Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray held a press conference on Tuesday as he announced the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk will face seven counts and the state will seek the death penalty.
The alleged assassin is charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of tampering with a witness and one count of violent offense committed in the presence of a child.
It was approximately 15 minutes into the event, while Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings by transgender individuals, that Kirk was assassinated.
Gray said a Utah Valley University police officer who was watching the crowd from an elevated vantage point scanned the area for threats as soon as he heard the shot. He noted a roof area approximately 160 yards away from Kirk as the potential shooting position and rushed to look for evidence.
The officer noticed markings in the gravel rooftop consistent with a sniper having lain on the roof — impressions in the gravel potentially left by the elbows, knees and feet of a person in a prone shooting position.
Police also reviewed surveillance from the camera covering the roof. They discovered it recorded an individual dressed in dark clothing cross the railing from the public walkway and drop onto the roof at approximately 12:15 p.m. The individual moved out of the camera’s view for a short time, but was again captured running across the roof and then low-crawling to the area the Utah Valley University Officer recognized as where the suspected sniper had dropped into a prone shooting position. Shortly after the individual arose and ran across the roof to the northeast.
Following that discovery, an intensive review of Utah Valley University surveillance recordings showed the suspect enter campus from the north at 11:51 a.m. He was wearing a black shirt with an American flag, dark baseball cap and large sunglasses. The suspect walked with an unusual gait according to the court filing.
“This unusual gait continues until the suspect is seen crossing the railing of the open walkway and onto the roof, where he leaves the camera’s view,” the filing said.
A camera captured the suspect running across the roof to the suspected shooting position. The suspect was running across the roof carrying an item whose shape is consistent with a rifle. He is then seen climbing down from the roof, appearing to drop the item he was carrying as he hit the ground.
Investigators found a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel in the wooded area that the suspect entered. It contained one spent round and three unspent rounds.
According to the filing, the alleged assassin’s mother explained that over the last year or so he had become more political and started to lean more to the Left, becoming more “pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” She also stated that the alleged assassin began to date his roommate, a male who was transitioning genders.
The alleged assassin said that Kirk spreads hate.
The alleged assassin told his family that there is too much evil and the guy (Charlie Kirk) spreads too much hate when asked why he did it.
Gray also revealed a lengthy text exchange between the alleged assassin and his roommate. During the text exchange, the alleged assassin told his roommate to find a note he had left for him under the keyboard that said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”
The roommate responded, “What????????????? You’re joking, right????”
The alleged assassin said during the exchange he had been planning the assassination for “a bit over a week.”
Police executed a search warrant on the alleged assassin’s residence. Police discovered a shell casing with etchings like the etchings found on the shells in the rifle near Utah Valley University. Police also found several targets with bullet holes in the alleged assassin’s home.
The filing states that the alleged assassin “intentionally selected Charlie Kirk because of (the alleged assassin’s) belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression.”
