US officials have issued an urgent appeal for help from the public as they continue to search for the shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, releasing new videos and photos from the scene of the attack in Utah.
More than 24 hours after Mr Kirk was shot while speaking in front of thousands of people at a Utah university, the state’s governor, appearing alongside FBI director Kash Patel and other officials, said, “We need as much help as we can possibly get.”
“We cannot do our job without the public’s help,” Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox said, adding that the FBI had received more than 7,000 leads and tips so far.
The newly released video showed a person wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long-sleeve black shirt running across a roof, climbing off the edge of the building and dropping to the ground. The suspect is believed to have fled into the local neighbourhood after firing the one shot and has not yet been identified.
The FBI continues to work alongside our law enforcement partners to seek justice in the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. We are releasing additional photos of a person of interest. Information about this developing investigation can be found… pic.twitter.com/woZacCxYgE
— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 12, 2025
Investigators said they had obtained clues, including a palm print, a shoe impression and a high-powered hunting rifle found in a wooded area along the path the shooter fled. But they were yet to name a suspect or cite a motive in the killing.
The Mauser .30-calibre, bolt-action rifle was found in a towel in the woods. A spent cartridge was recovered from the chamber, and three other rounds were loaded in the magazine, according to information circulated among law enforcement and described to the Associated Press. The weapon and ammunition were being analysed by law enforcement at a federal lab.
A news conference earlier today heard that the new video appearing to show the gunman dropping down from a roof, crossing a street and then moving into the wooded area was used by law enforcement to find the rifle.
The direct appeals for public support at the night-time news conference appeared to signal law enforcement’s continued struggles to identify the shooter and pinpoint the person’s whereabouts. Authorities took no questions, and Mr Patel did not speak at the news conference. The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person.
The death of Mr Kirk – a close ally of US president Donald Trump – has drawn renewed attention to the escalating threat of political violence in the United States which, in the last several years, has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation from political leaders.
Candles stand in front of a photo of US political activist Charlie Kirk during a vigil held near the Brandenburg Gate in front of the US embassy in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: EPA/Shutterstock 
A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial for Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Wednesday, outside the Turning Point USA headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photograph: Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times
An investigator with the Utah Department of Public Safety scours a residential backyard next to Utah Valley University the day after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in Orem, Utah. Photograph: Loren Elliott/The New York Times
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about the murder of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk as he leaves the White House for New York City in Washington, DC. Photograph: EPA
In appealing for information, Mr Cox said on Thursday, “there is a tremendous amount of disinformation” online.
“Our adversaries want violence,” Mr Cox said. “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world that are trying to instil disinformation and encourage violence. I would encourage you to ignore those, to turn off those streams.”
Mr Cox pledged to find the killer and pursue the death penalty.
Mr Kirk’s casket arrived in his home state of Arizona aboard Air Force Two, accompanied by vice-president JD Vance. Mr Vance’s wife, Usha, stepped off the plane with Kirk’s widow, Erika.
Mr Vance helped carry Mr Kirk’s casket with a group of uniformed service members as it was loaded on to the plane. Mr Kirk’s conservative youth organisation, Turning Point USA, was based in Phoenix.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organise and convene,” Mr Vance wrote on social media, referencing Mr Kirk’s role in getting Mr Trump elected last year. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”
[ Who was Charlie Kirk, the right-wing provocateur shot in Utah?Opens in new window ]
Mr Kirk was a provocateur and a divisive figure who is credited with helping bring young people, especially men, into the US president’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.
In a statement on Thursday, Turning Point USA wrote: “All of us have lost a leader, a mentor, and a friend. Above all, our hearts are with Erika and their two children. Charlie was the ideal husband and the perfect father. Above all else, we ask you to pray for the Kirks after the incomprehensible loss they have suffered.”
Mr Kirk’s killing drew bipartisan condemnation of the rise in political violence in the US.
Mr Trump, who said he would award the Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mr Kirk, spoke to Mr Kirk’s wife on Thursday.
He said authorities were making “big progress” towards tracking down the suspect and that in regard to a motive, he has an “indication … but we’ll let you know about that later”.
Just hours after Mr Kirk had been declared dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital on Wednesday, Mr Trump delivered a video message from the Oval Office, vowing to track down the suspect.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it,” Mr Trump said.
One day after his inflammatory address, blaming “the radical left” for Mr Kirk’s death, Mr Trump appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone, agreeing with a suggestion from a reporter that his supporters should not respond with violence.
The White House quickly posted the exchange on social media, perhaps hoping to tamp down anger that has already spilled into violence, with the beating of a critic of Mr Kirk in Boise, Idaho, during a vigil on Wednesday night.
Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who is retiring after this term, told NBC News that he wished Mr Trump would unite the country after the shooting, “but he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger”.
“I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota too, right?” Mr Bacon added, in reference to the murder of Minnesota’s former house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June by a gunman with a hitlist of 45 people, all Democrats.
– Guardian/Reuters/Associated Press