shooting

America’s already roiling debate around transgender rights sharply escalated in recent days after Charlie Kirk — one of the nation’s most prominent anti-transgender voices — was fatally shot by a suspect whose life and social circles have been meticulously scrutinized for any connection to the transgender community.

Taking over Kirk’s podcast Monday, top Trump administration officials suggested they are gearing up to avenge Kirk by waging war on left-leaning organizations broadly, despite law enforcement statements that the shooter is believed to have acted alone. Queer organizations took that as a direct threat.

Kirk railed against transgender rights in life, and just prior to being shot on a Utah college campus last week was answering a question about the alleged prevalence of transgender people among the nation’s mass shooters — an idea he had personally stoked, despite pushback from statistical researchers.

Those circumstances seemed to prime the resulting outrage among his conservative base to be hyper-focused on any transgender connection.

The connection was further stoked when the Wall Street Journal reported on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives report that suggested — seemingly erroneously — that etchings on bullet casings found with the rifle suspected as being used in the shooting included transgender “ideology.”

It was further inflamed when Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said that suspect Tyler Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner — who he said was “shocked” by the shooting and cooperating with authorities — is currently transitioning.

Leading conservative influencers, some with the ear of President Trump, have openly called for a retribution campaign against transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community more broadly. Laura Loomer called transgender people a “national security threat,” said their “movement needs to be classified as a terrorist organization IMMEDIATELY,” and said that Trump should make transitioning illegal.

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, meanwhile, have condemned such generalizations and attacks on the community and warned that such rhetoric only increases the likelihood of more political violence — particularly against transgender people and others who have been demonized for years, including by Kirk.

“The obsession with tying trans people to shootings is vile & dangerous,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), one of California’s leading LGBTQ+ voices, wrote on social media. “First they try to say the shooter might be trans & WSJ amplifies that lie. Once that fell apart, they pivot to ‘he lived with a trans person.’ Even if true, who cares? It’s McCarthyism & truly disgusting.”

Many political leaders have called for calm, and for people to wait for the investigation into the suspect’s motivations before jumping to conclusions or casting blame. Cox has said that Robinson’s political ideology, different from that of his conservative family, appeared to be “part of” what drove him to shoot Kirk, but that the exact motivations for the crime remained unclear.

“We’re all drawing lots of conclusions on how someone like this could be radicalized,” Cox said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Those are important questions for us to ask and important questions for us to answer.”

Searching for a connection

Officials were expected to release charging documents against Robinson on Tuesday that could contain more information about a motive. However, the debate has hardly waited.

Both the political right and left have searched for evidence connecting Robinson to their opposing political camp.

One of the first pieces of information to catch fire was the ATF reporting on the bullet etchings including transgender “ideology” — which turned out to be untrue, according to Cox’s later description of those etchings. That reporting immediately inspired condemnations of the entire transgender community.

“Seems like per capita the radical transgender movement has to be the most violent movement anywhere in the world,” the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. said in a Rumble livestream Thursday.

On Friday morning, President Trump said “vicious and horrible” people on the left were the only ones to blame for the political violence. “They want men in women’s sports, they want transgender for everyone,” he said on “Fox & Friends.”

Trump was asked Monday afternoon if he thought the suspect acted alone.

“I can tell you he didn’t work alone on the internet because it seems that he became radicalized on the internet,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “And he was radicalized on the left, he is a left. A lot of problems with the left and they get protected and they shouldn’t be protected.”

The ATF declined to comment on the leaked report. The Wall Street Journal published an editor’s note walking back its reporting, noting that Cox’s description of the etchings included no references to the transgender community.

The Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group, responded to the uproar by criticizing the Wall Street Journal for publishing unsubstantiated claims that fueled hateful rhetoric toward the transgender community.

“This reporting was reckless and irresponsible, and it led to a wave of threats against the trans community from right-wing influencers — and a resulting wave of terror for a community that is already living in fear,” the group said.

Spreading the narrative

The debate has heightened existing tensions around transgender rights, which Trump campaigned against and targeted with one of his first official acts — an executive order that said his administration would recognize only “two genders, male and female.”

He and his administration have since banned transgender people from military service, blocked the issuance of U.S. passports with the gender-neutral X marker, threatened medical providers of gender-affirming care for minors, and sued California for allowing transgender athletes to compete in youth sports.

In September, the Department of Justice also reportedly began weighing a rule that would restrict transgender individuals from owning firearms — a move that came after a shooter who identified as transgender killed two children and injured 18 others at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.

That shooting led prominent conservatives, including senior Trump administration officials, to link gender identity to violence. National security advisor Sebastian Gorka claimed that an “inordinately high” number of attacks have been linked to “individuals who are confused about their gender” — a trend he claimed stretched back to at least 2023, when a transgender suspect shot and killed three children and three adults at a Nashville Christian school.

After that shooting, Trump Jr. had said that “rather than talking about guns, we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender-affirming bull— on our kids,” and Vice President JD Vance, then a senator, had said that “giving in” to ideas on transgender identities was “dangerous.”

After it was reported that Robinson’s partner is transitioning, Matt Walsh, a right-wing political commentator, wrote on X that “trans militants” pose a “very serious” threat to the country. Billionaire Elon Musk agreed, saying it was a “massive problem.”

Many in the LGBTQ+ community have strenuously pushed back against such claims, noting research showing most shootings are committed by cisgender men.

The Violence Prevention Project at Hamline University has found that the majority of shootings where four or more people were wounded in public were by men, and less than 1% of such shootings in the last decade were by transgender people.

An analysis by PolitiFact found that data do not show claims that transgender people are more prone to violence, and that “trans people are more likely to be victims of violence than their cisgender peers.”

A legacy amplified

Kirk espoused a Christian nationalist worldview and opposed LGBTQ+ rights broadly, including same-sex marriage. He called transgender people “perverted,” the acknowledgment of transgender identities “one of the most destructive social contagions in human history,” and gender-affirming care for young people an “unimaginable evil.”

Just before he was shot at Utah Valley University, Kirk had said that “too many” transgender people were involved in shootings.

It was not the first time Kirk had addressed the issue.

Days after the 2023 shooting in Nashville, Kirk went after then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for unrelated comments denouncing a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in state houses and saying the transgender community was “under attack.”

“It is the first shooting ever that I’ve seen where the shooter and the murderers get more sympathy than the actual victims,” he said, appearing to blame all transgender people for the attack.

The idea that liberals generally or members of the LGBTQ+ community specifically should be held accountable for Kirk’s killing has gained momentum in the days since. Vance and Trump advisor Stephen Miller seemed to allude to reprisals against left-leaning groups on Kirk’s podcast Monday, with Miller saying federal agencies will be rooting out a “domestic terror movement” on the left in Kirk’s name.

LGBTQ+ advocates called such rhetoric alarming — and said they worry it will be used as a pretext for the administration to ramp up its assault on LGBTQ+ rights.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.  — After years of complaints from the right about “cancel culture” from the left, some conservatives are seeking to upend the lives and careers of those who they believe disparaged Charlie Kirk after his death. They’re going after companies, educators, news outlets, political rivals and others they judge as promoting hate speech.

Just days after the conservative activist’s death, a campaign by public officials and others on the right has led to the firing or other punishment of teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit and the expectation of more dismissals coming. A Florida reporter was suspended for a question posed to a Republican congressman.

This past weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s death.

“This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” Duffy said on the social media site X.

As elected officials and conservative influencers lionize Kirk as a warrior for free expression who championed provocative opinions, they’re also weaponizing the tactics they saw being used to malign their movement — the calls for firings, the ostracism, the pressure to watch what you say.

Such tactics raise a fundamental challenge for a nation that by many accounts appears to be dangerously splintered by politics and a sense of moral outrage that social media helps to fuel.

The aftermath of Kirk’s death has increasingly become a test of the public tolerance over political differences. Republicans are pushing not only to punish the alleged killer but those whose words they believe contributed to the death or dishonored it. At the same time, some liberals on social media have criticized those, such as actor Kristin Chenoweth, who expressed sympathy online over Kirk’s death.

“This pattern that we’ve seen for decades seems to be happening much more now and at this moment than it ever has before,” said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He dates the urge to persecute people for their private views on tragedies at least to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “If there was ever time to support the better angels of our nature, it’s now.”

Goldstein noted that it’s unpopular speech, such as people applauding Kirk’s shooting, that stands as the greatest test of acceptance of the 1st Amendment — especially when government officials get involved. “The only time you’re really supporting free speech is when it’s unpopular,” Goldstein said. “There’s no one out there trying to stop people from loving puppies and bunnies.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, has cautioned that the motive for the slaying has not been confirmed. He said the suspect in custody clearly identifies with the political left and had expressed dislike of Kirk before the shooting. But he and other authorities also say the suspect was not known to have been politically engaged.

Kirk was seen as an architect of President Trump’s 2024 election win, helping to expand the Republican outreach to younger voters. That means many conservatives see the remarks by liberals as fomenting violence rather than acts of political expression.

“I think President Trump sees this as an attack on his political movement,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC as he noted the two assassination attempts against Trump as well as Kirk’s killing. “This is unique and different. This is an attack on a movement by using violence. And that’s the way most Republicans see this.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running for governor, called on social media for the firings of an assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University and professors at Austin Peay State University and Cumberland University.

All three lost their jobs for comments deemed inappropriate for expressing a lack of sympathy, or even for expressing pleasure, in the shooting of Kirk. One said that Kirk “spoke his fate into existence,” an apparent reference to the activist’s comments that some view as having fueled America’s current environment of political fury.

Because conservatives previously said they felt “canceled” by liberals for their views, Trump on his first day back in office signed an executive order prohibiting everyone in the federal government from engaging in conduct that would “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”

In February at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance criticized the preceding Biden administration for encouraging “private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. He assailed European countries as censoring political speech.

“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” Vance said at the time.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has cracked down on immigrants and academics for their speech.

Goldstein noted that Trump’s State Department in the minutes after Kirk’s death warned it would revoke the visas of any foreigners who celebrated Kirk’s killing. “I can’t think of another moment where the United States has come out to warn people of their impending cancellation,” Goldstein said.

The glimmer of bipartisan agreement in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting was in a sense that social media was fueling the violence and misinformation in dangerous ways.

“I can’t emphasize enough the damage that social media and the internet is doing to all of us,” Cox, the Utah governor, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added: “The most powerful companies in the history of the world have figured out how to hack our brains [to] get us addicted to outrage.”

But many Republican lawmakers have also targeted traditional news media that criticized Trump for contributing to a toxic political climate for his consistent rhetoric painting anyone against him as an enemy.

On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) blamed news outlets for having guests on who called Trump a fascist or compared him to Hitler.

Such statements have been born out of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, his pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters and a range of other actions, including deportations, deployment of the National Guard in American cities, mass firings of federal employees and his scorn for the historical limits on the power of the presidency.

But for Britt, those expressions were unfair, inaccurate and triggered violence.

“There must be consequences with regards to people spewing that type of hate and celebration in the face of this,” Britt said. “And I believe that there will be.”

Boak and Riccardi write for the Associated Press and reported from Basking Ridge and Denver, respectively. AP writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville contributed to this report.

OREM, Utah — One student holed up in his house for two days after witnessing Charlie Kirk’s shooting, nervous about going back to the Utah college campus where the conservative activist was killed. Another, unable to sleep or shake what she saw and heard, called her dad to come take her home.

As investigators spend the weekend digging deeper into suspect Tyler James Robinson, 22, ahead of his initial court appearance Tuesday, students who witnessed Wednesday’s shooting at Utah Valley University are reckoning with trauma, grief and the pall the killing has cast on their community.

Robinson’s arrest late Thursday calmed some fears. Still, questions persist about the suspect’s motive and planning, as well as security lapses that allowed a man with a rifle to shoot Kirk from a rooftop before fleeing.

The university has said there will be increased security when classes resume Sept. 17.

In Robinson’s hometown, about 240 miles southwest of campus, a law enforcement presence was significantly diminished Saturday after the FBI executed a search warrant at his family’s home. A gray Dodge Challenger that authorities say Robinson drove to the university appeared to have been hauled away.

No one answered the door at the home in Washington, Utah, and the blinds were closed.

The killing has prompted pleas for civility in American political discourse, but those calls have not always been heeded. Meanwhile, there has been a backlash against journalists and others for some comments and questions in the wake of Kirk’s death. Some have been suspended or fired.

On Friday, Office Depot said it fired a worker at a Michigan store who was seen on video refusing to print fliers for a Kirk vigil and calling them “propaganda.” On Thursday, a conservative internet personality filmed a video outside Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s home, urging viewers to “take action” after Kirk’s assassination. Pritzker’s security has been stepped up.

At a makeshift memorial near Utah Valley University’s main entrance in Orem, people have been leaving flowers. Cars looped nearby streets Saturday, honking horns, flying American flags and displaying messages such as “We love you Charlie,” “Charlie 4 Ever” and “RIP Charlie.”

In the area where the Turning Point USA co-founder was shot, a crew has begun taking down tents and banners and scrubbing away reminders of the killing.

Memorial brings stunned students together

Student Alec Vera stopped at the memorial after finally leaving his house Friday night for a drive to clear his head. Vera said he had been in a daze, unable to concentrate and avoiding people, since watching Kirk collapse about 30 or 40 feet in front of him.

“I just kind of felt the need to come here, to be with everyone, either to comfort or to be comforted, just to kind of surround myself with those that are also mourning,” Vera said.

One woman knelt, sobbing. Others stood quietly or spoke softly with friends. On the campus’ perimeter, trees were wrapped in red ribbons.

Several cars remained stranded in parking lots by students who left behind keys while fleeing the shooting. One student pleaded with an officer to let him retrieve his bike from beyond the police tape, smiling as the officer let him through. The university said people can pick up their belongings early this week.

Anxious about returning to campus

Student Marjorie Holt started crying when she brought flowers to campus Thursday, prompting her to change her mind about returning to campus this weekend.

Hours after the shooting, the 18-year-old said, she lay in bed, haunted by the horror she witnessed: the sound of a single gunshot as Kirk answered a question and then, “I saw him fall over, I saw the blood, but for some reason it couldn’t click to me what happened.”

Unable to sleep because of a pounding headache, nausea and the day’s trauma, she called her dad, who brought her home to Salt Lake City, about 40 miles to the north.

Returning to campus, Holt said, is “going to feel like a terrible — like a burden on my heart.”

Vera said the area where Kirk was shot is the campus’ main gathering spot — where students take naps, meditate, do homework and hang out.

“Seeing it when I go back, I will be pretty uncomfortable at first, knowing I have to walk past it each time, knowing what had just occurred here,” Vera said.

A ‘weird heaviness’

Student Alexis Narciso said he has flashbacks when he hears a bang, a honking horn or other loud noise. He was about 10 feet away.

“I just feel numb. I don’t feel anything,” Narciso said. “I want to cry, but at the same time I don’t.”

Jessa Packard, a single mother of two who lives nearby, said even with a suspect in custody, her feeling of unease hasn’t lifted. Packard’s home security system captured video of the Challenger that police say Robinson drove to campus. After the shooting, she said, law enforcement officers descended on her neighborhood, searching yards and taking security video.

“There’s this really weird heaviness and I think, honestly, a lot of fear for me personally that hasn’t gone away,” Packard said. “The fact that there was like this murderer in my neighborhood, not knowing where he is but knowing he’s been through there, coursing things out, is a really eerie feeling.”

Searching for closure from one campus to another

Halle Hanchett, 19, a student at nearby Brigham Young University in Provo, said she had just pulled her phone out to start filming Kirk when she heard the gunshot followed by a collective gasp. Hanchett said she saw blood, Kirk’s security team jump forward and horror on the faces around her. She dropped to the ground in the fetal position, wondering: “What is going on? Am I going to die?”

On Friday, she brought flowers and quietly gazed at the place where the kickoff to Kirk’s planned tour of American college campuses ended in violence.

“The last few days I’ve just, haven’t really said much. I just kind of like zone out, stare off,” Hanchett said, standing with her fiance as water fountains bubbled nearby. “The memory, it just replays.”

She’s praying for the strength to move forward, she said, “and take it as: ‘OK, I was here for this. How can I learn from this? And how can I help other people learn from this?’”

Suspect’s neighbor searches for answers

In Robinson’s hometown in southwestern Utah, neighbor Kris Schwiermann recalled him as a shy, studious and “very respectful” student who loved to read. Schwiermann, 66, was head custodian at the elementary school that Robinson and his siblings attended.

She said she was stunned by the news of his arrest, describing the Robinsons as a “very tight-knit family.”

Like the Robinsons, Schwiermann is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said that they belonged to the same congregation but that the family hadn’t been active in the church in several years.

“I want to make sure that people know that we don’t have any ill feelings towards their family or him,” Schwiermann said. “He made the wrong choice.”

Bedayn, Schoenbaum, Wasson and Yamat write for the Associated Press. Bedayn, Schoenbaum and Wasson reported from Orem. Yamat reported from Washington, Utah, and St. George, Utah. AP writers Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

On the night Los Angeles police claim he carried out an act of gangland vengeance, Oscar Eagle could barely walk.

In March 1998, Eagle was only 17 and using crutches to get around after he was wounded in a drive-by shooting. The bullet is still in his leg to this day, marked by a coin-shaped indentation on his calf.

At the same time that police allege Eagle opened fire on an 18th Street gang member in an act of retribution, he says he was at an East L.A. hospital because a friend’s cousin was giving birth, according to court records.

Oscar Eagle in his childhood neighborhood of Pico-Union in 1996.

(Courtesy of Megan Baca)

Eagle knew he was innocent. Witnesses placed him at the hospital and he said medical records could prove he wasn’t mobile enough to carry out the crime.

But a combination of dubious legal representation and an arrest made by members of a notoriously corrupt unit in the Los Angeles Police Department saw Eagle sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.

In July, a judge granted a joint motion from the California Innocence Project and the L.A. County district attorney’s office to vacate Eagle’s conviction, citing ineffective assistance of counsel and questions about the behavior of LAPD detectives on the case.

For reform advocates, Eagle’s case epitomizes the problem with prosecuting teens as adults, but it also marks a positive sign for the L.A. County district attorney’s office’s conviction review unit under Nathan Hochman, who personally appeared at the hearing where Eagle was set free.

“This is what I’ve been dreaming of every day,” a tearful Eagle, 45, said during an interview in late July.

Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California is surrounded by razor wire, tall fences and towers manned by guards with rifles.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Formed in 2015 and expanded under former Dist. Atty. George Gascón, Hochman has shown a continued commitment to the conviction review unit. After facing criticism for recording just four exonerations from 2015 to 2020, the unit has been involved in 12 in just the last four years, according to a district attorney’s office spokesperson.

“I think that a D.A. sends a strong message when you appear in court, that it’s both a case of serious concern to the D.A.’s office, and it’s one where you want to see justice done,” Hochman said.

Seeing L.A. County’s top prosecutor personally endorse his release is a stark turnaround for Eagle, who spent most of his life believing police would do anything to keep him behind bars.

After entering California’s adult prison system as a teenager, Eagle said he watched a friend die in a riot at Pelican Bay. He spent years in isolation after he says he was erroneously connected to the Mexican Mafia. Both of his parents died while Eagle was locked up, and he can’t even mention their names without tearing up to this day.

Eagle said he grew up in a section of Pico-Union where all his neighbors were affiliated with a local gang set, the Burlington Locos. A young tagger who went by “Clown,” he too wound up part of the crew.

In the late 1990s, Eagle became a target of detectives with an infamous LAPD unit known as C.R.A.S.H., short for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums.

At the time, the LAPD’s Rampart division was home to C.R.A.S.H. officers who falsified reports and framed civilians, later triggering a scandal that ended with the U.S. Department of Justice placing the LAPD under a consent decree.

Officers watch from inside the front entrance of the LAPD’s Rampart Station in the Westlake district in 2010 as protesters demonstrate outside against police brutality.

(Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

Eagle says that in 1996 he was wrongfully arrested for gun possession as a juvenile by Rafael Perez, the central figure of the Rampart scandal. Perez later admitted the report that led to Eagle’s first arrest was falsified, according to court records.

But it was Eagle’s next run-in with police that proved far more consequential.

In March 1998, 18th Street Gang member Benjamin Urias was shot twice on Burlington Avenue in what police believed to be retribution for a prior attack on a Burlington Locos member, court records show. Urias, who was hospitalized for two days and released, told police the shooter walked with a limp.

Investigators from a C.R.A.S.H. unit based in Rampart locked onto Eagle, due to his gang connections and the fact that he was said to be walking with a limp after he was injured in a shooting, according to his attorney, Megan Baca, of the California Innocence Project.

Charges against Eagle were initially dismissed after Urias failed to show up for a preliminary hearing. But a month later, LAPD homicide detectives Thomas Murrell and Kenneth Wiseman prodded the shooting victim to pick Eagle out of a photo lineup, according to the motion to vacate his conviction.

Urias initially told police he did not recognize anyone in the lineup, records show.

“OK, circle that guy … Number 4 is the one you were pointing to,” Murrell said to Urias, according to a recording of the interview described in court records.

An LAPD spokesperson declined to comment. The audio recording that called the validity of the identification into question was never raised at Eagle’s trial, according to Baca.

Despite concerns about the behavior of the detectives, Hochman said he was not immediately ordering a review of other cases involving Murrell and Wiseman. Neither Rampart detective was part of a C.R.A.S.H. unit.

Murrell denied any wrongdoing and told The Times he remembered Eagle’s name because the then-teenager was a suspect in multiple gang homicides at the time.

He did not offer specifics, but dismissed Eagle’s medical alibi, contending the teen “wasn’t on crutches” when police arrested him.

“If he made an ID, we didn’t cheat, I can tell you that … I’ve never done that,” said Murrell. “We did everything by the book.”

Attempts to contact Wiseman were unsuccessful.

Eagle said things were only made worse by his former attorney, Patrick Lake, who didn’t make an opening statement at trial or raise any of Eagle’s alibi evidence. When Eagle questioned his lawyer, Lake joked that he was “saving the best for last.”

Oscar Eagle with his defense attorney, Megan Baca of the Innocence Project.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

As Eagle’s family grew frustrated in the gallery, he said his mother passed him a note that simply read “fire him.” Eagle tried to get rid of Lake, but a judge denied his request. Eagle was convicted of murder. And since he was tried as an adult, he faced 25-years-to-life.

Lake did not respond to a request for comment. Baca said she had one conversation with Lake, in which he claimed he didn’t remember Eagle or his case.

At the time, prosecutors in California could directly file charges against teens in adult court, sending hundreds of children every year to adult prisons such as Pelican Bay, where Eagle wound up. That practice has been abolished by a change in state law, but Baca said she’s encountered too many cases where teens had their lives stolen because they were wrongfully convicted and tried as adults.

“It’s egregious, but I think that it happens all the time,” Baca said. “So many of my clients were juveniles and they got adult life.”

Eagle said his stay in prison was long and painful. He spent six years in segregated housing, essentially isolation, after Baca said her client was wrongly labeled as a Mexican Mafia associate. He denied any affiliation with the powerful prison-based syndicate. Eagle said prison officials took a leap in logic to link him to the gang based on a “kite,” or prison note, sent by another inmate.

As he grew older behind bars, Eagle started to read voraciously. His father sent recommended books. Eagle says he gravitated toward the Bible.

Oscar Eagle at an L.A. County juvenile detention camp in 1997.

(Courtesy of Megan Baca)

Even though he knew he hadn’t committed the crime that put him in prison, Eagle said he still realized there were things about his life that needed to change.

“I was 30 years old. My perspective started to change. And I started to see this past life that I was living was nonsense,” he said. “I started to have a conscience.”

In 2023, after repeated failures to get his case overturned on appeal, some of Eagle’s friends got the attention of Baca and the California Innocence Project, which worked to bring the case before the conviction review unit. At the same time, Eagle said, he started exchanging letters with an ex-girlfriend from high school, a woman named Monica.

In July, the two squeezed next to each other on Baca’s couch at the lawyer’s Long Beach home, hands interlocked. They’ve since gotten married and are looking to move to Arizona, away from the city and county that nearly took everything away from Eagle.

There’s still a lot for Eagle to get used too — he’s never driven a car, the concept of Uber is still bizarre to him — but Monica says there’s one silver lining to the prison term Eagle never should have served. She wouldn’t have married the guy who was sent away all those years ago.

“He’s a whole new person from when he went in,” she said.

NEW YORK — Matthew Dowd’s firing has opened a floodgate.

The MSNBC political analyst, who lost his job shortly after on-air comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was the first of many figures to face consequences Thursday for public statements or actions about the shooting.

Raw feelings about the killing have ignited a campaign to shame — and worse. Several conservative activists sought to identify social media users whose posts about Kirk they viewed as offensive or celebratory. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer said she would try to ruin the professional aspirations of anyone who celebrated Kirk’s death.

MSNBC said Dowd is no longer with the network after his comments, shortly after the shooting, in which he said that “hateful words” can lead to “hateful actions.” Both MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler and Dowd apologized for the remarks, which Kutler called “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”

Dowd said he didn’t intend for his comments to blame Kirk for the attack, as some may have construed them. Still, it brought an abrupt interruption to his work as a television commentator, which the former aide to President George W. Bush has done for nearly two decades.

The moves to curb certain public commentary after Kirk’s death are particularly notable, as his admirers had lauded him as a champion of free speech.

Actions spread across country

A Florida reporter was suspended for a question posed to a congressman. A comic book writer lost her job because of social media posts, as did educators in Mississippi and Tennessee. “CBS Mornings” host Nate Burleson was attacked for a question he asked. An Arizona sports reporter and a Carolina Panthers public relations official lost their jobs.

An anonymously registered website pledged to “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” and asked people to offer tips about people who were “supporting political violence online.”

The site published a running list Thursday of targeted posts, along with the names, locations and employers of people who posted them. While some posts contained incendiary language, others didn’t appear to celebrate the shooting or glorify violence. There were several similar efforts, including one by activist Scott Presler, who asked his followers about teachers purported to have celebrated Kirk’s killing and posted findings on X.

A staff member at the University of Mississippi was fired after sharing “insensitive comments” about Kirk’s death, according to the school’s chancellor, Glenn Boyce. The university did not identify the employee or immediately respond to questions from the Associated Press.

The president of Middle Tennessee State University said he’d fired a staffer who offered “callous and inappropriate comments on social media” about Kirk’s shooting. President Sidney A. McPhee did not identify the staff member but said the person “worked in a position of trust with our students.”

It wasn’t clear if it was the same person, but an X post by Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn identified an assistant dean of students at MTSU who posted online that she had “ZERO sympathy” after the shooting. Blackburn said the person should be ashamed and fired.

A warning to teachers in Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education commissioner warned the state’s teachers that making “disgusting” statements about Kirk’s killing could draw sanctions, including the suspension or revocation of teaching licenses. Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said in a memo to school district superintendents that he’d been made aware of “despicable” comments on social media.

“I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior,” Kamoutsas said in the memo, which he also posted on X on Thursday. “Govern yourselves accordingly.”

The rush to police commentary appeared to have little precedent in other recent examples of political violence, such as the 2022 home-invasion hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; or the shooting deaths in June of Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.

DC Comics announced that it was ditching a new “Red Hood” series, a Batman spinoff, after one issue had been published and two more were in the works. The comics’ writer, Gretchen Felker-Martin, had published comments about Kirk’s shooting online that DC called offensive.

“Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct,” the comics publisher said.

Loomer, an informal advisor to President Trump whose pressure campaigns have resulted in several firings in his administration, attacked the entertainment website TMZ for what she called a “disgusting” livestream in which employees could be heard laughing and cheering seconds before Kirk’s death was announced. TMZ said the noise had nothing to do with the Kirk story — the staff members were crowded around a computer watching a car chase — but apologized for the bad timing and how it looked to viewers.

A writer for the Arizona media company PHNX Sports was fired after conservative activists called attention to a series of online posts that attacked Kirk’s positions on guns and Gaza and called him evil.

The NFL’s Carolina Panthers distanced themselves from an employee who posted comments about Kirk and a photo referencing Wu-Tang Clan’s song “Protect Ya Neck.” Kirk was shot in the neck. Football communications coordinator Charlie Rock was fired, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke under condition of anonymity because the team typically doesn’t announce firings.

Rock’s name has been removed from the team’s website. He did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

CBS News anchor under attack

Burleson, a former NFL star turned anchor for CBS News’ morning show, was attacked online for asking former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the air Thursday whether this was a moment for the Republican Party to reflect on political violence. His co-anchor, Gayle King, immediately tried to soften the question by interjecting, “I’d say both parties.”

Another former NFL player, Jay Feely, running for Congress in Arizona, said the question was offensive. “Charlie Kirk was assassinated in front of his family and you ask if Republicans need to tone down their rhetoric?” he said. (Kirk’s family was not present at the shooting.) Some conservative media stars also weighed in, with talk show host Erick Erickson calling for Burleson to be fired and Clay Travis calling him a ”moron.”

A reporter for the Floridapolitics.com news site was suspended for texting a Florida congressman a question about gun control immediately after Kirk’s shooting. Peter Schorsch, Floridapolitics.com publisher, said he was concerned that reporter A.G. Gancarski was trying to provoke a source rather than initiate a serious policy discussion. Utah law allows people to carry guns on college campuses; Kirk was slain on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem.

U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, texted back that he had learned of Kirk’s shooting only 23 minutes earlier and was repulsed to get the question when people should be praying for Kirk’s safety. Schorsch said he agreed that the timing was inappropriate, and didn’t want any of his staff members to be put in danger by anyone angry about it.

“I think everybody today should be asking questions about a wide range of policies,” Schorsch said in an interview Thursday. “But when a house is on fire, I don’t think you should ask questions about a person’s insurance policy. You put out the fire first.”

He said Gancarski was a good reporter who made a mistake. He’ll be back on the job after a few days out. Gancarski, reached by phone, declined comment.

The feminist website Jezebel removed a post headlined “We Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk” that was published Monday, two days before Kirk’s death. “The piece was intended as satire and made it absolutely clear that we wished no physical harm. We stand by every word,” Jezebel said in an editor’s note.

“We may republish at a later date, but out of compassion for the victim’s family, we want to make clear that we prioritize an end to violence over anyone wanting to read about Etsy witches,” Jezebel said, in a reference to the online storefront.

Bauder and Swenson write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Sophie Bates, Kate Payne, Steve Reed and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — As the nation comes to grips with the slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two candidates in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park are going door to door seeking to win a legislative seat left open by another political attack that killed a longtime state lawmaker and her husband.

The troubling political violence is a clear concern along Brooklyn Park’s tree-lined streets, where voters will head to the polls Tuesday to fill a state House seat left vacant by the fatal home-invasion killing of their neighbor, Rep. Melissa Hortman. The Democrat was first elected in 2005 and served as Minnesota’s Democratic House leader before her death in June.

Hortman, her husband and their dog were killed early on the morning of June 14 in their Brooklyn Park home in what investigators say was a politically motivated attack.

Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder charges in the Hortmans’ deaths, as well as attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of another Democratic Minnesota lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, who both survived a shooting attack at their home the same day.

A neighborhood in fear

The Republican candidate seeking Hortman’s seat, real estate agent Ruth Bittner, noticed early in her campaign that people in the neighborhood where Hortman was killed seemed afraid to open their doors.

“We are in very, very scary times, and we definitely need to get out of this trajectory that we’re on here,” Bittner said.

Bittner said the political violence — particularly since the Wednesday killing of Kirk as he spoke at a Utah college event — briefly gave her pause about running for public office. But she concluded that “we can’t cower.”

“We have to move forward as a country and we have to, you know, embrace the system that we have of representative government, and we have to just do it, you know?” she said. “There’s no way to solve this problem if we shrink back in fear.”

The special election also comes less than a month after two schoolchildren were killed when a shooter opened fire on a Minneapolis Catholic church during Mass. The Aug. 27 shooting injured 21 others, most of them students at Annunciation Catholic School.

Officials identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a former student who they say fired more than a hundred rounds through the windows of the church. Westman was found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot.

“It’s definitely come up, you know, folks have referenced the recent shootings, Annunciation and Charlie Kirk,” the Democratic candidate, Xp Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, said Thursday as he knocked on doors in the district. “Just yesterday, I was outdoor knocking, [and] a couple of people mentioned it.”

Lee said Hortman was a neighbor whom he would often see walking her beloved golden retriever, Gilbert, around Brooklyn Park. He said she met with him to offer advice when he ran for City Council.

“I can’t think of a better way to honor her than to go to the Capitol and do my best in the seat,” he said.

Kirk killing aftermath

The shooting of Kirk, which happened in front of hundreds of people and was captured on video and widely circulated on social media, has rattled the nation and drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum. Officials announced Friday that the suspected gunman, Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody Thursday night, and investigators said they believe he acted alone.

“An open forum for political dialogue and disagreement was upended by a horrific act of targeted violence,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on X. “In America, we don’t settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint.”

Hoffman, the lawmaker who was shot and wounded in June, and his family also issued a statement denouncing the attack on Kirk.

“America is broken, and political violence endangers our lives and democracy,” the Hoffmans’ statement said. “The assassination of Charlie Kirk today is only the latest act that our country cannot continue to accept. Our leaders of both parties must not only tone down their own rhetoric, but they must begin to call out extreme, aggressive and violent dialog that foments these attacks on our republic and freedom.”

Lee described the political climate in the wake of Kirk’s killing as a “charged atmosphere.”

“So I want to do what I can to really bring that down,” he said. That includes supporting a ban on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, he said.

Lee keeps a shotgun for home defense, he said, but assault-style rifles “are weapons of, like, war that really we don’t need on our streets.”

Vancleave and Beck write for the Associated Press and reported from Brooklyn Park and Omaha.

Less than 24 hours after a bullet whizzed across a Utah college campus and claimed the life of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, polarizing figures from across the political spectrum swiftly canceled public events.

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) decided to postpone a North Carolina stop on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour this weekend, while Trump allies Stephen K. Bannon and Rudolph W. Giuliani reportedly nixed plans for a New York gathering due to “increased security concerns.”

Popular leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who was set to debate Kirk at Dartmouth College later this month, told Politico he would “wait for the temperature to lower” before holding in-person events again.

Kirk’s assassination comes amid a spate of attacks on high-profile political figures — including two assassination attempts on President Trump — that security experts say will change the way large-scale political events are held, with open-air venues increasingly seen as risky.

“In the current threat environment, outdoor venues for political events should be avoided at all costs,” said Art Acevedo, the former head of the Houston and Miami police departments.

Even with a security apparatus as powerful as the U.S. Secret Service, experts say it is incredibly difficult to establish a firm perimeter at outdoor rallies with a large number of attendees. The gunman who opened fire on Trump in Butler, Pa., during the 2024 presidential campaign did so from more than 400 feet away. Kirk was shot from a distance of more than 400 feet with a powerful bolt-action rifle.

The suspected gunman, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested Friday morning, authorities said. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said ammunition recovered and linked to the shooting had anti-fascist engravings on it.

A PBS/Marist Poll conducted last year found that 1 in 5 Americans believe violent acts would be justified to “get the country back on track.”

Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman was killed alongside her husband at their Minnesota home in June by a gunman allegedly motivated by conservative politics. In April, police arrested a man who allegedly tried to set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence while the Democrat slept inside with his family.

Politicians aren’t the only ones being targeted. The killing in December in Manhattan of a healthcare industry executive turned suspected gunman Luigi Mangione into an object of public fascination, with some applauding the act of vigilantism.

With Americans increasingly viewing their political foes as enemy combatants, researchers who study extremist violence and event security professionals say Kirk’s killing on Wednesday could mark a turning point in how well-known individuals protect themselves.

“The bottom line is, for public political and other figures, it is increasingly difficult to protect them anywhere, but even more so in an outdoor environment because it’s getting harder to screen people and devices in those open spaces,” said Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer and professor emeritus at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

Kirk was being protected by roughly a half-dozen Utah Valley University police officers and a handful of private security guards Wednesday, according to campus security officials. While that kind of presence might deter a close-quarters threat, snipers and other assailants with long-range capabilities would not be affected.

Typically, security professionals seek to create three “rings of protection” around the focus of a public event, according to Kent Moyer, founder of World Protection Group, an international security firm.

The inner ring often consists of barriers and security personnel meant to separate Kirk from the crowd immediately in front of him, not someone hundreds of yards away. In the middle ring, security guards positioned farther from the focus of the event monitor the temperature of the crowd and try to clock individuals acting strangely or becoming aggressive. An outer ring would serve to search bags and screen individuals before they enter the event.

It did not appear there was any screening of attendees at the event where Kirk was killed, and it is legal to openly carry firearms on a college campus in Utah.

Levin said he expects to see drones deployed at similar events in the future, an assessment seconded by Acevedo.

“If you’re going to do an outdoor event you better make sure you have some kind of surveillance of rooftops,” Levin said.

When doing risk assessments, Levin said, police and security professionals need to be cognizant that politicians themselves are no longer the sole targets for political violence.

What Levin called “idiosyncratic actors” are increasingly likely to lash out at those connected to political and policy positions they find unjust. While Kirk was not a politician himself, he was a beloved figure in Trump’s orbit, and his activist group, Turning Point USA, has often been credited with driving younger voters to support the president.

“It’s not just elected officials. It’s pundits, it includes corporate people, people involved in policy and education,” said Levin.

But a heavy security detail doesn’t come cheap.

While elected officials are guarded by a range of federal and state law enforcement agencies, political influencers like Kirk must rely on their own vendors as well as security personnel hired by the venues where they speak.

Levin warned that law enforcement assigned to political events should be on high alert for retaliatory attacks in the near future, given the “dehumanizing” rhetoric some have taken up in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

Specifically, he pointed to Trump’s Oval Office remarks late Wednesday blaming Kirk’s death on “the radical left,” despite the fact that Kirk’s killer had not been identified at that time and federal law enforcement officials had not disclosed a motive in the shooting.

Trump also rattled off a number of attacks on Republicans during his remarks, while making no mention of Hortman’s slaying, the 2022 attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — all violent incidents carried out by people who espoused right-wing political values.

“More and more people across the ideological spectrum, though more concentrated on the far hard right, think violence is justified to achieve political outcomes,” Levin said.

CHICAGO — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man who officials said tried to evade arrest Friday in a Chicago suburb by driving his car at officers and dragging one of them.

The shooting just outside the city follows days of threats by the Trump administration to surge immigration enforcement in the nation’s third-largest city and less than a week into an operation labeled “Midway Blitz” by federal officials targeting the so-called sanctuary policies in Chicago and Illinois.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that the officer was trying to arrest a man who had a history of reckless driving, but he refused officers’ orders and instead drove his car at them. An ICE officer who was hit and dragged by the car felt his life was threatened and opened fire, the department said.

ICE said both the officer and the driver from the shooting in the Franklin Park suburb, about 18 miles west of Chicago, were taken to a hospital, where the driver was pronounced dead.

“We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement,” said spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said he is aware of the shooting and demanded “a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability.”

Video from the scene shows police tape and traffic cones blocking off parts of the street where a large food distribution truck and gray car can be seen from a distance. Multiple law enforcement vehicles were surrounding the area.

Erendira Rendón, chief program officer at a local advocacy group called the Resurrection Project, said the shooting “shows us the real danger that militarized enforcement creates in our neighborhoods.”

“A community member is dead, and an officer was injured,” Rendón said in a statement. “These are outcomes that serve no public safety purpose and leave entire communities traumatized. … When federal agents conduct unaccountable operations in our communities, everyone becomes less safe.”

Chicagoans, meanwhile, have been preparing for weekend Mexican Independence Day celebrations that include parades, festivals, street parties and car caravans, despite the potential immigration crackdown.

McLaughlin said that “viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement” have made the work of ICE officers more dangerous.

Santana and Fernando write for the Associated Press. Santana reported from Washington.

What happened?

What do we know about the suspect?

FBI

Who was Charlie Kirk?

What has the reaction been?

Getty Images

Is political violence in the US increasing?

Getty Images

The FBI has released photos of a person of interest in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Investigators say they also have video footage but are withholding it while they work on identifying the person.

Political analyst Matthew Dowd lost his contributor role at MSNBC because of comments he made about Charlie Kirk after the young right-wing activist was murdered Wednesday.

Shortly after Kirk was shot to death while speaking on stage at Utah Valley State University, Dowd told MSNBC anchor Katy Tur that “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions.”

The angry reaction on social media was immediate after Dowd’s comments suggested that Kirk’s history of incendiary remarks led to the shooting.

MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler issued an apology Wednesday night.

“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable,” Kutler said in a statement. “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”

The network then severed ties with Dowd, according to a person briefed on the decision who was not authorized to comment.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Charlie Kirk,” Dowd later wrote on his Bluesky account. “I was asked a question on the environment we are in. I apologize for my tone and words. Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack.”

Dowd is a political consultant who served as the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s successful 2004 presidential reelection campaign. Dowd broke away from the Republican party due to his unhappiness with Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.

Dowd previously served as a political analyst for ABC News.

Sept. 10 (UPI) — Three students were injured Wednesday after a gunman opened fire at a Denver-area high school, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said, later adding that the suspect had died.

The shooting happened at around 12:34 p.m. MDT at Evergreen High School, JCSO spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said in a news briefing.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday night that the suspect, a male student, had died from “self-inflicted injuries.”

Authorities initially said the suspect had been injured, but it wasn’t revealed who was responsible. The JCSO said it didn’t believe law enforcement fired any bullets and Kelley declined to provide any details such as a name, age or gender about the shooter due to his age.

“I don’t know if our suspect is even old enough to drive,” she said during the briefing.

Three of the students, including the suspected shooter, were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo., in critical condition. A fourth student was also taken to the hospital, but the cause of their injuries was unclear.

Police evacuated the high school, transporting the student body of about 900 to a reunification point at Bergen Meadow Elementary School. The JCSO said officials cleared Evergreen High School and there was no further threat to the community.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a statement saying his “heart” goes out to the victims and their families.

“I, the Evergreen community and the entire State of Colorado are devastated by this and will keep the victims, as well as their friends and family, in our thoughts,” he said.

“This kind of violence has no place in Colorado, especially our schools where kids should feel safe to lear and grow.”

Sept. 10 (UPI) — Four students were injured Wednesday after one of them opened fire at a Denver-area high school, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.

The shooting happened around 12:34 p.m. at Evergreen High School, JCSO spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said in a news briefing.

It wasn’t revealed who injured the suspect, but the JCSO said it didn’t believe law enforcement fired any bullets. Kelley declined to provide any details such as a name, age or gender about the shooter due to his age.

“I don’t know if our suspect is even old enough to drive,” she said during the briefing.

Three of the students, including the suspected shooter, were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo., in critical condition. A fourth student was also taken to the hospital, but the cause of their injuries was unclear.

Police evacuated the high school, transporting the student body of about 900 to a reunification point at Burgen Meadow Elementary School. The JCSO said officials cleared Evergreen High School and there was no further threat to the community.

Charlie Kirk, a well-known conservative activist in the United States and staunch ally of President Donald Trump, was shot dead at an event at Utah Valley University.

Video of the incident circulating on social media showed Kirk speaking to a large outdoor crowd when a loud crack, a gunshot, rings out.

Kirk briefly clutches his neck before collapsing from his chair, sending attendees fleeing. He was 31 years old.

Here is what we know:

What happened?

Kirk was on a speaking tour, and his stop at Utah Valley University was the first of at least 15 scheduled events at universities around the country as part of his “American Comeback Tour”.

Before the shooting, he was seated at his “Prove Me Wrong” debating table, taking questions from an audience outdoors.

Videos show that Kirk was going back and forth with a student about mass shootings and transgender people when he was shot.

“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” Kirk was asked.

“Too many,” Kirk responded as the crowd clapped.

“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” To which Kirk replied, “Counting or not counting gang violence?”

Seconds later, Kirk could be seen struck in the neck as he falls from his chair.

According to reports, Kirk was shot about 20 minutes after he began speaking at approximately 12:10pm local time (18:10 GMT).

In video footage from the event, it can be seen how Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending the attendees running. In another clip, blood can be seen gushing from his neck immediately after the shot.

No one else was shot during the event.

Kirk’s wife and children were present during the incident.

Where did the shooting happen?

The shooting took place in the courtyard at Utah Valley University, located about 64km (40 miles) south of Salt Lake City.

A spokeswoman for the university said Kirk was hit by a shot fired from the roof of the school’s Losee Center, a campus building about 180 metres (200 yards) from the event area.

It was not clear whether the shot was fired from a rooftop or an open window.

Who was Charlie Kirk?

Charlie Kirk was one of the most prominent conservative activists and media personalities in the US, and a trusted ally of President Trump.

He co-founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group, when he was just 18.

Kirk’s group grew into the country’s largest conservative youth movement, and over the years, he became a central player in a network of pro-Trump influencers, often described as the face of the “Make America Great Again” movement.

Trump often credited Kirk with bringing many young voters and voters of colour over to his side during the 2024 presidential campaign.

He was also a sharp critic of mainstream media and threw himself into culture-war battles over race, gender and immigration.

His provocative style won him a loyal support base but also fierce opposition.

Kirk also became a close friend of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, with whom Kirk travelled to Greenland in January. He was also an early champion of Vice President JD Vance as Trump was deciding whether the senator would be his running mate.

Kirk had 5.2 million followers on the platform X and hosted The Charlie Kirk Show, a podcast and radio programme that reached more than 500,000 listeners each month. He made regular appearances on Fox News, including a recent guest co-hosting slot on Fox & Friends.

According to a report by The New York Times, Kirk never pursued a role within the administration. His aim was to reshape the Republican Party and, more broadly, American politics.

“We want to transform the culture,” he told The New York Times Magazine in February.

Kirk also built a fortune through his popular podcast, frequent speaking engagements and books, including his 2020 bestseller, The MAGA Doctrine.

On social media, he posted constantly, offering a right-wing perspective on a plethora of issues.

In response to the fatal, unprovoked stabbing of a white woman by a Black man, Kirk posted this on X on Tuesday:

Will Cain is 100% right.

We have been propagandized by liars and fakers in the media to believe that America is a vicious, racist country and indiscriminate attacks on black people by whites happen all the time.

But the numbers tell the truth. Black attacks on white people… pic.twitter.com/SHmlxAIhds

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 9, 2025

What do we know about the shooter?

There was confusion about whether a suspect was in custody.

A “person of interest” was in custody on Wednesday evening, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said, though no charges were immediately announced.

FBI director, Kash Patel, said on X: “The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in the interest of transparency.”

Beau Mason, the head of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said a suspect was described as being dressed in all-dark clothing.

He said one shot was fired in the fatal attack.

Six officers were working the event, and there were more than 3,000 people in attendance, according to Jeff Long, chief of the Utah Valley University police department.

Kirk also had a private security team with him.

“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” Utah Governor Cox said.

“I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”

What’s the latest on the ground?

Currently, the campus is closed, according to the university.

At 12:37 pm (18:37 GMT), the university shut down the campus, cancelled classes, and told everyone to leave.

At 2:01 pm (20:01 GMT), students were told to “stay where you are until police can escort you off campus safely”.

Classes have been cancelled until further notice.

UVU campus is closed. Classes cancelled. Those on campus, secure in place until police officers can escort you safely off campus. Police are currently going building to building escorting people off campus. Roads to campus are currently closed.

— UVU (@UVU) September 10, 2025

What have been the reactions?

Democrats and Republicans quickly denounced the shooting on social media and in Congress.

Trump has ordered all American flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening, in honour of Kirk.

“There is no place” for this violence, former US President Joe Biden said on X.

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 10, 2025

Vice President JD Vance also reacted:

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. pic.twitter.com/lYLEjv40bN

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 10, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had invited Kirk to Israel:

Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization. I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel. Sadly, that visit will not take place.
We lost an…

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 10, 2025

Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, posted on Telegram: “There was an attack on Charlie Kirk, one of the most ardent conservative leaders known for his positive statements about Russia and his calls for dialogue.”

Barack Obama, former US president, said this: “Despicable violence has no place in our democracy.”

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025

Turning Point also posted on X:

pic.twitter.com/JbWK9BNnbR

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) September 10, 2025

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, a shocking act of political violence that brought widespread condemnation.

Hours after the shooting, the suspected gunman was taken into custody, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” President Trump said on Truth Social. “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.”

Videos shared on social media show Kirk sitting under a white canopy, speaking to hundreds of people through a microphone, when a loud pop is heard; he suddenly falls back, blood gushing from his neck.

Before he was shot in the neck, he was asked about mass shootings.

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“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” an audience member asks.

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responds.

Almost immediately, Kirk is shot in the neck. One video shows blood pouring from the wound. As the crowd realizes what has taken place, people are heard screaming and running away.

A source familiar with the investigation told The Times that a bullet struck Kirk’s carotid artery.

Charlie Kirk speaks before his fatal shooting Wednesday at Utah Valley University.

(Tess Crowley / Deseret News / AP)

Utah Valley University police said in an alert that “a single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker” and that it was investigating the shooting.

Law enforcement sources said Kirk was fatally wounded from a considerable distance, perhaps 200 yards away, by a sniper-style shot.

Videos shared on X, show an older man in handcuffs on the ground whom witnesses claimed was the gunman. The man is heard saying, “I have the right to remain silent.” In another video, police escort the man while the crowd jeers him. One woman is heard screaming, “How dare you!”

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted a message about the incident on Truth Social.

“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” he said.

Mike Lee, a Utah senator, posted on X shortly after videos circulated online that he was “tracking the situation at Utah Valley University closely.”

“Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and the students gathered there,” he said.

The shooting drew immediate words of support and calls for prayers for Kirk from leading conservative politicians.

“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X.

Crowd members react after Charlie Kirk’s shooting at Utah Valley University.

(Tess Crowley / Deseret News / AP)

Leading Democrats also moved swiftly to condemn the attack.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on X. “In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”

Gabrielle Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who survived a political assassination attempt in 2011 and is a gun violence prevention advocate, said on X that she was horrified to hear that Kirk was shot.

“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” she wrote.

Kirk, a conservative political activist, was in Utah for his American Comeback Tour, which held its first stop at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

The tour, as with many of his events, had drawn both supporters and protesters. Kirk’s wife and children were at the university when he was shot, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin posted on X.

Kirk, 31, was one of the Republican Party’s most influential power brokers.

The founder of the influential conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, Kirk had a vast online reach: 1.6 million followers on Rumble, 3.8 million subscribers on YouTube, 5.2 million followers on X and 7.3 million followers on TikTok.

During the 2024 election, he rallied his online followers to support Trump, prompting conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly to say: “It’s not an understatement to say that this man is responsible for helping the Republicans win back the White House and the U.S. Senate.”

Just after Trump was elected for a second time to the presidency last November, Kirk frequently posted to social media from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he had first-hand influence over which MAGA loyalists Trump named to his Cabinet.

Kirk was known for melding his conservative politics, nationalism and evangelical faith, casting the current political climate as a state of spiritual warfare between a righteous right wing and so-called “godless” liberals.

He declared that God was on the side of American conservatives and that there was “no separation of church and state.” And in a speech to Trump supporters in Georgia last year, he said that “the Democrat Party supports everything that God hates” and that “there is a spiritual battle happening all around us.”

Kirk was also known for his memes and college campus speaking tours meant to “own the libs.” Videos of his debates with liberal college students have racked up tens of millions of views.

Matthew Boedy, a professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, has written a forthcoming book about Christian nationalism that prominently features Kirk and his influence. The book, “The Seven Mountains Mandate,” comes out Sept. 30.

“Today is a tragedy,” Boedy said in an interview with The Times on Wednesday. “It is a red flag for our nation.”

Boedy said the shooting — following the two assassination attempts against Trump on the campaign trail last year — was a tragic reminder of “just how divisive we have become.”

In June, a shooter posing as a police officer fatally shot Minnesota state House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in an incident that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.”

Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were also injured at their residence less than 10 miles away.

In April, a shooter set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, forcing Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family to flee during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

In July 2024, Trump himself survived a hail of bullets, one of which grazed his ear, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Two months later, a man with a rifle was arrested by Secret Service agents after he was spotted amid shrubs near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort.

Kirk’s presence at the Utah campus was preceded by petitions and protests. But, Boedy noted, that was typical with his appearances.

“Charlie Kirk is, I would say, the most influential person who doesn’t work in the White House,” he said.

Boedy said Kirk reached a vast array of demographics through his radio show and social media accounts and was “in conversation with President Trump a lot.”

Kirk had said his melding in recent years of faith and politics was influenced by Rob McCoy, the pastor of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park in Ventura County. Kirk called McCoy, who often spoke at his events, his personal pastor.

Boedy said McCoy turned Kirk toward Christian nationalism, specifically the Seven Mountains Mandate — the idea that Christians should try to influence the seven pillars of cultural influence: arts and religion, business, education, family, government, media and religion.

Boedy said Kirk “turned Turning Point USA into an arm of Christian nationalism. There’s a strategy called the Seven Mountains Mandate, and he has put his TPUSA money into each of those.”

Boedy said Kirk was a vocal 2nd Amendment supporter and that the shooting likely would further the desire among his conservative followers who tout the idea of having good guys with guns “to have more guns everywhere, which is sad.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency was closely monitoring reports of the shooting.

“Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected,” he said on X. “Agents will be on the scene quickly and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.”

Meanwhile, 345 miles to the east, at least three students were in critical condition following a shooting at a high school in Colorado.

The shooting happened earlier in the afternoon at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County. A fourth person may have been hurt as well. Among those injured was the shooter, who was described by authorities only as a juvenile. No other details were provided on the shooting.

Times staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and the conservative movement were stunned Wednesday by the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a disruptive leader in GOP politics who accomplished what was once thought a pipe dream, expanding Republican ranks among America’s youth.

Inside the White House, senior officials that had worked closely alongside Kirk throughout much of their careers reacted with shock. It was a moment of political violence reminiscent of the repeated attempts on Donald Trump’s life during the 2024 presidential campaign, one official told The Times.

“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”

Kirk, a founder of Turning Point USA, was instrumental in recruiting young Americans on college campuses to GOP voter rolls, making himself an indispensable part of Republican campaigns down ballot across the country. That mission made his shooting on a college campus in Utah all the more poignant to his friends and allies, who reacted with dismay at videos of the shooting circulating online.

His impact, helping to increase support among 18- to 24-year-old voters for Republican candidates by double-digit margins in just four years, has been credited by Republican operatives as driving the party’s victories last year, allowing the GOP to retake the House, Senate and the presidency.

Democrats have recognized his prowess, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosting him on his podcast earlier this year in an appeal to young, predominantly male voters lost by the Democrats in recent years.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom said on X in response to the news.

As videos of the shooting circulated online, a number of prominent Republicans, including senior members of the Trump administration, reacted to the news by asking the public to pray for the young activist.

“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X.

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said federal agents were at the scene of the shooting in Utah. FBI Director Kash Patel added the FBI will be helping with the investigation.

Wilner reported from Washington, Ceballos from Tallahassee, Fla.

The Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday released a report touting a decline in shootings by officers in 2024, even as officials acknowledged this year’s numbers show the trend reversing with a major uptick in incidents of deadly force.

LAPD officers opened fire on 29 people last year, compared with 34 in 2023 — a sign, the report’s authors maintained, that the department’s efforts to curb serious uses of force are having an effect.

Already in 2025, however, LAPD officers have surpassed the total number of shootings recorded last year, with police opening fire at least 31 times in less than nine months.

Teresa Sánchez-Gordon, who on Tuesday was announced as the Police Commission’s new president, said she was struck by the fact that during encounters with people exhibiting signs of mental illness last year, officers sometimes shot instead of first deploying weapons meant to incapacitate.

“Why can we not increase that … use of that less-lethal means?” asked Sánchez-Gordon.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told the commission that the use of Tasers and launchers that shoot hard foam projectiles was “foremost on everybody’s minds.”

But oftentimes, he said, encounters with people in crisis unfold so quickly and unpredictably that officers are left with little time to consider other tools. He noted that the vast majority of shootings stem from 911 calls, rather than “proactive policing,” which he said underscores “the reactive nature of these events.”

The timing of Tuesday’s report seemed incongruous amid mounting public anger over a recent rise in police shootings, including a continued pattern of officers killing people who appear to be in the midst of some behavioral crisis.

The report also noted a rising number of shootings last year in which officers mistakenly believe someone is armed, an increasingly common scenario that has also been cause for recent concern.

In July, LAPD officers fatally shot a man sitting inside a utility van on the city’s Eastside after, they said, he ignored repeated commands to drop what turned out to be a toy Airsoft gun, which resembled a real rifle. The dead man’s fiancee said he had dealt with mental health issues in the past.

In recent weeks, the commission has pushed McDonnell to do more to curb the number of shootings.

Last year, the Southeast, North Hollywood and Harbor patrol areas saw the biggest jumps in the number of police shootings, while 77th Street, Foothill, Rampart and Newton divisions recorded the biggest decreases.

The shootings cut across racial lines. Roughly 55% of those shot by officers were Latino, with Black and white people each accounting for around 21% of the incidents, with the remaining 3% involving Asians.

More than half of the officers who fired their weapons were Latino, which is roughly in line with the department’s racial makeup. A quarter of the officers were white, with Asian officers responsible for 11% of the shootings.

From 2023 to 2024, the number of officers injured in shootings rose from eight to 11, according to the report.

The rise in police shootings has been a regular point of contention for the police critics and social justice advocates who show up to speak at the commission’s weekly meetings.

On Tuesday, Melina Abdullah, a prominent civil rights leader who has long been critical of the department’s history of excessive force against communities of color, accused the commission of failing to take seriously its role as police shootings continue to rise.

“I don’t know how this oversight body is not overseeing and demanding something different,” she said.

The recent report found that officers fired nearly twice as many bullets last year as they did in 2020. On average, LAPD officers fired more than 10 rounds per shooting.

In addition to the decline in police shootings last year, the department’s report revealed that so-called non-categorical uses of force — LAPD speak for the deployment of a Taser or beanbag shotgun or incidents that result in serious but non-life-threatening injuries — dipped slightly to 1,451 from 1,503.

The decline came amid a drop in both crime and the number of people who came into contact with the LAPD in 2024.

There was also a significant decline in shootings of people with knives, swords and other edged weapons. Preventing those types of confrontations from turning deadly has been a point of emphasis by the department and the commission in recent years. In February, LAPD officers faced criticism after they shot and killed a transgender woman holding a knife at a Pacoima motel room after she called 911 to report that she had been kidnapped.

Much like with most crime statistics, experts caution against reading too much into year-over-year fluctuations. But department statistics show that despite the recent uptick, police shootings are still down considerable from their highs in the early 1990s and make up only a small fraction of all public encounters every year.

Reporting from Washington — For a president prone to distraction, Donald Trump was unusually disciplined — for a time.

In the hours following the shooting of a Republican congressman and three other people in a Virginia park, Trump behaved as most presidents do to reassure the nation in a moment of crisis: He called for unity in a scripted and sober television appearance from the White House, steered clear of attacking political opposition and put the focus on the pain of the victims and heroism of law enforcement.

Then, at the end of the day on Wednesday, as Trump sat down for dinner with his family to celebrate his 71st birthday, news broke that the special prosecutor looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was taking steps toward investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice.

For hours, Trump again showed restraint as he and First Lady Melania Trump delivered white flowers to the hospital for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the congressional leader wounded in the gunfire.

“Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape – but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!” Trump wrote on Twitter just before 10 p.m. EDT.

Trump’s restraint lasted another nine hours.

By early Thursday morning, Trump slipped back into his Twitter persona — the one that lashes out at enemies in all-capital letters and impugns the motives of investigators — returning to the muddy fracas that aides have been trying to get him to avoid. Trump refused to let his highly paid outside counsel do the talking for him.

“They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice,” Trump tweeted before 7 a.m., a time when he is usually watching television news in his upstairs White House residence and getting ready for the day.

“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people!” he added an hour later.

For decades, Trump has made a habit of unapologetically hammering critics, a tactic that electrified supporters during his campaign.

The habit remains a tough one to kick. The lure of speaking to 32 million followers on Twitter and fighting back against allegations Trump sees as fundamentally unfair may be too much to resist, even as advisors and Republican strategists warn that his provocative comments may be perpetuating the cycle of leaks and accusations that launched the investigation in the first place.

“He’s described himself as a counterpuncher. That muscle memory, that he has that reflex to react when something like this comes up, obviously it’s very strong,” said Jim Merrill, a New Hampshire-based consultant for three Republican presidential campaigns.

Trump “interrupted the window where you saw a great deal of unity” in Washington, and hampered his own political interest, Merrill said.

“Its safe to say that oftentimes the president can be his own worst enemy,” he said. “Certainly, weighing in on the investigation so quickly after the shooting yesterday kind of undermines the message of unity.”

Even after 146 days in the White House, Trump continues to seesaw back and forth between brief moments when his administration seems in control of the agenda and longer periods when outbursts from the president create overwhelming distractions.

By the middle of the day Thursday, Trump had returned to a more measured tone. He praised the two Capitol Police special agents who ran toward the gunman in Wednesday’s shooting and returned fire, saving lives, and he described his visit to Scalise’s hospital room the night before, saying “he’s in some trouble” after a bullet tore through his hip.

After multiple surgeries on Wednesday, Scalise’s doctors said the congressman had suffered from internal bleeding and organ damage and was still in critical condition.

Lawmakers from both parties planned to honor Scalise by wearing purple-and-gold Louisiana State University hats during the annual congressional baseball game at Nationals Park on Thursday night.

“And Steve, in his own way, may have brought some unity to our long-divided country. We’ve had a very, very divided country for many years. And I have a feeling that Steve has made a great sacrifice, but there could be some unity being brought to our country. Let’s hope so,” Trump said.

“In these difficult hours, it’s more important than ever to help each other, care for each other and remind each other that we are all united by our love of our great and beautiful country,” Trump said.

The White House seemed to acknowledge the dual nature of Trump’s give-and-take, but, at least officially, insisted that the two were not at cross purposes.

Asked why Trump took to Twitter to call investigators “very bad and conflicted people,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was responding to allegations.

“I think there’s been quite a bit of attacking against the president. I think he was responding to those specific accusations. But I think, as a whole, our country certainly could bring the temperature down a little bit.”

“I think that was the goal that the president laid out yesterday, and hopefully we can all see moving forward,” Sanders said.

After Sanders spoke, Trump visited the Supreme Court to attend the investiture of Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose nomination many conservatives point to as the single most important accomplishment of Trump’s five months in office.

But here wasn’t much time to ponder Gorsuch. Before 4 pm, Trump had his mind on an old adversary from the presidential election. Trump tapped out a Tweet about Hillary Clinton, insisting she should have been investigated for mishandling her State Department emails.

Trump wrote: “Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, ‘bleached’ emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?”

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett

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CHICAGO — Eight people were killed and 50 others were wounded over the Labor Day weekend in dozens of shootings in Chicago, where President Trump has seized on crime to try to justify a greater federal role on the city’s streets.

The toll highlights Chicago’s persistent struggle with gun violence and reveals a grim reality: spikes in shootings during summer holiday weekends, particularly on the South and West sides. The violence this time was deadlier than the last Labor Day, when seven people were killed and more than 20 were wounded.

Asked by reporters about sending National Guard troops to Chicago, Trump said, “We’re going in,” but added, “I didn’t say when.”

“We have the right to do it,” he said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, have repeatedly said there’s no reason for Trump to send the National Guard, which is on the ground in the District of Columbia, targeting crime, immigration and homelessness.

“We’ve got crime on the streets,” Pritzker acknowledged last week. “Any person that gets killed or hurt is a victim of crime, is somebody that we ought to be addressing the challenges for. And we’re doing that every day. But the way to do it is with police officers, not with troops.”

Between Friday night and Monday night, 58 people were shot in 37 separate shootings in the nation’s third-largest city, according to preliminary information from police. Most survivors were in good or fair condition, but several were listed in serious or critical condition, including a 17-year-old boy. In most cases, no suspect was in custody.

Separately, the Trump administration is expected to expand immigration operations in Chicago. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed plans for a greater presence of federal agents.

Johnson over the weekend signed an order declaring that Chicago police will not collaborate with military personnel on police patrols or civil immigration enforcement.

Police will not be “deputized to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president,” said the mayor, adding that the Trump administration is “out of control.”

Violent crime has dropped in recent years in Chicago, population 2.7 million, but it remains a persistent problem in some neighborhoods. Some with the highest homicide rates have 68 times more homicides than those with the lowest rates, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

Last year, the city had 573 homicides, or 21 per every 100,000 residents, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology. Other cities had a higher rate in 2024. Chicago’s rate was down 25% compared with 2020.

Chicago police post weekly crime stats online. The department says there were 278 murders so far this year, through August, a 31% drop compared with the same eight-month period in 2024.