From The Center Square

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch

The weapon believed to have been used in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been recovered; however, a manhunt remains ongoing for the suspected shooter.

Authorities held a briefing Thursday morning indicating that investigators recovered a “high-powered bolt action rifle” in a wooded area near the shooting site. Investigators say the “suspect blended in well with a college institution,” believing the suspect to be college aged. They say they have “images of the suspect.”

Investigators also said they made progress overnight in tracking the movements of the suspect before and after the shooting.

“We were able to track the movements of the shooter; starting at 11:52 a.m. the subject arrived on campus, shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through the stairwells up to the roof, across the roof to a shooting location. After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building and fled off of the campus and into a neighborhood,” according to the commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, Beau Mason.

The suspected rifle used in the shooting is being sent to an FBI laboratory for analysis. In addition to the recovered weapon, investigators say they collected footwear impressions, a palm print and forearm imprints; however, they didn’t indicate where they were collected.

Ammunition found inside the rifle contained engraved messages of transgender and antifascist ideology, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Kirk was shot in the neck shortly before 12:30 p.m. MDT Wednesday during a campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. About 3,000 people were in attendance, and the shooting was captured by multiple spectators and posted to social media.

Two individuals were briefly detained and questioned in relation to the shooting, but were later released, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Videos circulating show a shadowy figure, appearing to be dressed in black clothing, who can be seen on a rooftop approximately 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking. The figure can be seen running shortly after the shooting.

The FBI, along with the Utah Department of Public Safety, is leading the investigation.

Stuart Kaplan on “Jesse Watters Primetime” discussing Kirks assassination [Screenshot/Fox News/”Jesse Watters Primetime”]

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Former FBI special agent Stuart Kaplan said Wednesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime” that the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk may have been a “professional hit.”

The 31-year-old TPUSA founder had been speaking with students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, when he was shot and killed. While discussing a potential suspect the FBI had interrogated but later released, Fox’s Jesse Watters asked Kaplan for his reaction to the attack.

“You know, Jesse, I think this assassination, different than the assassinated attempt [against President Donald Trump] back in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a very well-planned, very well-orchestrated plot that was put in motion days before. This individual had a plan of escape to elude detection of being out up on a rooftop and also being able to evade and elude law enforcement after that shot was taken,” Kaplan said.

“When you take a look at what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, [Thomas Matthew] Crooks came onto the venue, he left the venue, he came back, he was questioned. I mean, it was really an amateur scenario,” Kaplan added. “This assassination of Charlie Kirk, to me, is indicative of a professional hit, and I’m not so sure that we are going to quickly be able to apprehend this individual without some luck, hopefully.”

Kirk had regularly gone on college campuses to debate students on their political stances, with thousands in the Utah crowd eager to see the TPUSA founder. About 20 minutes after Kirk had been debating with a student, a shot rang out, hitting Kirk and ultimately killing him.

WATCH:

A university spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the shot came from a building about 200 yards away. Following the attack, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that a subject was captured and being interrogated, but the subject was later released.

Watters went on to ask Kaplan what he meant by “professional hit,” asking if he believes anybody with “any sort of basic training” could have carried out the attack.

“Well, when you take a look at the video and you take a look at the venue and the spectators and how close they are to Charlie Kirk, and then you have that kind of umbrella over him, that kind of tent, you have to know that this shooter had to be perched in a position with respect to being able to lay his sights perfectly, basically a headshot,” Kaplan said. “The shot that was taken was taken to immediately incapacitate Charlie Kirk. So this was not some amateur who just got up on a rooftop because it was what I consider spontaneous combustion. He got up this morning and decided he was going to do something crazy.”

“This seems the earmark of a professional that got up onto this rooftop well in advance of the venue being occupied by the spectators. He was clearly undetected,” Kaplan said. “There was no indication that anybody saw him up on this rooftop. Obviously, after that one single shot was taken, he was able to basically very quietly and systematically elude any further detection and escape. There’s been no indication that there’s a vehicle identified or any mode of how he actually escaped the venue. So to me, this is someone who had some experience, some level of sophistication to have mapped out exactly how this was going to go down.”

In Patel’s most recent post on X as of Wednesday evening, the FBI director said the “subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.” Patel added that the FBI’s investigation will continue and that it will further “release information in interest of transparency.”

Kirk is survived by his wife Erika and their two young children.