September 11, 2025 • 21 mins
Amy and T.J. go through new details released today by police, including the “sniper” weapon they believe the shooter left behind after assassinating 31-year-old Charlie Kirk. Police initially hesitated to release a photo of the suspect, but now, they’re asking for the public’s help to identify the man, seen in the photos wearing a dark shirt, dark sunglasses, and baseball cap.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, September eleventh, and it
has already been a day of developments in the Charlie
Kirk assassination investigation. But as we speak, the assassin is
still on the loose, and welcome to this edition of
Amy and TJ and Rowe still on the loose. But
(00:24):
after some back and forth, the police have made the
decision to release images and we're just getting a look
at that in the past few minutes.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's true, they did an about face about three hours
in the making. So at nine am Eastern time, we
heard police say that they did have images captured on
CCTV around campus, but they weren't going to release it
because they felt confident they were going to be able
to find him through their own technology. But yes, fast
forward a few hours later and they have released two images.
(00:54):
That's how many I've seen of the suspected gunmen. And
it's a pretty good image. You pretty good look at
his face and certainly what he was wearing, and he
didn't have a mask. He just had sunglasses on, a
hoodie and a hat.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And look, you can go out and you can look
at the images and you will see them everywhere today
as far as our description goes, looked like a white guy. Yeah.
They did say earlier in the press conference they had
this morning that the person blended in and was able
to blend in with students. So I assume there might
have been somebody who was college age, at least from
(01:29):
my appearance. It looks sortaly could blend in, but looked
like might've been a little older even.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I mean, he looked to me, he looked like he
was a kid in his twenties, A white guy in
his twenties. That's what he looked like to me.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It looked like as well, it looked like to you
that one of the images is walking up maybe a staircase,
getting somewhere. But yeah, and it couldn't make out quite
the image on the shirt. It looked like it had
an American flag that had been distorted in some way
over an image, but you could make that out at least.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, it's a thin guy, and yes, definitely see an
American flag on that. It wasn't a hoodie. Maybe it
was just a long sleeve dark shirt, but yeah, I
couldn't tell if it looked like even a firearm or
some sort of a gabbl or some dark object over
an American flag. I couldn't quite.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Tell what it was, all right, So that is what
we just got and we decided to hop on as
soon as we saw those images and got that latest update.
But the fact still remains here. We are twenty four
hours after the shooting and killing of Charlie Kirk. The
assassin is still on the loose. The killer is still
on the loose. The police made clear they do not
think anyone else is a target or is in danger
(02:38):
from this person. They believe, yes, this was a singular
event and Charlie Kirk was the intended target. So but
that part the rest, but robes they started pretty early
this morning. It was seven am out in Utah when
they had this press conference to give us an update
and pretty significant stuff, starting with first they think they
(02:59):
got the weapon.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, And they made it very clear and it was
pretty obvious that law enforcement have been working throughout the
night to try and figure out the movements of this gunman.
And yes, they do believe they have the firearm that
he used. But they were able to track his movements
starting at eleven fifty two a m. Yesterday When they
(03:20):
say that is the exact time they can document that
he arrived on campus and then that picture that we
see that they released looks like that is him going
through a stairwell to get onto that roof of the
building where they believe he set up and took aim
at Charlie Kirk. But it's pretty remarkable they were able
to kind of detail what he did and even detail
(03:43):
his escape. They say he jumped off the building, fled
campus and into a neighborhood and then into the woods.
They were even asking and they've been asking people who
live in that neighborhood for their doorbell cams, their ring camps,
their security footage that they might have on their property
to try and really just track his movement. But they
do track him into these woods, and that is where
(04:04):
they found the firearm.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And we're looking here now. As I'm talking, I'm still
looking at the images. And like you said, it was
a long sleeve, dark T shirt. It's hard to make out,
but you can tell the American flag distorted by something.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Doesn't it kind of look like it Judge's gavel or
a firearm. It's hard to make out. It's a little fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Surely he's changed closed behind. But they also were saying
in that press conference robe. They don't know where he is,
how far he has gotten, but as the time goes on,
they certainly think he could be getting farther away. I was.
We were both kind of taken aback. They say, we
need help identifying We're using our own technology to identify
(04:48):
this person based on the images we have, and the
thought was, well, why not just go ahead and get
the public's help. They'll be able to give you probably
an answer in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We were actually discussing that amongst ourselves, thinking what would
be the reasoning behind not releasing the photo right away.
Our best guess was that somehow they didn't want to
tip him off. But that seems bizarre because if they
gave the description, and they gave a lot of information,
why wouldn't they then release his face to get more
(05:18):
people who might recognize him to call in and say
this is his name. Now we know they have a
shoeprint I believe of the shoe he was wearing, and
they also said they have a palm print and a
fore arm impression. So look, if they have a palm print,
I don't know can you trace that? And this is
a kid who may or may not have had any
sort of criminal history. Who knows if even a fingerprint
would have helped, But certainly after the fact, once they
(05:41):
capture him, they can link him to these the shoeprint,
the palm print, the forearm print, But in terms of
finding him or identifying him through that, I'm not sure
how that would work.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
The other again, what happened in three hours? What happened
in that three hours from when they said we're not
going to release they said, we have it, we can
see this person, but we're not going to show it
to you the public because we're confident, they said, confident
in their ability to use whatever technology they have to
(06:12):
identify the person. Something happened in that three hours, and
a decision was made to get this out to the public.
I took a beat to think, well, maybe it's a
matter of wanting to track this person down before somebody
else does. Given the temperature out there right now, you
could absolutely see not just one, not two, but a
(06:33):
mob of people possibly going and trying to track this
person out.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And when you said that, I said, of course that
has to be what it is. The concern of retaliation
of continued violence, is someone some individual citizen with vigilante
justice in their head, wanting to go ahead and put
some sort of stamp on retribution, and so, yes, that
would be the concern. But ultimately, at the end of
(06:57):
the day, they need to catch this guy. So they
had to put those concerns, if that is what their
concern was, they had to put those on the back
burner and say, the most important thing right now is
that we get this person in custody behind bars. And yeah,
he is, actually I think it's very fair to say
he is in danger from the public. Yeah, certain members
(07:19):
of the public, if they find him, if they identify him,
if they know who he is, to take matters into
their own hands for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And what does this do to the investigation? Now that
he knows his image, he's going to see his image
on every cable news channel right now. Then what does
he do. I don't really knows how stable. Well, you
have to be pretty unstable, don't you, to put off
something to do something like this. But what happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know how identifiable he is. I mean, obviously
if you know him and you see him, it might
ring a bell. But he kind of looks like your
average white dude in his early twenties. He has a
hat and glasses on. He's thin, very thin, and he's
a slight person. But he could be anybody. I wouldn't
be able to necessarily pick him out, but if you
(08:09):
knew him, if you knew him, that's different. But just
from the average joe looking at him, he looks like anybody.
He looks like everybody. He doesn't have a specific or
distinctive look, So, I, you know, I'm not sure how
that works. But we also found out some more specifics
about the gun police believed that he was using. They
called it a bolt action rifle. Apparently this is you see,
(08:31):
I don't know anything about guns, but you just made
a face and a gesture, So what what do you
know about this?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
What I know is if you're using a bolt action rifle,
this is a sniper rifle. This is something you use
when you are trying to have a precision, precision shot,
a single shot, because that's how you load it one
of the time it's bolt action. To show it to you,
you'll recognize it. You essentially have to manually dislodge the
(08:59):
carters that time and relow. It's one at a time.
So this is a it's considered a sniper accurate, few
moving parts, very reliable, long range weapon.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
If this isn't some AR fifteen, some assault rifle where
you're trying to kill as many people as quickly as possible,
this is. They described it as an older model Mauser
thirty six caliber high powered bolt action rifle. They say
it's a military rifle that's popular with hunters, and so
to what you're saying, that makes a lot of sense.
(09:33):
And yes, they found several cartridges, including a spent round
in the rifle's chamber, so that would absolutely back up
what we know that that single shot was fired. This
rifle that they uncovered had one spent round. And so
right now the weapon and the ammunition, as you might imagine,
(09:53):
are being traced by the ATF. They actually have it
by analysts in West Virginia trying to connect the dots
and figure out who owned this rifle, who purchased this rifle,
all of those things. But right now there's no evidence
from the gun that has led to a name where
we'd actually know who police are looking for.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This was a precision planned execution, even down to the
weapon chosen for it. That's incredible. I mean, we are
all curious, who knows how this is going to end,
But to get an answer as to who this person is,
what they were thinking, why they did this, how they
planned it, how they pulled it off, and to think
(10:34):
that person is still on the run when every resource,
you know, the federal government and including some pressure is coming,
maybe even from the White House. You need to get
this guy and get him now because he just went
after one of our guys. This is really an incredible story.
And to you, we were saying earlier how he blended in.
You can't really blend in if you're carrying around of
(10:56):
a bolt action rifle. They found a screwdriver that might
have explained maybe there were some assembly and disassembly of
the correct leesson.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So they found a screwdriver near the weapon, and that
is their best guess that he actually used the screwdriver
to disassemble it, to carry it around, and then to
reassemble it once he got on that roof. But it's
interesting because I know he didn't want to draw attention
to himself, but it actually is perfectly legal to walk
around in Utah on a college campus with a long
(11:25):
weapon not concealed, which is kind of scary. I think
there was only a handful of states, about a dozen
states that allow this, but Utah is among them, so
he could have He would have drawn attention, of course,
but legally he was allowed to do that. If he
bought the gun legally and owned the gun legally, he
would have been able to walk around with it. He
didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he specifically
(11:47):
where the police are believing that he specifically concealed it
so that he could then get up on that rooftop
or climb up those stairs without anyone being suspicious. And
then yeah, he reassembled it once he got on that roof. Yes,
this was it appears to have been a very calculated crime.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
But during the press conference to the first thing this morning,
you had the FBI and the Department of Public Safety
there in Utah giving a joint press conference in which
we were all clamoring for details, for updates, certainly about
the suspect, but they decided that it was necessary to
take time during this press conference to send a very
(12:26):
specific message out there to people who have been going
after the two persons of interest. We continue here now
at Amy and TJ. The search now Roads has been
(12:48):
going on a manhunt for twenty four plus hours as
we record this for the person who pulled off a
political assassination in front of a crowd of thousands.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, and as police are hunting down leads. We mentioned
the rifle that they found that they believe the gunmen used.
We are actually hearing CNN is reporting this. I'm not
sure if anyone else's, but I wanted to point this out.
They have reported They say they have sources close to
the investigation who have told them that a range of
phrases related to cultural issues were found scrawled on this
(13:25):
rifle that authorities found in the woods along with that ammunition,
and they say that they're analyzing those messages as they're
trying to figure out a who is responsible, but why
the why, the motive behind the attack. Also among what
was scrawled on the rifle, according to these sources, is
there are initials, and they're wondering if those initials could
(13:49):
possibly match the suspects initials. So they're actually going through
suspect profiles and seeing if they can match the initials
on the gun with the initials of some a led suspect.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
What kind of things again, repeat to me, I know
you were giving at the more a range of phrases
related to cultural issues that is very generic. But that
is the reporting, and the first thing that comes to
your mind, of course is MANNGIONI comes to your mind
the United Healthcare right, didn't.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He He did on the on the showcase. I'm not
sure about the weapon, but certainly the showcasings had messages
written on. So now you already this was seen as
a political assassination that will certainly go farther in the
camp of proving that point we were talking. It was
a back and forth and look, this is a fast
moving case and investigation. After all this happened and all
(14:42):
the panic, and nobody was exactly sure what was going on.
And at one point yesterday we were going back and
forth between cable news channels. One was saying the suspect
was in custody. Another was saying, no, we had one
law enforcement into the out there in Utah saying a
suspect was in custody. We have another saying and then
we thought it was put to bed when the FBI
(15:03):
director told everybody we got the suspect.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
And we also coupled with that the initial report from
the university had video that accompanied it, so we all
saw an elderly gentleman brought to his knees being handcuffed.
That video was widely circulated. As the suspect has been apprehended,
so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. No one
has to worry about some gunman being on the run
(15:29):
or on loose because the guy who did it is
behind bars or at least in police custody. That ended
up not being the gunman, and police have said as much.
And then this other person we don't know, but apparently
others have been able to identify them through either video
or sources or whatever. And we heard in the press
conference earlier this morning the FBI director saying stop or
(15:51):
was he might have even been a local Utah guy
who was saying, please stop targeting or making a threat
towards these two individuals who were never suspects, who were
only persons of interest who were interrogated and released, and
they have no connection to the shooting whatsoever. And yet
it appears these two individuals are still being harassed.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And so to our point about the actual suspect, these
are people who aren't even suspects and they're being harassed,
and this law enforcement guy who is trying to solve
the murder that we all saw happen in front of
cameras has to take the time to say back off.
So that just lets you know where we are. And
to the safety point, I mean, I hope they get
(16:36):
him in custody. I hope they get him in custody
before somebody figures out who he is and where he is.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
There's that absolutely. And then you have lawmakers all across
this country that had scheduled events. Everyone's canceling their events,
and they say out of respect for what happened to
Charlie Kirk, but also out of concern, out of a
safety construer. So everyone's on edge right now, and certainly
(17:04):
some of the things that are being said among certain lawmakers,
I would argue are not helping with the environment we
are in right now.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's to your point. I mean, we can't even agree
that it's bad that somebody killed somebody else, Like, we're
not even on the same page on that. It depends
on what side of the aisle you're on, where you're
looking at as all, they killed one of theirs, or
you can't. I don't know how we can do. I
know this ain't the time for that. We were just
(17:36):
trying to give the facts and the update about what
happened with the case today. But to your point, wherebes
this is not helping. A lot of this rhetoric is
not helping. Twenty four hours from this man being dead,
it's not helping.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No, And certainly lawmakers are saying they don't believe that
any any lawmaker should hold a public event outside right now.
That's where we're at right now. They don't feel like
any lawmaker or even a political activist. I mean, Charlie
Kirk was not a lawmaker. He was just a political
activist who certainly was affiliated with the MAGA movement in
Trump but he was not a member. He had no
(18:12):
actual power within our government. Certainly he had very strong
political beliefs that people disagreed with. But anyway, anyone who
is now a part of this US government is concerned
about having any sort of public event and that could
change the way yeah we do business and the way
(18:35):
lawmakers even run for reelection. Who knows the ripple effects
this is going to have.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It should not be an act of bravery in this
country to just step out in public and speak. It
just should not be categorized that way. Folks. We are
we're keeping a close eye on everything related to this case. Well,
how back on and give you the latest and some
context to go along with it whenever it warrants.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, and oh, I was just to say something else.
There's been a couple announcements, but I thought this was
of note President Trump announcing that he's going to award
Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. That's the
highest civilian honor that can be awarded by their president.
So he's already acknowledged that he's going to do that,
and he is speaking with Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica later today,
(19:20):
but we also know jd. Vance is actually traveling too.
I believe the family to meet with them in person.
But from all accounts anyone who's spoken with her and
with the family members of Charlie Kirk, they've said, and
this goes without saying that they're just absolutely devastated. So
it's still, even as we're searching for this gunman, there
is incredible amount of heartbreak for the Kirk family and
(19:45):
it's hard to imagine what they're going through right now.
At this moment, it's been twenty four hours, give or take,
actually less than twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Right, two babies, two babies lost of that, Two babies
lost of that, And you said it earlier. That was
interesting perspective. They are not old enough even possibly to
have memories maybe later of their dad. No, the little
ones won.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right, Milania Trump, I don't have it in front of me.
But she actually had a really poignant response a statement
she put out on social media about how instead of
having memories, they're going to have photographs. Instead of being
held or having hugs when their father, they're going to
be told of their father like these are. This is
going to have a lasting impact on an entire family
(20:29):
and generations to come. And you know, it's it. I
know we get caught up in the politics of it,
in the horror of it, perhaps, and certainly in the
manhunt that's going on right now, but there isn't a
family and a whole group of people who are deeply
suffering today.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, folks, we will hop back in as the
update sworn. But but again, there's always a top right
corner in that Apple podcast app, it says follow you
just click that and you'll be able to get our updates.
You don't have to go hunting for them. They will
come right to you. And there seemed like there have
been a lot of updates lately, so folks, we always
appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
M H.
Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, September eleventh, and it
has already been a day of developments in the Charlie
Kirk assassination investigation. But as we speak, the assassin is
still on the loose, and welcome to this edition of
Amy and TJ and Rowe still on the loose. But
(00:24):
after some back and forth, the police have made the
decision to release images and we're just getting a look
at that in the past few minutes.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's true, they did an about face about three hours
in the making. So at nine am Eastern time, we
heard police say that they did have images captured on
CCTV around campus, but they weren't going to release it
because they felt confident they were going to be able
to find him through their own technology. But yes, fast
forward a few hours later and they have released two images.
(00:54):
That's how many I've seen of the suspected gunmen. And
it's a pretty good image. You pretty good look at
his face and certainly what he was wearing, and he
didn't have a mask. He just had sunglasses on, a
hoodie and a hat.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And look, you can go out and you can look
at the images and you will see them everywhere today
as far as our description goes, looked like a white guy. Yeah.
They did say earlier in the press conference they had
this morning that the person blended in and was able
to blend in with students. So I assume there might
have been somebody who was college age, at least from
(01:29):
my appearance. It looks sortaly could blend in, but looked
like might've been a little older even.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I mean, he looked to me, he looked like he
was a kid in his twenties, A white guy in
his twenties. That's what he looked like to me.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It looked like as well, it looked like to you
that one of the images is walking up maybe a staircase,
getting somewhere. But yeah, and it couldn't make out quite
the image on the shirt. It looked like it had
an American flag that had been distorted in some way
over an image, but you could make that out at least.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, it's a thin guy, and yes, definitely see an
American flag on that. It wasn't a hoodie. Maybe it
was just a long sleeve dark shirt, but yeah, I
couldn't tell if it looked like even a firearm or
some sort of a gabbl or some dark object over
an American flag. I couldn't quite.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Tell what it was, all right, So that is what
we just got and we decided to hop on as
soon as we saw those images and got that latest update.
But the fact still remains here. We are twenty four
hours after the shooting and killing of Charlie Kirk. The
assassin is still on the loose. The killer is still
on the loose. The police made clear they do not
think anyone else is a target or is in danger
(02:38):
from this person. They believe, yes, this was a singular
event and Charlie Kirk was the intended target. So but
that part the rest, but robes they started pretty early
this morning. It was seven am out in Utah when
they had this press conference to give us an update
and pretty significant stuff, starting with first they think they
(02:59):
got the weapon.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, And they made it very clear and it was
pretty obvious that law enforcement have been working throughout the
night to try and figure out the movements of this gunman.
And yes, they do believe they have the firearm that
he used. But they were able to track his movements
starting at eleven fifty two a m. Yesterday When they
(03:20):
say that is the exact time they can document that
he arrived on campus and then that picture that we
see that they released looks like that is him going
through a stairwell to get onto that roof of the
building where they believe he set up and took aim
at Charlie Kirk. But it's pretty remarkable they were able
to kind of detail what he did and even detail
(03:43):
his escape. They say he jumped off the building, fled
campus and into a neighborhood and then into the woods.
They were even asking and they've been asking people who
live in that neighborhood for their doorbell cams, their ring camps,
their security footage that they might have on their property
to try and really just track his movement. But they
do track him into these woods, and that is where
(04:04):
they found the firearm.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And we're looking here now. As I'm talking, I'm still
looking at the images. And like you said, it was
a long sleeve, dark T shirt. It's hard to make out,
but you can tell the American flag distorted by something.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Doesn't it kind of look like it Judge's gavel or
a firearm. It's hard to make out. It's a little fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Surely he's changed closed behind. But they also were saying
in that press conference robe. They don't know where he is,
how far he has gotten, but as the time goes on,
they certainly think he could be getting farther away. I was.
We were both kind of taken aback. They say, we
need help identifying We're using our own technology to identify
(04:48):
this person based on the images we have, and the
thought was, well, why not just go ahead and get
the public's help. They'll be able to give you probably
an answer in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We were actually discussing that amongst ourselves, thinking what would
be the reasoning behind not releasing the photo right away.
Our best guess was that somehow they didn't want to
tip him off. But that seems bizarre because if they
gave the description, and they gave a lot of information,
why wouldn't they then release his face to get more
(05:18):
people who might recognize him to call in and say
this is his name. Now we know they have a
shoeprint I believe of the shoe he was wearing, and
they also said they have a palm print and a
fore arm impression. So look, if they have a palm print,
I don't know can you trace that? And this is
a kid who may or may not have had any
sort of criminal history. Who knows if even a fingerprint
would have helped, But certainly after the fact, once they
(05:41):
capture him, they can link him to these the shoeprint,
the palm print, the forearm print, But in terms of
finding him or identifying him through that, I'm not sure
how that would work.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
The other again, what happened in three hours? What happened
in that three hours from when they said we're not
going to release they said, we have it, we can
see this person, but we're not going to show it
to you the public because we're confident, they said, confident
in their ability to use whatever technology they have to
(06:12):
identify the person. Something happened in that three hours, and
a decision was made to get this out to the public.
I took a beat to think, well, maybe it's a
matter of wanting to track this person down before somebody
else does. Given the temperature out there right now, you
could absolutely see not just one, not two, but a
(06:33):
mob of people possibly going and trying to track this
person out.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And when you said that, I said, of course that
has to be what it is. The concern of retaliation
of continued violence, is someone some individual citizen with vigilante
justice in their head, wanting to go ahead and put
some sort of stamp on retribution, and so, yes, that
would be the concern. But ultimately, at the end of
(06:57):
the day, they need to catch this guy. So they
had to put those concerns, if that is what their
concern was, they had to put those on the back
burner and say, the most important thing right now is
that we get this person in custody behind bars. And yeah,
he is, actually I think it's very fair to say
he is in danger from the public. Yeah, certain members
(07:19):
of the public, if they find him, if they identify him,
if they know who he is, to take matters into
their own hands for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And what does this do to the investigation? Now that
he knows his image, he's going to see his image
on every cable news channel right now. Then what does
he do. I don't really knows how stable. Well, you
have to be pretty unstable, don't you, to put off
something to do something like this. But what happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know how identifiable he is. I mean, obviously
if you know him and you see him, it might
ring a bell. But he kind of looks like your
average white dude in his early twenties. He has a
hat and glasses on. He's thin, very thin, and he's
a slight person. But he could be anybody. I wouldn't
be able to necessarily pick him out, but if you
(08:09):
knew him, if you knew him, that's different. But just
from the average joe looking at him, he looks like anybody.
He looks like everybody. He doesn't have a specific or
distinctive look, So, I, you know, I'm not sure how
that works. But we also found out some more specifics
about the gun police believed that he was using. They
called it a bolt action rifle. Apparently this is you see,
(08:31):
I don't know anything about guns, but you just made
a face and a gesture, So what what do you
know about this?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
What I know is if you're using a bolt action rifle,
this is a sniper rifle. This is something you use
when you are trying to have a precision, precision shot,
a single shot, because that's how you load it one
of the time it's bolt action. To show it to you,
you'll recognize it. You essentially have to manually dislodge the
(08:59):
carters that time and relow. It's one at a time.
So this is a it's considered a sniper accurate, few
moving parts, very reliable, long range weapon.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
If this isn't some AR fifteen, some assault rifle where
you're trying to kill as many people as quickly as possible,
this is. They described it as an older model Mauser
thirty six caliber high powered bolt action rifle. They say
it's a military rifle that's popular with hunters, and so
to what you're saying, that makes a lot of sense.
(09:33):
And yes, they found several cartridges, including a spent round
in the rifle's chamber, so that would absolutely back up
what we know that that single shot was fired. This
rifle that they uncovered had one spent round. And so
right now the weapon and the ammunition, as you might imagine,
(09:53):
are being traced by the ATF. They actually have it
by analysts in West Virginia trying to connect the dots
and figure out who owned this rifle, who purchased this rifle,
all of those things. But right now there's no evidence
from the gun that has led to a name where
we'd actually know who police are looking for.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This was a precision planned execution, even down to the
weapon chosen for it. That's incredible. I mean, we are
all curious, who knows how this is going to end,
But to get an answer as to who this person is,
what they were thinking, why they did this, how they
planned it, how they pulled it off, and to think
(10:34):
that person is still on the run when every resource,
you know, the federal government and including some pressure is coming,
maybe even from the White House. You need to get
this guy and get him now because he just went
after one of our guys. This is really an incredible story.
And to you, we were saying earlier how he blended in.
You can't really blend in if you're carrying around of
(10:56):
a bolt action rifle. They found a screwdriver that might
have explained maybe there were some assembly and disassembly of
the correct leesson.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So they found a screwdriver near the weapon, and that
is their best guess that he actually used the screwdriver
to disassemble it, to carry it around, and then to
reassemble it once he got on that roof. But it's
interesting because I know he didn't want to draw attention
to himself, but it actually is perfectly legal to walk
around in Utah on a college campus with a long
(11:25):
weapon not concealed, which is kind of scary. I think
there was only a handful of states, about a dozen
states that allow this, but Utah is among them, so
he could have He would have drawn attention, of course,
but legally he was allowed to do that. If he
bought the gun legally and owned the gun legally, he
would have been able to walk around with it. He
didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he specifically
(11:47):
where the police are believing that he specifically concealed it
so that he could then get up on that rooftop
or climb up those stairs without anyone being suspicious. And
then yeah, he reassembled it once he got on that roof. Yes,
this was it appears to have been a very calculated crime.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
But during the press conference to the first thing this morning,
you had the FBI and the Department of Public Safety
there in Utah giving a joint press conference in which
we were all clamoring for details, for updates, certainly about
the suspect, but they decided that it was necessary to
take time during this press conference to send a very
(12:26):
specific message out there to people who have been going
after the two persons of interest. We continue here now
at Amy and TJ. The search now Roads has been
(12:48):
going on a manhunt for twenty four plus hours as
we record this for the person who pulled off a
political assassination in front of a crowd of thousands.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, and as police are hunting down leads. We mentioned
the rifle that they found that they believe the gunmen used.
We are actually hearing CNN is reporting this. I'm not
sure if anyone else's, but I wanted to point this out.
They have reported They say they have sources close to
the investigation who have told them that a range of
phrases related to cultural issues were found scrawled on this
(13:25):
rifle that authorities found in the woods along with that ammunition,
and they say that they're analyzing those messages as they're
trying to figure out a who is responsible, but why
the why, the motive behind the attack. Also among what
was scrawled on the rifle, according to these sources, is
there are initials, and they're wondering if those initials could
(13:49):
possibly match the suspects initials. So they're actually going through
suspect profiles and seeing if they can match the initials
on the gun with the initials of some a led suspect.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
What kind of things again, repeat to me, I know
you were giving at the more a range of phrases
related to cultural issues that is very generic. But that
is the reporting, and the first thing that comes to
your mind, of course is MANNGIONI comes to your mind
the United Healthcare right, didn't.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He He did on the on the showcase. I'm not
sure about the weapon, but certainly the showcasings had messages
written on. So now you already this was seen as
a political assassination that will certainly go farther in the
camp of proving that point we were talking. It was
a back and forth and look, this is a fast
moving case and investigation. After all this happened and all
(14:42):
the panic, and nobody was exactly sure what was going on.
And at one point yesterday we were going back and
forth between cable news channels. One was saying the suspect
was in custody. Another was saying, no, we had one
law enforcement into the out there in Utah saying a
suspect was in custody. We have another saying and then
we thought it was put to bed when the FBI
(15:03):
director told everybody we got the suspect.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
And we also coupled with that the initial report from
the university had video that accompanied it, so we all
saw an elderly gentleman brought to his knees being handcuffed.
That video was widely circulated. As the suspect has been apprehended,
so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. No one
has to worry about some gunman being on the run
(15:29):
or on loose because the guy who did it is
behind bars or at least in police custody. That ended
up not being the gunman, and police have said as much.
And then this other person we don't know, but apparently
others have been able to identify them through either video
or sources or whatever. And we heard in the press
conference earlier this morning the FBI director saying stop or
(15:51):
was he might have even been a local Utah guy
who was saying, please stop targeting or making a threat
towards these two individuals who were never suspects, who were
only persons of interest who were interrogated and released, and
they have no connection to the shooting whatsoever. And yet
it appears these two individuals are still being harassed.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And so to our point about the actual suspect, these
are people who aren't even suspects and they're being harassed,
and this law enforcement guy who is trying to solve
the murder that we all saw happen in front of
cameras has to take the time to say back off.
So that just lets you know where we are. And
to the safety point, I mean, I hope they get
(16:36):
him in custody. I hope they get him in custody
before somebody figures out who he is and where he is.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
There's that absolutely. And then you have lawmakers all across
this country that had scheduled events. Everyone's canceling their events,
and they say out of respect for what happened to
Charlie Kirk, but also out of concern, out of a
safety construer. So everyone's on edge right now, and certainly
(17:04):
some of the things that are being said among certain lawmakers,
I would argue are not helping with the environment we
are in right now.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's to your point. I mean, we can't even agree
that it's bad that somebody killed somebody else, Like, we're
not even on the same page on that. It depends
on what side of the aisle you're on, where you're
looking at as all, they killed one of theirs, or
you can't. I don't know how we can do. I
know this ain't the time for that. We were just
(17:36):
trying to give the facts and the update about what
happened with the case today. But to your point, wherebes
this is not helping. A lot of this rhetoric is
not helping. Twenty four hours from this man being dead,
it's not helping.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No, And certainly lawmakers are saying they don't believe that
any any lawmaker should hold a public event outside right now.
That's where we're at right now. They don't feel like
any lawmaker or even a political activist. I mean, Charlie
Kirk was not a lawmaker. He was just a political
activist who certainly was affiliated with the MAGA movement in
Trump but he was not a member. He had no
(18:12):
actual power within our government. Certainly he had very strong
political beliefs that people disagreed with. But anyway, anyone who
is now a part of this US government is concerned
about having any sort of public event and that could
change the way yeah we do business and the way
(18:35):
lawmakers even run for reelection. Who knows the ripple effects
this is going to have.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It should not be an act of bravery in this
country to just step out in public and speak. It
just should not be categorized that way. Folks. We are
we're keeping a close eye on everything related to this case. Well,
how back on and give you the latest and some
context to go along with it whenever it warrants.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, and oh, I was just to say something else.
There's been a couple announcements, but I thought this was
of note President Trump announcing that he's going to award
Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. That's the
highest civilian honor that can be awarded by their president.
So he's already acknowledged that he's going to do that,
and he is speaking with Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica later today,
(19:20):
but we also know jd. Vance is actually traveling too.
I believe the family to meet with them in person.
But from all accounts anyone who's spoken with her and
with the family members of Charlie Kirk, they've said, and
this goes without saying that they're just absolutely devastated. So
it's still, even as we're searching for this gunman, there
is incredible amount of heartbreak for the Kirk family and
(19:45):
it's hard to imagine what they're going through right now.
At this moment, it's been twenty four hours, give or take,
actually less than twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Right, two babies, two babies lost of that, Two babies
lost of that, And you said it earlier. That was
interesting perspective. They are not old enough even possibly to
have memories maybe later of their dad. No, the little
ones won.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right, Milania Trump, I don't have it in front of me.
But she actually had a really poignant response a statement
she put out on social media about how instead of
having memories, they're going to have photographs. Instead of being
held or having hugs when their father, they're going to
be told of their father like these are. This is
going to have a lasting impact on an entire family
(20:29):
and generations to come. And you know, it's it. I
know we get caught up in the politics of it,
in the horror of it, perhaps, and certainly in the
manhunt that's going on right now, but there isn't a
family and a whole group of people who are deeply
suffering today.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, folks, we will hop back in as the
update sworn. But but again, there's always a top right
corner in that Apple podcast app, it says follow you
just click that and you'll be able to get our updates.
You don't have to go hunting for them. They will
come right to you. And there seemed like there have
been a lot of updates lately, so folks, we always
appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
M H.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Robach
T.J. Holmes
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.