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PARIS — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Wednesday were handed preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor said they admitted their involvement.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said at a news conference that the two are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum Oct. 19, and that at least two other accomplices are at large. The jewels remain missing.

The two were given preliminary charges and ordered held in custody pending further investigation, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

They have “partially” admitted their participation in the robbery, Beccuau said. She declined to provide details about the suspects’ statements to investigators because accomplices were still being sought.

It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at $102 million on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.

Suspects’ DNA was found

The two men arrested on Saturday night “are suspected of being the ones who broke into the Apollo Gallery to steal the jewels,” Beccuau said.

One is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers, and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she said.

The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.

Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals involved, Beccuau said.

The four suspected robbers arrived onboard a truck equipped with a freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum’s window. The four left on two motor scooters along the Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles parked, she said.

Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices within the museum’s staff.

The jewels are still missing

The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.

“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “There’s still time to give them back.”

Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses — turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.

“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.

A long-promised revamp — a $93-million project requiring roughly 37 miles of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029-2030,” he said.

Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.

The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.

Faure urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.

Former bank robber David Desclos has told the AP the theft was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious in the layout of the gallery.

Museum and culture officials under pressure

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging “security gaps did exist.”

The museum was already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike — including security agents — over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.

Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.

Experts fear that the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past.

Adamson and Corbet write for the Associated Press.

As trial opens, Tetsuya Yamagami admits murdering Japan’s longest serving leader three years ago.

The man accused of killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 has pleaded guilty to murder.

Forty-five-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami admitted all charges read out by prosecutors as his trial opened on Tuesday, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Yamagami was charged with murder and violations of arms control laws for allegedly using a handmade weapon to shoot Japan’s longest serving leader.

“Everything is true,” the suspect told the court, according to the AFP news agency.

Abe was shot as he gave a speech during an election campaign in the western city of Nara on July 8, 2022. Yamagami was arrested at the scene.

The assassination was reportedly triggered by the suspect’s anger over links between Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to the Unification Church.

Yamagami held a grudge against the South Korean religious group due to his mother’s donation of 100 million yen ($663,218). The gift ruined his family’s financial health, Japanese media reported.

Long the subject of controversy and criticism, the Unification Church, whose followers are referred to disparagingly as “Moonies”, has since faced increased pressure from authorities over accusations of bribery.

The church’s Japanese followers are viewed as a key source of income.

The shooting was followed by revelations that more than 100 LDP lawmakers had ties to the Unification Church, driving down public support for the ruling party.

After Tuesday’s initial court session, 17 more hearings are scheduled this year before a verdict is scheduled for January 21.

The trial opened the same day as two of Abe’s former allies, LDP leader and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and visiting United States President Donald Trump, held a summit in Tokyo.

Abe, who served as Japan’s prime minister for almost nine years, is regularly mentioned by both during public events.

On Tuesday, Takaichi gave Trump a golf putter owned by Abe and other golf memorabilia during their meeting at the Akasaka Palace.

PARIS — At least two suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Sunday, a week after the heist that stunned the world.

The prosecutor said that investigators made the arrests Saturday evening, adding that one of the men taken into custody was preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

France’s BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests and did not say whether any jewels had been recovered.

Thieves took less than eight minutes Oct. 19 to steal jewels valued at more than $100 million from the world’s most-visited museum. French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled. The museum’s director called the incident a “terrible failure.”

Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. In her statement, she rued the leak of information, saying it could hinder the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators.” Beccuau said further details will be unveiled after the suspects’ custody period ends.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence.”

The Louvre reopened last week after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped in and out while museum patrons were inside, making off with some of France’s crown jewels — a cultural wound that some compared with the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.

The thieves escaped with eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.

They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship — were also part of the loot.

One piece — Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds — was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.

News of the arrests was met with relief by Louvre visitors and passersby on Sunday.

“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it does feel a bit late; we wonder how this could even happen — but it was important that the guys were caught,” said Freddy Jacquemet.

“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” added Diana Ramirez. “That’s what really matters.”

Petrequin and Garriga write for the Associated Press and reported from London and Paris, respectively.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.

Justice department officials said evidence collected from 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices showed an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city.

The fire was sparked on 7 January near a popular hiking trail overlooking the wealthy coastal neighbourhood.

The Eaton Fire, ignited the same day in the Los Angeles area, killed another 19 people and destroyed about 9,400 structures. The cause of that fire remains unclear. Mr Rinderknecht will appear in court in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.

The suspect allegedly started the fire in the Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Day. That blaze smouldered underground for days before it spread above ground.

Mr Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli said at a press conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

“The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted,” Mr Essayli said.

Officials said further charges – including murder for those who were killed – could come in the future.

The suspect was familiar with the area because he was a former resident of Pacific Palisades, officials said. Since the fires, he relocated to Florida.

He lit the fire with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve. Days later that fire spread and became one of the most damaging in Los Angeles history.

Officials said that the suspect had lied to investigators.

Among the thousands of structures destroyed in the fires were the homes of a number of celebrities including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.

PROVO, Utah — An attorney for the 22-year-old man charged with killing Charlie Kirk asked a judge Monday for more time to review the large amount of evidence in the case before deciding if the defense will seek a preliminary hearing.

A preliminary hearing would determine if there is enough evidence against Tyler Robinson to go forward with a trial. Defendants can waive that step, but Robinson’s newly appointed attorney Kathryn Nester said her team did not intend to do so.

Utah prosecutors have charged Robinson with aggravated murder and plan to seek the death penalty.

Both the defense and prosecution acknowledged at a brief hearing Monday that the amount of evidence that prosecutors have is “voluminous.” Robinson was not present for the hearing and appeared via audio from jail at his defense team’s request.

Judge Tony Graf set the next hearing for Oct. 30.

Defense attorneys for Robinson and prosecutors with the Utah County attorney’s office declined to comment after Monday’s hearing. It took place in Provo, just a few miles from the Utah Valley University campus in Orem where many students are still processing trauma from the Sept. 10 shooting and the day-and-a-half search for the suspect.

Authorities arrested Robinson when he showed up with his parents at his hometown sheriff’s office in southwest Utah, more than a three-hour drive from the site of the shooting, to turn himself in. Prosecutors have since revealed text messages and DNA evidence that they say connect Robinson to the killing.

A note that Robinson left for his romantic partner before the shooting said he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices, “and I’m going to take it,” Utah County Atty. Jeff Gray told reporters before the first hearing. Gray also said Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred.”

The killing of Kirk, a close ally of President Trump who worked to steer young voters toward conservatism, has galvanized Republicans who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of moving American politics further right.

Trump has declared Kirk a “martyr” for freedom and threatened to crack down on what he called the “radical left.”

Workers across the U.S. have been punished or fired for speaking out about Kirk‘s death, including teachers, public and private employees and media personalities — most notably Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was suspended then reinstated by ABC.

Kirk’s political organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, brought young, evangelical Christians into politics through his podcast, social media and campus events. Many prominent Republicans are filling in at the upcoming campus events Kirk planned to attend, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Sen. Mike Lee at Utah State University on Tuesday.

Schoenbaum writes for the Associated Press.

France says arrest of Hicham Harb, 42 years after attack, made possible by upcoming recognition of Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested a key suspect in a deadly 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris in a move that comes amid France’s preparations to recognise a Palestinian state.

The terror attack on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Jewish quarter of Le Marais on August 9, 1982, killed six and left 22 others injured.

France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Friday that Interpol had informed it of the arrest of Hicham Harb by Palestinian authorities under a 2015 international warrant.

President Emmanuel Macron said that the suspect had been arrested in the occupied West Bank and that his country was now working with the PA to ensure his “swift extradition” to France.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X that the arrest had been made possible by Macron’s decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, “enabling us to request extradition”.

Macron is expected to make the landmark announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, with about 10 other countries, including Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Wanted man

Harb, whose real name is Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, was one of France’s most-wanted men and had been the subject of an international arrest warrant for the past 10 years.

The 70-year-old is suspected of leading five other attackers in the gun assault on the restaurant, which was considered the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in France since the second world war.

The assault, blamed on the Palestinian Abu Nidal Organisation, began around midday when a grenade was tossed into the dining room by attackers who then entered the restaurant and opened fire with Polish-made machineguns.

Harb is suspected of having supervised the assault and also of being one of the gunmen who opened fire on diners and passersby.

He was formally indicted by French judges in July on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with the attack. Harb and five other men in the case were referred to trial.

Another suspect, Abou Zayed, a 66-year-old Norwegian of Palestinian origin, has been in French custody since his 2020 extradition from Norway. He has denied the charges.

Bruno Gendrin and Romain Ruiz, lawyers for Zayed, see the arrest of his alleged accomplice as proof that “the investigation was not complete”.

“As usual, the anti-terrorism courts wanted to rush things, and we are now seeing the consequences,” they told the news agency AFP in a statement.

The Abu Nidal Organisation is categorised as a terror group by the US and Europe.

HARD as it is to accept, if the prime McCann suspect disappears after his release from prison he’ll take all hope of solving the Maddie case with him. And I know who is to blame.

Prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 49, was given a meagre seven years behind bars for tying up, torturing and raping a pensioner in 2005, in Praia da Luz – the same village Maddie disappeared from two years later, but has now been released.

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When he was sentenced in 2019 – after witnesses and DNA tied him to the dreadful attack – he was already a multi-convicted paedophile targeting girls as young as five and with a known obsession for brutal sexual attacks, which he privately fantasised over.

But thanks to Germany’s soft-touch justice system, he has now walked free from prison despite warnings he could reoffend, serving the same sentence a violent burglar would have faced in Britain.

And was his time behind bars tough? One lag told The Sun that JVA Sehnde prison – where Brueckner was caged – is “like Starbucks,” full of friendly staff, abundant coffee and individual TVs and electrical goods provided for every inmate.

The harsh reality is that the paltry sentence Brueckner was handed by a judge is not out of the ordinary in Germany.

Critics have described the justice system as so farcical that it has become “accommodating” to criminals and “a blessing” to violent crooks and sex attackers.

In fact, you can look no further than ten miles from the prison where McCann suspect Brueckner was housed.

In Hanover, a man dubbed “The Maschsee Murderer” isn’t hiding or scraping by after his awful crime – he is enjoying a thriving social media existence.

In 1997, Alexander K lured a friend to Lake Maschsee, strangled her, dismembered the body and dumped the remains in the water.

The right-wing extremist was sentenced to just 15 years behind bars and was simply released after serving his term, despite the brutality of his crime.

Since then, Alexander has become a TikTok phenomenon with followers fascinated by him arranging dates through apps while he openly talks about his dark past.

He would go on to post pictures and videos of women he enjoyed dinner with, callously wearing T-shirts that read: “I survived a date with the Maschsee Murderer.”

While exploiting such an unforgivable crime is forbidden in the UK, Alexander has capitalised on his past, turning his vile reputation into a source of danger tourism.

Such a clear mockery of victims and the justice system suggests Brueckner could easily disappear without a trace after his release.

Another case close to Brueckner’s former jailhouse in Hanover highlights the uphill battles faced in monitoring offenders – and keeping their victims safe and reassured.

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Vanessa Münstermann’s life was transformed forever when a jilted ex took revenge by throwing acid in her face – causing her agonising pain and a lifetime of disfigurement.

The 29-year-old beautician lost an eye and an ear after she was attacked while walking her dog – and was forced to undergo surgery for years afterwards to treat her injuries.  

Critics have described the justice system as so farcical it has become ‘accommodating’ to criminals and ‘a blessing’ to violent crooks and sex attackers

A judge at the time described it as “an extreme crime with extreme consequences”.

Yet her former lover is set to be released imminently after just SIX years behind bars.

Panicked Vanessa – worried about retribution – has been trying to get officials to slap him with an electronic tag to monitor his movements and include conditions not to go near her.

Despite fighting for more than two years, there are no signs of success.

Maddie suspect released

German investigators also faced a similar uphill battle before Brueckner’s release, but it appears their calls for the sex offender to be tagged have been granted.

He officially left the high-security prison in Sehnde near Hanover just after 9:15am German time yesterday morning.

The rapist was even given breakfast before being driven away in his lawyer’s black Audi A6.

A chilling image showed Brueckner wearing a red and white striped shirt as he sat in the rear seat with his hand up in the air.

Brueckner has refused to rule out fleeing Germany now that he is free, sparking fears he could slip into a non-extradition country and dodge justice forever – even if a major Maddie breakthrough is found.

Officials have tried all they can to keep track of him, with an electronic tag being mandated and the seizure of his passport.

But investigators still worry Brueckner could flee Germany despite his conditions due to no passport being required to move freely within mainland Europe.

If he crosses the German border, then it’s believed the tag would no longer work, making him untraceable.

But let’s be clear – while the German justice as a whole has allowed Brueckner to walk free, German prosecutors, the courts, and police forces can only work with the laws of their country, which appear to be stacked heavily in Maddie suspect’s favour.

This is the situation justice officials face in Germany.

In the UK, murder attracts an automatic whole-of-life sentence. Judges set a minimum tariff — usually 20–30 years, but it can be longer.

Whole-life terms are possible in the most serious cases, meaning a prisoner will never be released.

In Germany, most killers would expect to be released after just 15 years.

In the UK, violent rapists – such as Christian Brueckner – would expect to be jailed for up to 15 years – or longer if there are aggravating factors.

Post-release monitoring exists in almost every case, making it the rule rather than the exception.

In Germany, rapists can enjoy just two years behind bars, while those with longer sentences of up to ten years are usually released early.

German law offers no way back – no remedy after the case to protect its citizens from such a threat

Terrorists face life behind bars in the UK, but often just 10–15 years in Germany, again with early release after two-thirds of the sentence has been served.

Armed robbers get 10–20 years in the UK, but as little as just five years in Germany.

Britain makes extensive use of probation, electronic tagging, Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, and lifelong licence conditions for high-risk offenders. Breaches can mean immediate recall to prison. 

German authorities face a battle just to fit electronic tags – as shown by Brueckner’s case.

There are fewer conditions upon release – and sometimes none at all – and post-release monitoring can be as little as a weekly phone call, even for society-threatening offenders such as Brueckner.

The judge who handed Brueckner the current soft sentence from which he was yesterday released is the same judge behind his sensational acquittal for rape and sex attacks on children last year.

It’s hard not to question the court’s attitude to that trial last year. It spent years trying to reject the case but was forced to take it on by a higher court and there has been private speculation over the bad blood of being forced to take such an unwanted case.

But experts have told me the judge did exactly her job and followed German law to the letter.

Perhaps her only mistake was failing to slap an order on Brueckner at his 2019 sentence that would have given officials the option to keep him behind bars, given the extraordinary danger he poses to the public.

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The argument for Germany’s preoccupation with individual liberties over society protection is understandable.

The Weimar Republic, which Adolf Hitler hijacked for his own evil ends, used police and courts to design the society it wanted – turning the justice system into a tool of dictatorship, repression and mass murder.

Modern Germany built its constitution to avoid ever again allowing courts or police to be used as instruments of tyranny, enshrining individual rights and strict limits on state power.

That is a situation the wonderful, abundantly reasonable people of Germany never want repeated.

Germany is a brilliant, modern, rich, thriving, forward-thinking democracy – with problems Britain might gladly swap its own battles for.

The people are hardworking, friendly, intelligent – but also funny and laidback in a way that smashes the clichéd image the country has sometimes carried outside its borders.

It’s well recognised here, however, that the cost of all this seems to be a propensity to forgiveness and trust in its offenders.

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Prosecutors have revealed a digital trove of evidence including text messages, in the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused killer Tyler Robinson, who has appeared in court charged with murder.

Sept. 17 (UPI) — The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British child missing since 2007, was freed Wednesday from a prison outside of Hanover in northwestern Germany after completing a sentence for an unrelated rape conviction.

Police confirmed that Christian Bruckner, 48, left Sehnde Prison, accompanied by his lawyer, after authorities, who had been desperately trying to find a way to keep him incarcerated, conceded there were no legal grounds for his continued detention.

It was unclear if he would be required to wear an electronic tracker on his ankle as demanded by prosecutors who believe he is responsible for three-year-old Madeleine’s disappearance 18 years ago from a resort in southwestern Portugal, which they are treating as a homicide.

German prosecutors also want Bruckner, a convicted pedophile and drifter who spent much of the early 2000s traveling between different European countries, to have to report to authorities on a regular basis and surrender his passport, citing him as a flight risk as they pursue an 8-year-long investigation.

State prosecutors say they have circumstantial evidence connecting him to the crime, including that his mobile phone logged in the area where Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment where she was staying with her family, as well as confessions Bruckner allegedly made to three separate witnesses.

However, the evidence so far has been insufficient for an indictment and Bruckner has never been charged with any offense related to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Bruckner was convicted and sentenced to a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for raping an elderly American woman in 2005 in Praia de Luz, from where Madeleine disappeared 18 months later.

In October, he was found not guilty of rape and child sex abuse charges in a trial in Braunschweig, east of Hanover, after the court ruled there was insufficient evidence and that the prosecution’s witnesses were “unreliable.”

The acquittal had knock-on effects on the McCann investigation and prosecutors’ effort to keep Bruckner in preventative custody beyond the end of his sentence because their case relies on some of the same witnesses.

Forensic searches directed by German police investigators, including the use of divers, were carried out at a remote reservoir Bruckner was known to frequent, 30 miles away from Praia de Luz, two years apart in May 2023 and this summer.

The search in June also focused on a 120-acre area between the Ocean Club resort where the McCann family were staying and a house Bruckner lived in at the time.

Bruckner this week declined to be interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives from Britain’s Met Police, which has also been investigating the case for the past 18 years — although as a missing persons case due to differences in the German and British legal systems.

The Met’s Detective Chief Insp. Mark Cranwell confirmed Monday the force’s request had been rejected, but that Bruckner remained a suspect.

“We have requested an interview with this German suspect but, for legal reasons, this can only be done via an International Letter of Request, which has been submitted. It was subsequently refused by the suspect. In the absence of an interview, we will nevertheless continue to pursue any viable lines of inquiry,” said Cranwell.

Tyler Robinson, 22, expected to face formal charges in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

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.

The man accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday afternoon in Utah, United States, where prosecutors are expected to formally charge him with murder.

Robinson is expected to attend the hearing remotely by video from his jail cell.

This is what we know:

What’s expected on Tuesday?

Robinson is behind bars as Utah County prosecutors move closer to filing charges in the killing.

Kirk, credited with rallying the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump reclaim the White House in 2024, was shot dead last week at Utah Valley University. Robinson was arrested two days later after a manhunt.

Prosecutors say charges could come on Tuesday, but the deadline could stretch to Friday if more time is needed to review what they call a “mountain of evidence”.

If the filing happens today, a news conference is likely.

“Assuming that we can file charges by Tuesday, we will hold a press conference to explain those charges and the next steps in this case. That press conference will be held Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at noon [18:00 GMT],” County Attorney Jeff Gray said in a press statement on Saturday.

The charges are expected to mirror Robinson’s initial booking.

“Our ability to file charges depends on how quickly we can gather and carefully review mountains of evidence. We will be thorough and deliberate at every stage of this case,” Gray added.

If charges are filed on Tuesday, Robinson’s first court appearance will follow the same day at 3pm (21:00 GMT) over Webex.

What charges are likely to be filed?

It is not clear yet, but Robinson was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail early on Friday morning on suspicion of three crimes:

• aggravated murder,
• obstruction of justice, and
• felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury.

Prosecutors have listed these offences in an affidavit filed with the court.

According to Gray, under Utah law, aggravated murder is punishable by death, life in prison without parole, or 25 years to life with the possibility of parole. Obstruction of justice carries a penalty of one to 15 years in prison, while felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury carries a sentence of five years to life.

According to a Public Safety Assessment Report filed in Utah state court, Robinson has no prior convictions and no history of violent offences.

He is currently being held without bail.

What else is happening on Tuesday?

FBI Director Kash Patel is preparing to face tough congressional scrutiny over his handling of the investigation into the killing of Kirk. Congresspeople are likely to press him on early missteps, including a now-corrected social media post wrongly claiming that a suspect was already in custody.

Patel will testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, where questions will likely extend beyond the Kirk case to his broader leadership of the FBI. Congresspeople are expected to challenge him on whether he can steady an agency riven by political infighting and internal turmoil since his appointment, at a time when toxic partisan divisions continue to grip the nation.

The hearing will start at 9am (13:00 GMT) at the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216. A livestream will be available here.

FBI Director Kash Patel is bracing for US congressional scrutiny over his leadership of the investigation into the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk https://t.co/aykF1L4KXx pic.twitter.com/URPxRhw3ad

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 14, 2025

What else do we know about Robinson?

Robinson grew up in St George, southwestern Utah, where his parents, married for about 25 years, run a granite countertop business.

Eldest of the three brothers, he lived with his family in a six-bedroom home. Social media posts show an active, close-knit household that travelled widely and enjoyed outdoor activities such as boating, riding in all-terrain vehicles, and target shooting.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since childhood, Robinson excelled in school, making the honour roll and scoring in the 99th percentile on national tests.

In 2021, he earned a scholarship to Utah State University but left after one semester. He is now a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship programme at Dixie Technical College in St George.

State records show he is registered to vote with no party affiliation and did not participate in the last two general elections. In their affidavit to the court, prosecutors said a family member of Robinson had told them that the 22-year-old had become “more political in recent years”. The relative also told prosecutors about a family dinner Kirk had attended before the September 10 shooting, where they had discussed Kirk. Robinson had mentioned, during that visit, about Kirk’s upcoming event at Utah Valley University.

“They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had. The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate,” the prosecutors wrote in the affidavit, referring to Robinson and the relative they spoke to.

Prosecutors have also said the ammunition recovered at the scene bore engravings tied to meme culture and anti-fascist themes.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox also said Robinson’s partner and flatmate, whom he described as “incredibly cooperative”, was transgender. However, though Kirk had anti-transgender views, investigators have not confirmed any link between that and his assassination.

DNA evidence links the suspect in the assassination of the conservative American activist Charlie Kirk last week to the scene of the crime, the director of the FBI has said.

DNA from a towel and a screwdriver recovered from the crime scene both match Tyler Robinson, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday.

Robinson, 22, was arrested by police on Thursday after a 33-hour manhunt for the killer.

“I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody,” Patel said in an interview on Fox News’s Fox & Friends.

Patel said Robinson had also expressed his desire to “take out” Kirk in a text exchange with another person, and had written a note detailing his plans to commit the crime.

Patel said the note had been destroyed, but investigators recovered forensic evidence of its existence at the home of Robinson and his romantic partner, who prosecutors have said has been cooperating in the investigation.

“We have evidence to show what was in that note, which is… basically saying… ‘I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it’,” he said.

Kirk, the CEO and cofounder of conservative youth activist organisation Turning Point USA and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, was shot dead last Wednesday during a speaking event at a university in Utah.

The killing of Kirk, a polarising figure who was lionised by conservatives and reviled by liberals, has provoked condemnation across the political spectrum, while drawing attention to deep political divisions in the United States and raising fears of further political violence.

The murder has also prompted calls for retribution among the political right, including from Trump, who has promised to use the power of the federal government to crack down on left-wing networks that he claims are driving violence.

On Monday, Trump said his administration was looking into bringing racketeering charges against left-wing groups believed to be funding agitators, and favoured designating the loose-knit antifascist group Antifa as domestic terrorists.

Trump’s pledge to crack down on what he says is left-wing extremism has raised fears that his administration may seek to use Kirk’s murder as a pretext to stifle legitimate dissent.

In an appearance as guest host of Kirk’s podcast, Vice President JD Vance backed a grassroots online campaign to get people who celebrated Kirk’s death fired, urging listeners to “call them out” and “call their employer.”

Numerous employees across the US have been fired or put on leave over their social media commentary about Kirk’s death, not all of whom celebrated or justified the assassination.

Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said on Monday that she had been fired over her social media posts about Kirk.

In a column on Substack, Attiah said she had been terminated for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”

Attiah included a number of past posts about political violence in her column, only one of which mentioned Kirk specifically.

That posted misquoted Kirk as saying that black women “do not not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously.”

Kirk’s actual comments specifically referred to the intelligence of four black women, including former first lady Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Responding to a claim by Vance that “most of the lunatics” in US politics reside on the far-left, Democratic lawmaker Greg Casar accused the Trump administration of weaponising concerns about political violence against its opponents.

“He cannot be allowed to use the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to go after peaceful political opposition,” Casar, who represents a Texas district in the US House of Representatives, said in a statement.

High-profile acts of political violence have targeted figures on both the left and right of US politics in recent years.

They include the killing of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota in June, two assassination attempts on Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign, and a 2022 hammer attack on the husband of Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Experts say that politically motivated attacks and threats are on the rise in the US.

More than 250 incidents of threats and harassment against local officials were reported in the first half of 2025, a 9 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University.

While little information has been released about Robinson’s suspected motive so far, Patel on Monday affirmed an earlier assertion by Utah Governor Spencer Cox that the suspect espoused left-wing views.

“His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology, and even more so in these last couple of years,” Patel said.

The suspect in the assassination of the conservative American activist Charlie Kirk espoused left-wing views, Utah’s governor has said, amid heightened tensions and recriminations over surging political violence in the United States.

In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the arrested suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, had a “leftist ideology” despite growing up in a conservative family.

“We can confirm that, again, according to family and people that we’re interviewing, he does come from a conservative family. But his ideology was very different than his family, and so that’s part of it,” Cox said.

Cox, a Republican, did not elaborate on Robinson’s suspected motive, but said the suspect had spent time in “dark places” online.

“We do know, and again, this has been well publicised, that this was a very normal young man, a very smart young man,” Cox said.

According to public records, Robinson registered as a nonpartisan voter in Utah, while his parents are registered Republicans.

In a separate interview with CNN’s State of the Union, Cox said the information about Robinson’s left-wing views had come from interviews with family members and friends.

“I really don’t have a dog in this fight. If this was MAGA, and a radicalised MAGA person, I would be saying that as well,” Cox said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

“That’s not what they’re sharing.”

Cox also confirmed reports that Robinson had a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, who was transitioning from male to female.

“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening, and is working with investigators right now,” he said.

Cox said he was not aware if Robinson’s relationship had any relevance to the assassination, but that authorities were investigating.

“We’re trying to figure it out. I know everybody wants to know exactly why, and point the finger, and I totally get that. I do too,” he said.

Kirk, the leader and cofounder of youth activist group Turning Post USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead on Wednesday during a speaking appearance at Utah Valley University.

A key figure on the political right, Kirk was described in media profiles as a “rock star” among young conservatives, and played a pivotal role in driving the youth vote in Trump’s November re-election.

A polarising figure, Kirk was lionised by conservatives as a defender of traditional values and a champion of free speech, but seen by liberals as an incendiary figure who stoked hatred towards racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.

While both Republican and Democratic leaders have condemned Kirk’s murder, the killing has drawn attention to the extreme political polarisation pitting everyday Americans against one another.

In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, some left-leaning Americans took to social media to celebrate, prompting outrage from conservatives and the launch of online campaigns to get people deemed disrespectful of Kirk’s memory fired from their jobs.

On the right, some figures invoked the rhetoric of retribution and war.

“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” tech billionaire Elon Musk said on X.

Trump, who swiftly denounced the rhetoric of the “radical left” after Kirk’s killing, has declined opportunities to stress the need for unity and avoid partisan blame since the assassination.

Speaking on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Friday, Trump sought to paint left-wing extremism as worse than extremism on the right.

“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime,” Trump said.

“The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.”

In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said that while he would like to see the country heal, “we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did”.

Kirk’s assassination has prompted fears of further violence amid a documented increase in politically motivated attacks.

According to a tally by the Reuters news agency, the US experienced at least 300 instances of political violence between the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and the 2024 presidential election, marking it out as the worst period for such violence since the 1970s.

SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities in Utah say two men have been arrested on suspicion of placing an incendiary device under a news media vehicle in Salt Lake City. The bomb didn’t go off.

Police and fire department bomb squads responded Friday when a suspicious device was found under the vehicle parked near an occupied building.

Investigators determined the bomb “had been lit but failed to function as designed,” according to court records cited by CBS affiliate KUTV on Sunday.

The FBI identified two suspects and served a search warrant at a home in the Magna neighborhood west of the city’s downtown. Two men, ages 58 and 31, were arrested and could face charges related to weapons possession and threats of terrorism, ABC affiliate KTVX reported Sunday.

Neighboring homes were evacuated during the search, which turned up explosives and “explosive-related components,” firearms, illegal narcotics and other paraphernalia, court records say. Authorities say they also found at least two devices that turned out to be hoax weapons of mass destruction.

There was no information about a possible motive and the relationship between the two suspects wasn’t immediately known.

News media have descended on Salt Lake City following last week’s killing of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in nearby Orem.

WASHINGTON — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday that investigators are not ready to discuss the motive behind the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But he said the 22-year-old suspect had left-leaning political beliefs and disliked the conservative influencer.

“Clearly a leftist ideology,” Cox told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” On CNN’s “State of the Union,” he said, “That information comes from the people around him, his family members and friends.”

Cox said that Tyler Robinson, who was arrested last week, is “not cooperating” and that friends paint a picture of someone radicalized in the dark corners of the internet. “Clearly there was a lot of gaming going on,” Cox said on NBC. “Friends have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep.”

Cox, a Republican who has urged all partisans to tone down their rhetoric following the attack, added: “I really don’t have a dog in this fight. If this was a radicalized MAGA person, I’d be saying that as well.”

Cox stressed on several Sunday morning news shows, however, that investigators are still trying to pin down a motive for the attack on Kirk, a father of two and confidant of President Trump who was killed Wednesday while on one of his signature college speaking tours at Utah Valley University in Orem. The governor said more information may come out once Robinson appears in court Tuesday.

The governor said Robinson’s partner is transgender, which some politicians have pointed to as a sign the suspect was targeting Kirk for his anti-trans views. But authorities have not said whether it is relevant as they investigate Robinson’s motive.

“The roommate was a romantic partner, a male transitioning to female,” Cox said. “I can say that he has been incredibly cooperative, this partner has been very cooperative, had no idea that this was happening.”

Investigators have spoken to Robinson’s relatives and carried out a search warrant at his family’s home in Washington, Utah, about 240 miles southwest of Utah Valley University.

State records show Robinson is registered to vote but not affiliated with a political party and is listed as inactive, meaning he did not vote in the two most recent general elections. His parents are registered Republicans.

Ammunition found with the weapon used to kill Kirk was engraved with taunting, antifascist and meme-culture messages. Court records show that one bullet casing had the message, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”

Robinson grew up around St. George, in the southwestern corner of Utah between Las Vegas and natural landmarks including Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks.

He became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church, at a young age, church spokesperson Doug Andersen said.

Robinson has two younger brothers, and his parents have been married for about 25 years, according to social media posts. Online activity by Robinson’s mother reflects an active family that took vacations to Disneyland, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Alaska.

Like many in that part of Utah, they frequently spent time outdoors — boating, fishing, riding ATVs, zip-lining and target shooting. A 2017 post shows the family visiting a military facility and posing with assault rifles. A young Robinson is seen smiling as he grips the handles of a .50-caliber heavy machine gun.

A high school honor roll student who scored in the 99th percentile nationally on standardized tests, he was admitted to Utah State University in 2021 on a prestigious academic scholarship, according to a video of him reading his acceptance letter that was posted to a family member’s social media account.

But he attended for only one semester, according to the university. He is currently enrolled as a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in St. George.

Riccardi and Boak write for the Associated Press and reported from Denver and Washington, respectively.

The governor of Utah has been criticised after he said he prayed that the man suspected of shooting Charlie Kirk “wouldn’t be one of us.” In Friday’s briefing, US officials revealed that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson had been arrested and that he had engraved messages on bullets.

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.

OREM, Utah — Authorities said Thursday they have fresh leads in their massive manhunt for a college-age shooter who killed influential right-wing activist Charlie Kirk with a single bullet as he spoke at a Utah college campus.

No suspects were in custody Thursday, more than 20 hours after the shooting, and officials have yet to identify the gunman. However, Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Salt Lake City office, said that investigators recovered the weapon they believe was used to kill Kirk — a high-powered bolt-action rifle they found in a wooded area near the campus — as well as the suspect’s footprints and palm prints.

“We are and will continue to work nonstop until we find the person that has committed this heinous crime, and find out why they did it,” Bohls said.

A close ally of President Trump who founded the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, Kirk was killed Wednesday by a single shot fired from the rooftop of a nearby building as he addressed a question about mass shootings at a Utah Valley University campus in Orem.

Investigators are tracking a suspect who appeared to be college age and blended in on campus, Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, told reporters Thursday morning. They have scoured dozens of feeds from campus security cameras and collected footwear impressions, a palm print and forearm imprints for analysis.

Video of the crowd captured by an attendee shows a lone figure in black dashing across the rooftop of the Losee Center, a building about 150 yards from where Kirk was speaking.

Mason said investigators “are confident in our abilities to track” the shooter and had “good video footage” that they were not ready to release.

“We are working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual,” he said.

After scouring camera security footage, investigators believe the shooter arrived on campus at about 11:52 am and moved through the stairwells, up to the roof, across the roof to the shooting location, Mason said.

“We were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building and fled off of the campus and into a neighborhood,” Mason said. “Our investigators worked through those neighborhoods, contacting anybody they can, with doorbell cameras, witnesses, and have thoroughly worked through those communities trying to identify any leads.”

Bohls said investigators recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle in a wooded area where the shooter had fled. A law enforcement source told The Times a Mauser 30-06 was recovered by investigators. Investigators have not said whether the rifle had been traced to an owner.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said Wednesday night its State Crime Lab is working “multiple active crime scenes” — from the site where Kirk was shot to the locations he and the suspect traveled — with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Utah County Attorney’s office, the Utah County Sheriff’s office, and the local police departments.

Hope for a speedy capture of the suspect faded Wednesday night after the F.B.I. released the man its director, Kash Patel, had said was a subject of the investigation. After thanking local and state authorities for taking into custody “the subject for the horrific shooting,” Patel announced that the man had been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.

“Our investigation continues,” Patel said.

Another man who was taken into custody a few hours earlier was later released after being booked by Utah Valley University police on suspicion of obstruction of justice.

Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday at an event commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks, President Trump said he would posthumously award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Kirk.

“Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people,” Trump said.

The shooter is believed to have fired about 20 minutes after Kirk began speaking Wednesday on a grassy campus courtyard under a white canopy emblazoned with the slogan “PROVE ME WRONG.” The event, attended by about 3,000 people, was the first stop on Kirk’s American Comeback Tour of U.S. campuses.

Some experts who have seen videos believe that the assailant probably had experience with firearms, given the precision with which the single shot was fired from a considerable distance.

Videos shared on social media show Kirk sitting on a chair, taking questions in front of a large crowd of people.

“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, a shot rings out. Kirk falls back, blood gushing his neck. Video show people screaming and fleeing from the event.

The killing — the latest incident in a spate of violent attacks targeting American politicians on the left and the right — led to swift condemnation of political violence from both sides of the ideological divide. But it also led to a blame game.

After President Trump celebrated Kirk as a “patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate” and “martyr for truth and freedom,” he said in an evening video broadcast from the Oval Office that “‘radical left” rhetoric was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”

Trump — who did not mention recent acts of political violence against Democratic lawmakers — called for a crackdown on leftwing groups.

Even as the House of Representatives observed a moment of silence for Kirk Wednesday when he was still in critical condition, the floor descended into chaos when some Democrats pushed back on a Republican legislator’s request that someone lead the group in prayer.

Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a former conservative influencer and close friend of Kirk, pointed angrily at Democrats. “You all caused this,” she shouted.

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 in November, Kirk frequently posted to social media from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he had firsthand 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.

At a Turning Point event on the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church in 2023, he said that gun violence was worth the price of upholding the right to bear arms.

“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the 2nd Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said. “That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”

Kirk also previously declared that God was on the side of American conservatives and that there was “no separation of church and state.” 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.”