Posted on 09/11/25
| News Source: FOX45
Authorities are getting closer to being able to identify a person they believe killed political activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday and recovered the suspected firearm used in the shooting at Utah Valley University.
“We do have good video of this individual. We are not going to release that at this time,” Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said during a Thursday morning news conference. “We’re working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual."
FBI Salt Lake City then released photos on Thursday afternoon, asking for help identifying a person of interest in connection with the shooting. A reward of up to $100,000 is also being offered for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Kirk's death.Photos show a person wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long-sleeve black shirt.
Mason said the shooter appeared to be of "college age" and is believed to have blended in on the university campus.
Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, told reporters that agents have been working around the clock and found a " high-powered, bolt-action rifle” in the woods where the shooter fled that was possibly used in the shooting.
Details from an internal law enforcement bulletin and obtained by The Wall Street Journal said investigators found the ammunition inside the rifle was engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology.
It was reported that an older-model .30 caliber bolt-action rifle was found wrapped in a towel with a spent cartridge still in the chamber. Three unspent rounds were also in the magazine, with more writing on them.
Bohls added that footwear impressions, a palm print, and forearm imprints will also be analyzed by the FBI. Officials said they walked through the woods and secured it and the community is not at risk.
Mason said authorities were able to track the movements of the shooter, who arrived on campus at 11:52 a.m.