Charlie Kirk assassinated in Utah; shooter remains at large

First edition.

It is the 11th of September, folks, and it's great to have your company on this Thursday morning. It's just gone seven o'clock in Sydney, but we begin with breaking news from the US this hour, and Donald Trump has just confirmed

that conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot in Utah. Charlie Kirk is a strong supporter of the MAGA movement and very popular. He was speaking at a large gathering at Utah Valley University before a single shot was fired. The 31-year-old was rushed to hospital where for a while he was in a critical condition

until that confirmation came. Now according to CNN, the shooter was roughly 200 yards away, that's about 180 meters and is still at large, despite someone being picked up but then was let go by police. As I mentioned, President Trump has confirmed Charlie Kirk's death on social media, writing a moment ago, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better

than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erica and family Charlie we love you the president said earlier and this is before confirmation of Charlie Kirk's death arrived but earlier the vice president JD Vance posted on X a prayer for Charlie Kirk a genuinely good guy and a young father FBI director Kash Patel says we are closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting

involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected. Agents will be on the scene quickly, and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation

as we take live pictures now from Utah of that active investigation. It's a big one. We can call it an assassination now. And it's a major shock, particularly in the American political system.

Now this is how our colleagues at Fox News in the US broke the news of Kirk's passing a moment ago.

Greg.

After many years.

Yeah. Greg, I'm sorry to interrupt you. It is my great dishonor to be the person that says this and breaks this to you on television, but President Donald Trump is announcing on Truth Social, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better

than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and his family. Charlie, we love you. Charlie Kirk, according to the President of the United States, is dead. I don't really know where you go from here.

I don't know where we go from here in a news program, and I don't know where we go from here in America. I don't know what's left for us as a country to discuss when even a discussion and a debate over the issues results in violence that leads to the death of a good man in this country.

Stunned silence, wasn't it? Well thousands of students were in attendance to what was the first stop of a nationwide tour. Students have recounted the shooting moments after it happened.

It was just a lot of love and joy and kindness, you know? And then the next person came up and it almost felt like a cue to me because they talked about transgender gun violence and then as the guy said, shooting or shooters or something like that, you just hear the gunshot and... I'm sorry.

You just see his neck just open up and there just like so much blood that just came out. It was horrible and all I felt was like everybody bringing me down to the ground and I was... Sorry.

Take your time. Take your time. No pressure.

I just... all I hear is screaming and I see people running and I'm like, it's not safe to run, it's not safe to get up, it's not. And all I'm saying is, please God, please God, please God, because I don't want to die, I don't want anybody else to die. I think I just saw a guy die, you know?

The second student to get up was talking about transgenderism and how gun violence has been very frequent with that community, and that is when it happened. Pretty ironic. Like right after, during, right on that topic. Yeah, that's when he got shot in the heart.

What did you all see? You're joining us. What did you see?

Well, I was about to enter the building. I heard what I thought was a gunshot and a hearing took cover. And then I saw the students running out and I saw her. She was panicking. I thought she's having a I grabbed her and her and I grabbed her and her and tunnel and then just broug