriate.

▶ Read more about Dowd’s firing

The once bustling halls and classrooms of Utah Valley University sat silent Thursday, save for some university staff and law enforcement guarding police tape in the hot sun.

Television and newspaper reporters were set up for press conferences in the building just off the shooting site, but police officers guarded most views of the amphitheater, shaped like baseball’s home plate, where Kirk had been speaking and taking questions from an audience of thousands the day before.

The agency released two photos of a ‘person of interest’ in connection with the shooting of Charlie Kirk as investigators appeal to the public for information. The photos show a person wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long sleeve black shirt.

Law enforcement recovered a Mauser .30 caliber bolt-action rifle hidden in a towel in a wooded area near the university campus along what they suspect to be the shooter’s path as they fled the scene, according to information circulated among law enforcement and shared with The Associated Press.

In addition to the spent cartridge recovered in the chamber, three other rounds were loaded in the magazine. The weapon and ammunition are now being forensically analyzed by law enforcement at a federal lab for clues that could help identify the shooter or their motive.

Some attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms full of students, where the periodic table adorned the wall and formulas were written in blue on the whiteboard. They pulled tables from the center of the room to barricade the door, stacking them atop each other. Others were turned on their side in a corner for a last ditch defense.

Desperate, someone grabbed an electric pencil sharpener and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle, then tied the sharpener to a chair leg.

Thursday morning, the classrooms were quiet and in disarray. Backpacks and notebooks were left on the desks, some scribbled with notes on electromotive force in green pen and pink highlighter.

The president said he plans to speak with Kirk’s family on Thursday afternoon, and Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Utah Thursday to meet with Kirk’s family in person.

“They have a virtual manhunt out there. So we’ll see what happens,” Trump said in a brief exchange with reporters shortly after attending the a 9/11 memorial ceremony at the Pentagon. “We hope we get ’em.”

The former Wisconsin governor, now president of the foundation, said his group will continue to hold events on college campuses to attract young people to the Republican Party. But they cancelled a Thursday night event in Santa Barbara featuring conservative commentator Ben Shapiro out of respect for Kirk and his family, Walker said.

“We will review our security measures to ensure the safety of our students, speakers, and staff,” Walker said in a statement on the group’s website. “This will likely mean that we will change venues and security measures for many of our events. But we will not stop. Doing so would mean that the evil assassin who did this wins. He must not win. The best way to honor Charlie’s life is to continue his work.”

The Florida Republican honored Kirk and called for nonviolent political participation as he marked 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at an event in Palm Harbor on Thursday.

“The viability of a republic really depends on our ability to fight those battles in the proper arena, leading into voting, leading into debate,” DeSantis said. “It is certainly not that you kill somebody in order to silence them.”

Students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton plan to gather Thursday evening to honor Kirk, holding a memorial service and prayer vigil at the student union on the Palm Beach County campus. “May he rest in Peace,” the FAU Turning Point USA chapter posted on its Instagram account. “Security will be present.”

The Republican said the death of his friend “hits particularly hard.” Lee said he talked with his fellow conservative “very regularly, sometimes several times a day.”

Their last text exchange was a short time before Kirk’s death, Lee said at a hearing Thursday of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Lee is the panel’s chairman.

Lee said the shooting also “hits home particularly heavy with me” because Utah Valley University is just a few miles from where he grew up and near where he now lives. He’s attended events there since he was a teenager.

“And this is a safe place. Not the kind of place where you expect something like this to happen. It’s truly tragic.”

Utah is one of 14 states that allow some level of concealed carry of firearms on public college and university campuses. The other 13 include Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The remaining 36 states allow colleges and universities to keep concealed firearms off campus, according to the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

In May, after action by the Utah legislature, a law took affect that allows anyone at least 18 years old with a valid Utah concealed weapon permit to carry a weapon on campus, including in an “open” fashion. Prior to the passage and the signing of H.B. 128, the firearm had to have been concealed.

The State Department is warning foreign visa applicants and holders that they could be denied a U.S. visa or deported if they praise or make light of Kirk’s assassination.

In an unusual post to X, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said he’s personally disgusted by some posts he’s seen, and that consular officials have been directed “to undertake appropriate action.”

“In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Landau said. He asked social media users to copy him on any posts they see that could be relevant.

Earlier this year, Landau announced that he had revoked visas for British punk-rap performer Bob Vylan and his crew after they led crowds in chanting “death” to the Israeli military.

The Senate Democratic leader called for the condemnation of political violence following Kirk’s “heinous murder.”

He also asked on the Senate floor for prayers for Kirk’s family.

“There should be no finger pointing because this is an attack on our democracy itself,” Schumer said.

Saying the attack on Kirk was “heinous, cowardly and would make everyone sick to their stomachs,” Schumer also decried the 2017 shooting that wounded current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and “the politically motivated murders” of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband this year.

Schumer also mentioned a shooting at a suburban Denver high school on Wednesday, in which two students were reportedly injured.

Investigators are confident they will find the shooter, said Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason.

They now have images of a suspect and were analyzing a palm print and a shoe impression found near the scene, he said.

Authorities aren’t planning to release images of the suspect unless they need the public’s help, Mason said.

Two other people initially detained turned out to be uninvolved and were released. Unfortunately, they’ve been getting death threats, Mason said: “They don’t deserve that.”

Thursday morning, the canopy tent Kirk was shot under stood disheveled in the morning light, still stamped with the words “PROVE ME WRONG,” a slogan commonly used at Kirk’s events.

Beyond it, the amphitheater seats were strewn with bags and belongings left in the attendees’ mad rush to escape.

Investigators picked through the scene, snapping photos and carrying boxes as they ducked back and forth under crime tape.

A batch of 911 traffic released Thursday from the Utah County Department of Public Safety via Broadcastify includes callers describing seeing a person on campus wearing “jeans, black shirt, black mask” and carrying a “long rifle.”

Another caller mentions a black vest.

During a news conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials said they had obtained video footage of a suspected shooter and had recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle from the wooded area where the suspect fled.

Authorities also said the shooter “appeared to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the campus.

The Pentagon chief, who spoke before Trump at Thursday’s Pentagon ceremony, remembered the conservative activist as an “American patriot.”

“Charlie, we love you,” Hegseth said. “Know that you have heard the Lord’s words. Well done, good and faithful servant. Full heart, clear eyes, like those on 9/11, you will never be forgotten.”

At the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said “all Americans should come together and feel and mourn what happened.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said this was a moment for Americans to unite “not as Democrats or Republicans, as Blacks or Whites or Latinos or Asians but as Americans. We need to come together as Americans.”

The leaders spoke to reporters after a bicameral Democratic legislative meeting.

The Pentagon’s 9/11 observance ceremony, which has traditionally been held near the building’s memorial outside its walls, was moved into the internal courtyard late Wednesday night.

Defense officials acknowledged the move at the event featuring Trump, but deferred questions to the White House.

It came hours after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an outdoor event at a Utah university. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During remarks at the Pentagon, Trump said he would posthumously award Kirk with the honor at a later date.

The United States’ highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by presidents to people who have made significant contributions in a variety of areas, including culture and public service.

In his first term, Trump bestowed the honor to a number of people, including conservative firebrand commentator Rush Limbaugh.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that security is “a big concern” for members of Congress and is under “a very thorough review.”

But Johnson told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that he had seen security estimates into the billions of dollars for all 435 House members, which he said is “not a possibility.”

He did mention a pilot program through which members can be reimbursed for hiring private security when they’re on the road or in their districts.

“Somebody who’s arguing the other side of an issue is not your enemy, they’re your fellow American,” Johnson said, in a call for civility. “We’re all made in God’s image and so we need to see one another that way and not as enemies.”

The person who fatally shot Kirk is believed to have targeted him at an event on a Utah college campus, said Robert Bohls, the FBI Special Agent in Charge at the Salt Lake City field office.

The shooter is still on the run, and it isn’t clear how far the suspect may have gotten, but the nearby woods have been secured, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials said the suspect they are seeking “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the college campus.

Officials asked the public to share any video and images they may have to help identify the person. Authorities said they have video footage of the suspected shooter but did not confirm that includes images of the person’s face.

A high powered bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area where the shooter fled, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls said.

Authorities say suspected Kirk shooter arrived on campus just before noon.

Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said authorities tracked the suspected shooter’s movements after he jumped from a building, moved through stairwells and ultimately fled from campus into a neighborhood.

“We do have good video of this individual,” Mason said.

The 31-year-old activist personified the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of Trump.

An unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about gender, race and politics, Kirk launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread.

Federal, state and local authorities are still searching for an unidentified shooter and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.” Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said. Authorities did not immediately identify a motive.

The Utah Department of Public Safety says its commissioner, as well as the FBI special agent in charge, will speak to reporters at 9 a.m. ET on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem. The news conference will be streamed on the department’s Instagram page.

In a video message from the Oval Office late Wednesday, Trump called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” and condemned the “demonizing” of political opponents in the U.S., even as he claimed the rhetoric of the “radical left” was “directly responsible” for the assassination of Kirk. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation.

The assassination has drawn bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, are set to visit with Kirk’s family on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

According to a person familiar with Vance’s plans, but not authorized to speak about them publicly, the Vances will visit Utah instead of New York, which had been their planned destination for an outdoor ceremony to commemorate Sept. 11.