President Trump announced on Friday that a suspect had been taken into custody in connection with Charlie Kirk’s assassination. “I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” during a live interview at the cable giant’s Manhattan studio. “Somebody who was very close to him turned him in,” the president said.
The suspect is believed to have fired a single round from an elevated spot roughly 200 yards away from the tent where 31-year-old Kirk was seated at the university’s Losee Center, authorities and sources had previously said. Kirk was shot in the neck and rushed to the hospital, but did not survive.
Big Breakthrough
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Trump’s in-studio appearance was unusual and came just two days after the conservative leader was shot and killed during a college event in Utah. Trump said that he didn’t want to get ahead of the Justice Department or the FBI but shared a few details about how investigators located the suspected gunman.
“It was a minister who was involved with law enforcement… his good friend is a top U.S. Marshal – and they took it from there,” Trump said, hinting that the suspect’s father encouraged him to surrender.
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On Thursday, the president traveled to New York City, his longtime home, to attend the Yankees’ September 11 remembrance game.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, canceled their trip to New York City for Ground Zero memorial services.
Earlier Thursday, the FBI released photos of the “person of interest,” describing him as a college-aged man dressed entirely in black. He was wearing a cap with a triangle symbol and a shirt featuring the American flag and an eagle.
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During the quick escape, the suspect left a palm print and other smudges on the roof — evidence investigators say could provide DNA to help track him down.
The FBI said it has already received around 7,000 tips about the assassination — the highest number since the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Arrested and Questioned
Kirk was shot in the neck and killed on Wednesday afternoon while hosting one of his well-known “Prove Me Wrong” debates at Utah Valley University, which was also the first stop on his “American Comeback” tour.
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Video taken by people at the event shows Kirk collapsing as blood poured from his neck before he slipped out of his chair.
Chaos broke out as both supporters and protesters ran in panic, while his security team rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Kirk, a close ally of top political figures including President Trump and Vice President JD Vance, has since been honored with an outpouring of condolences and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
