INTERVIEWS: Eyewitnesses recount assassination of Charlie Kirk

And Ryan, the reason why we're talking today is because you were actually at Utah Valley University. When this happened, you were there in the crowd. And that's why we're talking. I want you to give me, if you can, recount what happened, what were you doing, you know, when this all went down?

Yeah. So I wanted to just start out with, I, I'm not a university of Utah, a UVU student. I heard from some friends that Charlie Kirk was going to be coming to town. I've always been a fan of Charlie. I have some questions for Charlie. I don't align with him 100 percent, but I thought this was a great opportunity to go down to the campus,

which is really close by, and ask him a couple of questions. As I'm, once I'm getting on campus, I had the mindset of, okay, this is a pretty big college. This is gonna be a pretty large event. I left my firearm in my car

thinking that there would be security checkpoints, there would be metal detectors. And I just didn't wanna have the hassle of in the event that there is a metal detector that I would just have to go back to my car, be late to the event. So I'm approaching the school, a bunch of students, I didn't really see any signs of where to go, so I was just looking on Google Maps to see where that pavilion area was, or courtyard area was.

And as I'm just getting closer and closer, I hear other students talking about the event. I'm not seeing really any security. I was trying to pay attention to it. As we understand, there were, I believe, eight security detail personnel with Charlie, and then six that were campus, but I didn't see anybody. And so, when I first got into the courtyard, and there's just a big crowd of students, there were some red flags that popped up for me. I was like okay so I'm now this close to this large group of people, I see students with backpacks, there was no bag check, there was no metal detectors, and I was immediately concerned.

But I was like what the heck, you know, this is Utah, this is UVU, what's gonna, what's really gonna happen? But I was a little bit more cautious. I realized that there's a super packed, tight-knit crowd. If something were to escalate, this could be a really dangerous situation for everybody. And as I'm getting towards the crowd, I'm just looking on the roofs as well, just briefly.

I'm just glancing around and I don't see any security personnel up there either. So I was also concerned about that as well. I was a little further towards the back in the very beginning when Charlie first started and I had my questions. So I decided to start wedging my way through the crowd.

Um, we had people on the right that were heckling the crowd and there's some dialogue back and forth. The first speaker, I was about 50 feet away at this point. The first speaker had finished up speaking with Charlie. Second speaker gets up, starts asking questions just off the cuff about trans shooters and Charlie's responding.

I think it's no more than 20 seconds and I'm listening but I'm focused on how I can navigate my way through the crowd and I hear a shot ring out and it was weird the way the sound reflected off the building and off of everybody that was there. I guess I haven't been downrange from a shot before, but it sounded, it didn't sound like it was a firearm, which was really weird. But from my perspective, again, I've never been downrange from a discharged discharged firearm so that gives me a new perspective as well. At that point people in front of me they duck down and they start screaming. I briefly see Charlie's head kind of goes to the side and then I got pushed back by the crowd and everybody

starts running back. So I stay out of everybody's way. I pull out my phone and start recording. I try to get down to where Charlie was speaking and there's still a few people that are hanging around. I wasn't really focused on what they were doing but I was trying to just get video and I saw I saw a little bit of blood. Again I wasn't hyperly focused. It was very quick, it was very fast-paced. Being in a tragic and traumatic, I

guess, event like this, it's very curious just to look back and reflect and try to remember what I saw in that moment because so much was happening. And by the time I had gone down there, the police had escorted away the guy who claimed he did it. Obviously, we know it wasn't him and we know it was Tyler,, well we assume it was Tyler Robinson based on the news that's coming out today. They still have to do their investigation right so we can't jump to conclusions yet. But then Charlie was also gone. I mean they took Charlie away pretty quickly from the footage that we saw.

From that point people are just devastated, people are crying. I mean I guess I kind of jumped through the details a little too quickly, but as everybody is running away, they're screaming, people are crying, people can't believe what just happened, people are praying that Charlie's okay. I went up to the tent where they were handing out information. It was just higher up in the courtyard and there were a bunch of Turning Point USA, I think, members that were there that were helping put on the

event and we all said a prayer together and it was a come-together type of a moment and we still saw the the frustrating thing for me is after this occurred and I went inside the building I overheard people talking about it. Some people were excited, some people were glad that this happened. I saw people smiling and as we've seen on social media we've seen a lot of people cheering this on and celebrating a political assassination.

So you know I want to go back through your story and break down some of these things that you talked about. So first of all, you were on your way up to talk to Charlie Kirk to ask him some questions. How close were you when you heard the gunshot?

I want to say I was 50 feet. I could have maybe been a little further away. I hadn't quite gotten to the line where people had asked, lined up to ask questions. I was close enough to be able to see his head go to the side and then it was just, it's really weird in a traumatic and a situation like that to reflect back and be like, okay, what did I really see? I've seen so much footage come out, I've reviewed my footage, but in that moment, what was it that I experienced?

And it's kind of interesting to try to put the pieces together.

Absolutely, especially because, like you said, there's been so much footage that you've been going through, and it's like, what is my memory and what did I actually, you know, what did I actually see versus what am I seeing on like online from the other video? You know, now break down to me once, once you see, once you hear the gunshot, you see Charlie's head go like this, what happened next? You know, did you get down? What happened next

for you? I was, I was in shock. I think I cr crouched I think I crouched down for just a brief moment before everybody started pushing pushing back and trying to get out of there and everybody was so tightly packed that it was a stampede if somebody were to fall and trip which some of us stumbled and on top of one another but we were able to get up and not get trampled by everybody else. My mind was just in disbelief. I couldn't believe what just occurred.

And then from my understanding, you stuck around for a second. Can you kind of speak

to that?

Yeah, so I stuck around for a moment. I wanted to record. I stuck around because I didn't hear any additional shots. I was worried at first when I heard that gunshot. I thought I was going to hear more. I thought it wasn't gonna just be a targeted assassination against Charlie, but I thought it was gonna be targeted towards his supporters and towards everybody in the crowd as well. Once I I think 30 seconds might have gone by by the time I started to record Maybe a little bit longer. I honestly don't know I'd have to go back and look at timestamps of everything that occurred. But I at that point realized that it was targeted towards Charlie Kirk instead of

everybody else. And that's why I stuck around and started to record. You know, when did you realize that Charlie Kirk had actually died? You know, I'm not asking about, you know, when it went, when we heard it announced, but when did you know that Charlie Kirk had died?

I knew Charlie Kirk died when I was brought in for questioning with a group of individuals who stuck around. And I was in a little, you could call it a conference room or a break room area. I was with some other guys who were also very close and they had footage of up close. It's the video that's circulated around that's very clear. That was the first time I saw that footage and once I got hold of that video and was

able to watch it a couple times and really zoom in really look I I knew without a doubt with where he was hit I was like there's no way you can survive that like and even now post that situation I've seen videos of combat medics who have spoken and they're like look we're combat medics trying to treat the most serious of injuries but even if in the field if if you're one of my guys and you get hit like that, I can't save you.

There's no way of saving you. So it was pretty traumatic to see that footage. It was one thing to be there and be like, wow, yeah, Charlie just got shot, but we don't know the serious of this, to seeing that footage and knowing just without a doubt,

unfortunately, that you knew he succumbed to his

injuries. It kind of brings up my next question of just like, how are you doing? I, you know, how are you doing after that? This is obviously a traumatic event. So how are you, how are you doing?

Um, I'm doing a lot better today. The past two days were pretty rough, I want to say. It was shock. It was just purely shock. It was very devastating and sad to see everybody else's grief as well online. To talk to friends who also were there, to talk to family members who also loved Charlie. He was a voice for free speech, and that was very important. There's a lot of anger as well that comes from this, seeing all the pushback online.

I've seen posts online with more than a million likes that are saying, well, Charlie kind of got what he deserved. He lived by the sword and he died by the sword, and he defended the Second Amendment, so if this is what happens, then it's kind of his fault, is what these posts were alluding to. Then to dive into the comments, and to see people celebrating, to see the memes that people are generating. We've seen shirts now showing Charlie Kirk getting shot in the neck and those are selling.

And it's, I'll talk more on this later, but yeah, those are my feelings as of late. And today's a much better day than the past 48 hours.

I did not know about the shirt selling online with that. That's really horrible to see as well. I do wanna ask who Charlie Kirk was to you. You know, you mentioned that he, that you didn't agree with him on everything, but you had, but there was, and tell me if I'm wrong, you did agree with him on some things, and was he, do you think he was a leader in the Republican Party, and was he someone that you looked up to? Yeah, both of those I want to touch

on. I became aware of Charlie in 2016, or more so 2015, when Trump came down the escalator. Charlie Kirk was an advocate for free speech, for freedom, for Christianity, and he really shaped my journey through politics, my understanding of politics, he helped shape some of my beliefs, and I've always looked up to Charlie even on the topics that I disagree with him on, I've always looked up to him, and it's because he's willing to have a conversation with those that disagree with him. I haven't really ever seen him not

being willing to have a discussion or to talk with somebody or about somebody regarding a specific topic and he definitely led the conservative movement. He's led the conservative movement in the past, I believe it's 13 years of what he's been doing. And it's, it's amazing to see that he started in his garage and how Turning Point USA became a national and even international movement. We see Turning Point USA UK, I've seen posts from individuals speaking in Germany about how Charlie Kirk made an impact there.

It's amazing to see the massive movement, the conservative movement that Charlie was at the, he was the spear, he was the tip of the spear on that.

And I do want to talk about the reason why we are talking. Utah is my home state and obviously this is your home state as mean, this is historic, this is something that no one will forget. How does it feel to have this happen in our home state?

It's a wake-up call for sure. I've always been of the mindset it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and this was a matter of when, and I was in a situation where I never wanted to be in this, and I never really and I was in a situation where I, you know, I never wanted to be in this and I never really thought I'd see it but I also was of the opinion that I wouldn't be surprised if I ever am in the

situation but I witnessed a political assassination and I've and I've never thought that I truly would. I feared that I would but I never truly believed that that would be something that I would that I would, but I never truly believed that that would be something that I would see and I would witness, and I think this shakes up the community here in Utah.

Yeah, it's definitely shaking. Is there anything else that you think we should touch on when it

comes to this? Any questions I missed? Anything else that you think is important? Um, if we were to jump to conclusions, and this Tyler Robinson is the perpetrator, he is the assassin, and he's a lone wolf, and he acted based on his beliefs of Charlie, social media and the media generally speaking that leans left how they've twisted the narrative how they've framed Charlie as a misogynist as a bigot as a racist as a homophobe as this demonic individual and we have to look at two scenarios we have to look at let's take the summer of love in 2020 how it's the it's the party of acceptance and tolerance and love who burns down cities and kills individuals in these riots and all this violence and all this looting that occurs.

And that's the party of acceptance, of tolerance, of love, of peace, and that's how the media has portrayed it. And then you look at Charlie Kirk and the Turning Point USA Foundation and you see how the media framed Charlie Kirk and as I just previously explained, a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a Nazi. That was cycled through the media countless times. And then you see his supporters and what have we done? We've had candlelit vigils, We've come together

We've shed tears with one another we've made posts about how much we admire Charlie and how much he loved his country he loved his family and how much he loved God and we are the party of of the Nazis is how we're portrayed in the media and so What I believe we need to do as individuals who stand up for what is true and for what is right, I think seeing this is not going against Democrats, this is not going against leftists, and this is not a left and

right type of issue. This is a good and evil issue, and those that stand for truth and righteousness we need to we need to find these individuals who who have no more grace in their hearts who who celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk and who want to see all of us in that same situation because of our beliefs and because of our belief in free speech we need to find all these individuals and we need to eradicate them from our society through our righteousness. We need to snuff out

their opinions and their ideas by everybody else rising up and being vocal about what we truly believe in.

Thanks Ryan. So and what you're saying by that is you're saying that regardless and tell me if I'm wrong I just want to make sure for writing purposes you're saying by that is you're saying that regardless, and tell me if I'm wrong, I just want to make sure for writing purposes, you're saying regardless of people's beliefs, you're saying that there is a right and wrong on how we treat each other, how we dehumanize those type of things, and those things should not be done. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, that's correct. I think that if anybody is calling for violence, this is the time to not be violent. We can never result to violence in the political atmosphere because that's when the degradation of our society occurs. And it's a path that we can't go down.

All right, and then what's your relation to the event? I went to UVU for my undergrad. I attended there for two years and heard about the Charlie Kirk event through some buddies and we went there during our lunch break for school and that's how I

ended up there. So your relation to the event is you were actually there at the event?

Yes I was.

Okay so you know let's get right into it. Jared, obviously we've been friends a long time and so when I saw you were there it's kind of a scary moment. Can you kind of explain to me what you saw? Walk me through the whole situation, why you went there in the first place. If you can tell

the story and then we can go from there. Like I said, a couple of my buddies, we talked about going. We showed up there about an hour early and so we were able to get a really good spot. I actually went to Google Maps to see kind of a better estimate of how close I was to where his booth was. And we're anywhere from 20 to 30 feet away. And we camped out there for about an hour. And right at 12, he came out. First question was about religion. It got the crowd a little bit heated. Eventually, the crowd kind of booed the first person away and then

after that the next question was about transgenders and mass shootings. And not even a couple minutes into that question the unthinkable happened and we all heard a gunshot and everyone just dropped to the ground. I was looking right at Charlie when the gun went off so I saw a horrific amount of blood come out of his neck which is a sight that I can't unsee and I don't think I will ever unsee. Me and my friends were with jumped under these concrete pads that served as the steps kind of the amphitheater. We we had

hit under there for about a minute making sure there weren't any other shots and that you know we could we could make a run for it. This part for me was one of the most traumatic was watching make a run for it. This part for me was one of the most traumatic, was watching everyone desperately run for their lives. I can't get out of my head the screaming, people falling over. We ran out in the direction where Charlie was. So we ran right past where his boot tent was set up. They had these metal portable gates set up that blocked everything off. And people were just

going through this tiny little section that was right next to the fountain. That's there at the University. I saw several people fall in and they were just running through the water to try to get to safety. Another person helped move these gates so that more people could get out. And then from there, we just ran to safety.

But in that couple minutes of fleeing, the desperation, the screams, it was truly horrifying and terrifying to hear how desperate those people were to get away.

Okay, so you're saying that, and tell me when this kind of happened. What were you talking about there?

Yeah, maybe 20 seconds after the shot was fired, everyone was hunkered down. A gentleman five, maybe 10 feet in front of me stood up, put his fist in the air, started chanting USA, USA, USA. And I just was staring at him trying to understand like, is he a threat? Is he trying to like mimic Donald Trump when he got up and started shaking his fist? I thought about it too much since then

and I can't tell you what his purpose was, what he was what he was trying to do, what message he was trying to send. I've seen it since then several times and on each post in social media people are saying negative things about him, that he was in some way either involved in the shooting or that he was glad it happened and he was cheering for the shooter. Because it sees him look away from Charlie Kirk, where the shot came from, and chant USA.

It was really weird. So I really don't know what happened when he started chanting that.

What were you feeling when he was chanting that?

At first, my very first thought was that he was trying to mimic Donald Trump. But then he kept doing it and how everyone else was on the ground. I was like, am I in danger? Is this guy part of the attack or whatever? So that was a little, you know, another scary thing right then.

Now I want to kind of break down each piece of your story that you just shared. First of all, starting with, obviously, he was in the middle of a question about shootings. And then that's when the shots ring out. You know, did you immediately know that it was a gunshot? You know, what was kind of the thoughts going through your mind when you heard the gunshot?

Yeah, what was the thoughts going through your mind when you heard the gunshot ring out?

Yeah, once I heard it, I knew immediately what it was. Growing up, being around guns, I could hear that it came from behind and obviously with me staring straight at him I could see where he got hit and knowing how fatal that shot was. You know it didn't set in immediately just because we all dropped down together and we kind of all just looked at each other like, did that just happen? Like is this real?

So it took a couple seconds for us to kind of understand what was going on.

When did you know that he had died?

Probably anywhere from five to ten seconds after. Oh, when he died? I didn't hear that he died until it had to have been 4 o'clock that day, if I remember right.

I guess I should rephrase the question. When did you know he had died? You know what I mean?

When did you know he had died?

So I saw the shot. I could see it hit right here. It's the common carotid artery with my anatomy understanding. Knowing how loud that rifle shot was and where it shot and how his body reacted to the shot, after talking to my friends on our drive from the school, we

both we all came to the same conclusion that there is a very slim chance that he

was going to make it. And so you know after you hear those shots you you know you know that he has been shot you see him you go limp, or how you described it. You said you saw it, you said it was pretty horrific. Any description you can give, obviously, I don't wanna go too crazy, but any description you can give on what you saw

when the bullet hit him.

When the bullet hit, hit right here on the left side of his neck, and there was a splash of blood that came out. When I explained earlier there there was like five to ten seconds where I didn't know what happened. Part of me thought that it was some kind of fake skit blood squirt because it looked like an unrealistic amount of blood. And

with that being my first time seeing anything even remotely like this, it took me a second to understand what truly happened.

And then, you hear the gunshots, everyone gets down. What were you thinking as you were hiding underneath, you're on the side of like a cement stair. What were you thinking when you were hiding underneath, you're on the side of like a cement stair. What were you thinking when you were hiding on the side of that cement stair?

I pushed myself up as close as possible. And the only thing I was thinking of is, are we gonna hear more shots and how am I gonna get out of here alive? I remember thinking even before the rally happened, like how dangerous some of these events are and

what's gonna happen if someone tries to do the unthinkable. So I had kind of already thought of an escape plan when it really happened. I definitely didn't do anything that I thought I was going to do.

You panic, you protect yourself and those around you, and then you try your best to get yourself and as many others around you out as safe as possible. I want to ask, because you were with

some friends, how were you and your friends feeling during that time?

Oh, it was terrible. We ran from there to our cars, which is probably a quarter of a mile in the heat in our navy blue scrubs. So we were all sweating. And once we got in the car and started driving away, we all noticed we were shaking.

Our hands were shaking, our whole bodies were shaken, and obviously we were in shock. And so we tried to get as many high sugar foods into our body as possible to kind of combat that crash from going to a severe amount of adrenaline to kind of having that wear off.

But it took a lot. It happened at around 1220. We drove straight up to our school where we had a clinical assessment. From 1220 till about 1130-ish, I felt sick to my stomach. I thought at any moment I could throw up.

It wasn't until we started our clinical assessment where I really focused on something else instead of thinking about the terrible strategy that that terrible feeling finally went away.

So I feel like we've talked, you know, thanks for talking about all of the things you know that you had witnessed. I know it's probably kind of hard to talk about with that. But I also want to talk about Charlie Kirk. I mean, there's a reason why you went to that event. Tell me about who he is, who he is to you, and why you wanted to go see him that day.

I really look up to Charlie. Like most people, I don't agree with everything he says, but I respect his boldness and kind of his main catchphrase, which is try to prove me wrong, where he's opening up to debate. I'm not the best debater, but I like debate. I like how it strikes up conversation.

It allows us to see different situations from a new perspective. That was one thing I always looked up to him. He always, he let anyone take the mic and ask him a question. a new perspective. That's one thing I always looked up to him. He let anyone take the mic and ask him a question. I believe he played a big role in this recent election,

not turning people to one side, to the right or the left, but more that he got a lot of college-aged kids, the younger generation, involved in politics, talking about politics and thinking about their future, which that's his legacy. And that's what he's gonna leave behind.

And his murder left him a martyr and his message will never be forgotten.

Yeah, with that, you're kind of thinking about Charlie Kirk, who he was. Do you think that, do you think he was a leader in the Republican Party?

Yes, yes. He did a lot of, I believe, like I previously said, he did a lot of work in shaping my generation, the younger college generation. Obviously, he turned a lot of people away from him. But if you ask me, I believe he pushed the people in the middle more to the right, and the people on the left more to the left, which I've had several friends which I partly

which said that he played a big role in this last election.

And last question for you, I mean, you kind of mentioned this before our interview, but I mean, a big thing on this, we hear about shootings, we hear about things happening all the time, but it's not very often that it happens in our home, in our home state. Can you kind of speak to why this is so difficult

being in our home, at our... why this is so difficult being in... how do I say this? Can

you speak to how this is difficult with this event happening inside our home state? Yeah, Utah is very well known for being a very safe state. Low crime rate. Growing up in a place where you don't see true crime, there's little to no organized crime in the state. We're not exposed to this kind of thing. A lot of people call Utah or the small communities within Utah

their bubble. And no one ever sees anything bad happen in our bubble. And for something to happen within our bubble, it's traumatizing. And it's sad. I have friends who are attending UVU right now,

and they're scared to go back to UVU because this has happened. And they're scared it's going to happen again when the history shows that Utah is extremely safe. We have little to no gun violence. So it definitely changes the way people think and feel about their home, which is Utah.

Well said. Is there anything else I should have asked or anything else that you think we should mention? I always just ask at the end.

Yeah. One thing I was thinking of before I came on this interview, and I want to hear your take on it, is a lot of people justifying this, his murder. And I don't know if you'd call it justifying or celebration or kind of saying he got what was coming to him. No matter how or

what way they put it, I can't get out of my mind how traumatic this was for everyone there. I saw children there and people of all ages there. And they're going to have trauma for the rest of their lives experiencing this. For many people, this scar won't heal.

And for people to celebrate this makes me sick. No matter what way you thought of Charlie, him and his family will never, they'll never be the same after today. And every person in attendance and many people who watch the video will never be the same after seeing something like that. Especially something will never be the same after seeing something like that. Especially something

happening, you know, in our backyard in a place that we thought was safe.