{"id":135522,"date":"2025-09-11T15:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/135522\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:36:08","slug":"fbi-says-high-powered-rifle-found-as-search-continues-for-charlie-kirks-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/135522\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI says high-powered rifle found as search continues for Charlie Kirk’s killer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI says a weapon it believes was used to kill popular American right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has been found, however the killer remains at large.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old conservative activist was shot while addressing a crowd<\/a> of about 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, south of Salt Lake City, just after midday on Wednesday, local time.<\/p>\n

FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls told the media the weapon believed to have been used in the shooting was a high-powered bolt action rifle.<\/p>\n

“[It] was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled,” he told a press conference on Thursday, local time, adding the FBI laboratory would be analysing the weapon.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University when he was shot. (The Salt Lake Tribune: Trent Nelson via Reuters)<\/p>\n

He said investigators also had images of the suspect, and were analysing “footwear … a palm print and forearm imprints”.<\/p>\n

Special Agent Bohls said the bureau was yet to determine a motive.<\/p>\n

He said the FBI had already received more than 130 tips, adding all leads were being “fully investigated”.<\/p>\n

Investigators are treating the attack as a “targeted event”, he said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t believe the community is at risk,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Students ran for safety after the shooting. (The Salt Lake Tribune: Trent Nelson via Reuters)<\/p>\n

Shooter ‘appears to be of college age’<\/p>\n

Beau Mason, the commissioner at the Utah Department of Public Safety, said the shooter “blended in” and “appears to be of college age”.<\/p>\n

He said investigators had tracked the movements of the suspect who arrived on campus at 11.52am before making his way up a stairwell to the shooting location.<\/p>\n

“[After the shooting] he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building and fled off of the campus into a neighbourhood,” he said.<\/p>\n

Figure seen on roof after Charlie Kirk shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

Verified videos taken at the scene of the shooting of high-profile right-wing activist Charlie Kirk show what appears to be a figure on the roof of a nearby building.<\/p>\n

Mr Mason said investigators had “good video footage” of the suspect, but would not release it at this time.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we are unsuccessful, we will reach out to you as the media, and we will push that publicly to help us identify them.”<\/p>\n

Police and federal agents mounted an intense manhunt on Thursday for the sniper who fired the single gunshot that killed Mr Kirk as he was fielding questions about gun violence.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Donald Trump says he will award Charlie Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Pentagon memorial service on Thursday to mark the September 11 terrorist attacks, US President Donald Trump announced he would award Mr Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n

He praised Mr Kirk as a “giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI says a weapon it believes was used to kill popular American right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92325,43,44,93429,4905,41,39,42,40,93430,47360,93428],"class_list":["post-135522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-right-wing-influencer","tag-shooting","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-university-campus","tag-us-president-donald-trump","tag-utah-valley-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}