September 10, 2025 • 38 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (09/10) - Alex Stone comes on the show to talk about the latest regarding the assassination of conservative media personality and activist Charlie Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University. There is no suspect in custody as of right now. Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer comes on the show to talk about Charlie Kirk being assassinated at an event in Utah today. Press conference regarding the latest on the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am six forty.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
John Cobelt Show continues as you've been hearing, Charlie Kirk,
the conservative activist and popular media personality, was a shot
to death, shot in the neck while he was on
stage hosting an event at Utah Valley University. And we
(00:24):
are going to have a press conference from authorities in
Utah any minute now. Should have started already, but it hasn't,
and we'll bring you that instantly. Let's talk with Alex Stone,
ABC News the latest what he knows. Alex, Hey there, John. Yeah,
we're waiting for that news conference to begin as well
right now. That the podium set up and they should
get going on that. But yeah, this was a midday.
(00:47):
He had been at Utah Valley University in aorum outside
of Provo, and he was giving that speech as part
of this America comeback tour that he'd been doing. Now
was called Prove Me Wrong, the kickoff event for his
Proved Me Wrong tour. But he was going to go
to Colorado and other places in Utah and go to
(01:07):
Minneapolis and Virginia. According to the website and turning point.
USA had said that they were having big turnouts in
their events in the spring that they were doing, and
that they were planning on this being a big event
as well, and there were a lot of people who
were there. Initially police saying, as you've been reporting, that
there was the shooter in custody. It appeared to have
(01:28):
been an older man who they took into custody, And
now they say that guy had nothing to do with
it and that he is not a suspect, and that
they have got nobody in custody at this point. But
just a lot of panic as this unfolded. These women
they were there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
He just everyone got down.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Everyone was so scared.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I heard a loud bang, which I figured a shot
would be a little bit louder.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Just one shot straight in Charlie Kirk, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That one shot a higher caliber weapon. According to guitar
experts who heard and saw what went on in the
video that has been up there, we know he was
taught about transgender issues, answering questions in that moment. He
had been earlier throwing T shirts and things out in
the crowd. That this was part of this proved me
wrong to her, and he was in the middle of
(02:12):
the Q and A and then the one shot right
into it appeared more of his chest area, but witnesses
said also it was into his neck and that he
essentially died right there. And I have heard reports, and
you know, you can never tell what's true in the
early hours that it maybe was somebody on a roof
hundreds of yards away. Yeah, the belief is that the
(02:34):
shooter had an advantage of elevation and from where the
shot came from. Now, there were a lot of people
in the crowd who said that they were really shocked
going in, that nobody had their bag searched, nobody was
looked over. That it was just kind of an open
event on campus, and it appears it was designed that way.
But based on where this shot came from, it doesn't
(02:55):
look like it was in the crowd, and looks like
it was a higher caliber rifle round that they came
from a rooftop or a balcony. There's a deck area
that's up above kind of where the audience was standing.
It looked like probably a little bit higher than that,
but that the shooter had the advantage of elevation and
fired and then apparently got out of there now that
the police don't have anybody in custody. Obviously his views
(03:19):
are controversial. Were there a lot of protests? You know,
before the start of it. Was there a lot of
rancor in the audience? It was described to us probably
I think sixty to seventy percent supporters and then you
had twenty thirty forty percent who were opponents who were
there to argue against him, and that there was nothing
(03:40):
indicating that it was going to get violent. Again, I mean,
this seems like more of a planned thing the way
it was carried out than a protester in the moment
doing something. But there were some there who were there,
I mean, being a college campus and not all that
surprising that there would be folks there to counter him.
But it was, according to those in attendance, overwhelming supporters
of his. All right, so momentarily we should have a
(04:05):
press conference and they'll start giving us some details.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, any moment.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
This is the sound inside that room right now, is
here everybody getting ready and the doors are starting to
open up, so hopefully in the next couple of minutes
that the speakers will be going up there.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
We understand that the governor and others are going to.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Be speaking, all right, Alex Stone, ABC News, thank you
for coming out.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Thanks John.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, and you know we'll return to Alex uh
when necessary, and uh he'll be standing by at the
press conference and we're going to bring that to you live.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. You know, I
I'm was aware of Charlie Kirk. I never followed him
(04:45):
or watched him very much.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
He was more in a lane of you know, Christian
nationalism and religion. Obviously very very smart, talented guy at
a very young age. But I can't say that I
knew a whole lot about his movement other than the
obvious that he had put together a tremendous number of
(05:09):
followers to recruited them to support these causes. A big
supporter of Trump, A big turnout for Trump came from
his organizations and effect. If I remember correctly, when Elon
Musk was spending a lot of money on voter turnout,
(05:31):
Turning Point USA was one of the recipients. And some
conventional political professionals thought that that was kind of ridiculous
that they weren't doing it the old way. And it
turned out that giving money to Charlie. Charlie Kirk's organization
is the new right way to do this. It is
(05:51):
hard to explain, and I actually I do find this
as a generational difference. I think you may have heard
a few minutes ago when Gavin Newsom was taught talking
about how two of his children were very excited that
their dad, Gavin was going to interview Charlie Kirk on
Gavin's podcast and the Sun didn't want to go to school.
(06:12):
He's thirteen and he wanted to stay and meet Kirk.
Is that I have noticed that older people still are
wrapped up in whatever CBS or CNN or ABC is doing.
And that's just not where it's at anymore. It's not
the Wall Street Journal and New York Times of the
(06:34):
LA Times. You know, certainly we talk about their biases
at these organizations, but that's not where most people are
getting their news. They're getting their news. They're getting influenced
for their view with their views by guys like Charlie
Kirk and those podcasts and those especially the podcast video
(06:54):
and audio podcasts, and there's a lot of alternative online
news sources. Recently, over the years, I'm spending more time
reading those places because there isn't much left to the
traditional media, and even you know, if you open up
the La Times or on the website, rather there's only
(07:15):
a handful of new stories each day. Many of the
stories are half a day, a day, two days old
on their front page. And people got tired of the
incredible progressive bias, the left wing bias, and it's splintered
out into a thousand places, and you really really have
(07:35):
relatively small audiences watching local TV news, national newscasts. CNN
has withered away considerably. Fox is holding their own, but
of course they have their own particular way of presenting
the news that not everybody can deal with. So it's
(07:57):
it's a tough environment. It's more difficult gathering accurate information
these days, believe me, and knowing what to trust and
what's true. And there is not a there's not a
consensus news operation in the country that everybody trusts and
believes in, and a lot of them really deal in
bad faith on a daily basis, and we've talked about
(08:17):
that tremendously. So Kirk in his circles, is more influential
than most of the mainstream media networks or mainstream newspapers.
I went through how many millions and millions of people
are on his social media accounts. Believe me, it's way
more people than what is watching the NBC nightly News,
Way more people than is watching CNN at any given moment,
(08:41):
way more people than are subscribing to The New York
Times of the LA Times or even what you're seeing, well,
you can't see very much unless you subscribe online. And
there you know, the Times is profitable. Wall Street Journal
is profitable. Virtually no other mainstream newspaper style website is
profitable in the whole country. And the revenues for television
(09:04):
news have dwindled considerably. What's left is a tremendous number
of medication commercials, drug commercials. And why is that Because
it's older people, in some cases very old people, who
are still watching the news on television. All the action
is online on social media, and it's audio and video
(09:26):
podcasts on the Internet, and that is where all the
energy is coming from. And there's very little coming from
what used to be mainstream media. And you know, you
can talk for days and weeks and months as to
why that is. It doesn't matter why it is anymore.
That's the way it is. People you know under thirty
don't know of any other world. They don't know anything
about old style networks and old style mainstream newspapers. A
(09:49):
lot of older people still talk in those terms, and
I find it's really striking how the two worlds are
far different and they don't really understand each other. But
the mainstream media's influence is really diminished significantly, and it's
guys like Charlie Kirk who are who had more and
more a larger role to play and how people view
(10:12):
the world.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Are we are going to continue.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
We are waiting on a news conference from Utah authorities
on Charlie Kirk getting assassinated on stage in Utah.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
The conservative activists.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
We're on every day from one until four o'clock and
then after four o'clock. John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. Moistline for Friday is eight seven seven
mois staighty six eight seven seven Mois Steady six or
usually talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. And one big
missing piece of the story of Charlie Kirk, the conservative
(10:54):
activist and media personality. He got shot to death today
on stage from a bullet that came far away they
think maybe a couple of hundred yards from a rooftop
at Utah Valley University. And he was making an appearance.
His organization is called Turning Point USA. It organizes and
(11:17):
activates millions of people, especially young people, around the Country's
always on tour, appearing at colleges and other places. So
he was up on stage and doing his presentation when
a bullet hit him in the neck, got him, according
to the La Times, in the carotid artery, and he
was dead shortly thereafter. And the big missing piece is, well,
(11:40):
who did this? There is no news or even a
hint as to a suspect. It's hard to believe that
they don't have video cameras everywhere, and the police are
probably actively chasing down the shooter, but nothing has leaked
(12:03):
out so far. There was very briefly, and this was
in every major media story you know for a few minutes,
is that the police had gotten it turned out to
be an older guy. He had white hair on a
fringe bald, clearly elderly, and he was on his hands
(12:26):
and knees and the police said cuffed him and were
detaining him, and people were shouting at him, and he
was yelling about his rights, and so in that moment
it looked like he was the guy. It just it
didn't look like he would be the guy. But that
lasted about five minutes and then the police said the
university said, no, no, he wasn't the guy. We don't
(12:48):
have a suspect. So unless they're going to announce something
in the next few minutes, and we're waiting still on
a press conference that was scheduled to start at three o'clock,
and we're monitoring everything, and we got Alex Stone from
ABC News there as well. We don't have even a
hint of who this was, or why they did it,
or exactly where they did it from. We are going
(13:10):
to talk with Jennifer Coffin Daffer coming up after three
point thirty unless the news conference is running. And Jennifer
has been a special agent with the FBI. She's worked
in law enforcement for almost thirty years and she specializes
in at the time in gangs, narcotics, organized crime, electronic surveillance, counterintelligence.
(13:34):
She resulted her work resulted in the disruption of the
Crypts criminal street gang in Fort Worth and the dismantlement
of the Mediine cartel responsible for distributing thousands of kilos
of cocaine throughout the Midwest and the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
She is now.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Working for a private security company and she also is
a law and justice contributor commentator for News Nation, has
been doing that for the last two years or so.
So if we don't have a press conference, we're going
to talk with Jennifer Coffendaffer as the world waits to
find out who did this, and the real danger is
(14:14):
is that this may start a tick for tat between
extremists on both sides, people trying to take out politicians
or media figures activists. Most of the Democrats in Los
Angeles have come out publicly and said this is horrible.
(14:37):
Karen Bass wrote on x I'm absolutely disgusted by today's
attack on Charlie Kirk. Political violence in all forms is
unacceptable and reprehensible. We must all reject it. We played
the clips of the Gavin Newsom hosting Kirk on Newsome's
podcast a few months ago, and he says the attack
on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, reprehensible. In the United
(14:58):
States of America, we must reject violence in every form democratic.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Hey, John, We're going to go now to that news
conference on the desk of Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Vice President Val Peterson, who's been in touch with President
to menace, and then we'll hear from kevinra Cox.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
I'll turn the time over to mister Mason.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Hello, everyone, I'm Bou Mason, Commissioner for the Utah Department
of Public Safety. Today, at approximately twelve to twenty Mountain
standard time, political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
In an event at the Utah Valley University.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga's Hospital, where
he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will
be co leading the criminal investigation to find this killer
along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We're working in
unison with the County Sheriff's office, the local police department,
(16:10):
and the university Police department, all of which have been
very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after
the shooting, we did have a suspect in custody, George Zen,
but he was released from custody after we identified that
he did not match the shooting suspect and was not
an accurate person of interest.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
However, he has.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Been booked into the County Jail by Utah v University
Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have
an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident
occurred with a large crowd round. There was one shot
fired and one victim. While the suspect is at large,
(16:56):
we believe this was a targeted attack towards one individual.
There's a tragic moment in our state and in our
country as we hear. We encourage everyone who's struggling with
news of the incident to call nine and eight our
state a mental health across crisis line.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
In addition to that.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other
ways we can communicate through the public for tips and
other information.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
Thank you, good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
On behalf of the FBI, We extend our sincerest condolences
to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts
are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event.
We know that what you experienced was very difficult. Our
thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we
(17:51):
heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the
Salt Lake Field Office responded immediately. We have full resources
devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence.
To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co
lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We are working
(18:13):
on setting up a digital media tip line, and as
soon as it's established, we'll get that information out to everyone.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
I know. There's a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
This is very much an active case, and this investigation
is in its early stages. We are following all the
leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information,
please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
On behalf of President Tuman Is who we've been communicating with,
and she's on her way back right now.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
I say that.
Speaker 9 (18:45):
On behalf of Utah Valley University, we are shocked and
saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express
our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We agree with
our students, faculty, and staff who were witness to this
unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning
Point USA to speak on our campus.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
We firmly believe that UVU is a place.
Speaker 10 (19:08):
To share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
We do not condone any form of violence at UVU
and seek to make our campus a safe place for all.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 11 (19:29):
Thank you for joining us on this dark and tragic occasion.
I want to thank our law enforcement officers who are
leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long and his response
here with the UVU Police Department. We're grateful for your
leadership and your team, and again to the speakers that
(19:52):
you've just heard from who are co leading this investigation.
I also want to recognize Sherip Mike Smith, who has
been in valuable partner as this investigation moves forward. I've
been in touch with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel.
We are completely aligned with our state and federal partners
(20:16):
as we work through this case.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Now, this is a dark day for our state.
Speaker 11 (20:24):
It's a tragic day for our nation, and I want
to be very clear that this is a political assassination.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
We are.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
Celebrating two hundred and fifty years of the founding of
this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of independence,
that this great experiment on which we embark together two
hundred and fifty years ago, that we are endowed by
our creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of
(20:58):
those is life, and today a life was taken. Charlie
Kirk was first and.
Speaker 7 (21:10):
Foremost a husband and a dad to young children. He
was also.
Speaker 11 (21:25):
Very much politically involved, and that's why he was here
on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech
and debate to shape ideas and to persuade people.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Historically, our university.
Speaker 11 (21:45):
Campuses in this nation and here in the state of
Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are
formulated and debated. And that's what he does. He comes
on college campuses and he debates as foundational to the
formation of our country, to our most basic constitutional rights.
(22:09):
And when someone takes the life of a person because
of their ideas or their ideals, then that very constitutional
foundation is threatened. Now we have a person of interest
in custody. The investigation is ongoing, but I want to
(22:32):
make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this,
we will find you, we will try you, and we
will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law,
and I just want to remind people that we still
have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Our nation is broken. We've had.
Speaker 11 (23:08):
Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination
on the governor of Pennsylvania, and we had an attempted
assassination on a presidential candidate and former president of the
United States and now current President of.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
The United States.
Speaker 11 (23:33):
Nothing I say can unit us as a country. Nothing
I can say right now can fix what is broken.
Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our
hearts are broken.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
We mourn.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
With his wife, his children, his family, his friends. We
mourn as a nation. If anyone, in the sound of
my voice celebrated even a little bit at.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
The news of this shooting, I would beg you to
look in the mirror.
Speaker 11 (24:12):
And to see if you can find a better angel
in there somewhere. I don't care what his politics are.
I care that he was an American. We desperately need
our country. We desperately need leaders in our country. But
more than the leaders, we just need every single person
(24:37):
in this country to think about where we are and
where we want to be, to ask ourselves. Is this
what two hundred and fifty years has wrought on us?
I pray that that's not the case. I pray that
(24:57):
those who hated what Charlie Cooks stood for will put
down their social media and their pens and pray for
his family, and that all of us, all of us
will try to find a way to stop painting our
(25:18):
fellow Americans.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
With that, we're happy to take a few questions.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
The FBI director is posting that is social that a
suspect is in custody, which is like clarification, do you
or do you not have a suspective shooter in customer?
Speaker 11 (25:32):
We have a person of interest in custody that is
being interviewed right now.
Speaker 8 (25:36):
It's not George Zam.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
That is not George Zim. That is correct.
Speaker 10 (25:41):
Are you still associated if we're looking for another shooter
or anybody.
Speaker 11 (25:45):
Else for latedviews, Yes, we are actively looking for anyone
and everyone who has any any possible information relating to
the shooting.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Can you tell us details about the suspect.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Being taken into custody, where the how long ago?
Speaker 11 (26:01):
We cannot at this point, but we will get you
that information when when we can.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Is there believe to be.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
A second individual involved in the shooting.
Speaker 11 (26:11):
At this point, there is no information that would lead
us to believe that there is a second person involved.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
The possible shooting.
Speaker 11 (26:21):
We want to talk about what we know there.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
The only information we have on the suspect the possible
shooter is taken from close Servit TV here on campus.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
We do have that. We're analyzing it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
But it is security camera footage, so you can you
can kind of guess what the quality of that is.
But we do know dressed in all all dark clothing.
We don't have much better description other than that the
shot came from here on campus, from a location.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
At a fair.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Potentially from a roof, Yes, a longer distance shot from a.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
Roof, so clarified with the security camera foot that you
have and the personal interests that's in custody.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
To those, does that achu That's what we're trying to
decipher right now.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
So did an FBI or DH said anything on the
threatboard this morning?
Speaker 7 (27:17):
I can't speak that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as
soon as we have further information, we will be sure
to release it.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Any Kassu foreign intelligence.
Speaker 8 (27:27):
Involvement as now, I can't comment on any of that.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
Hi, you can.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
You talk a little bit about the security of an
event itself, but who was there, security wives and what happens.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
On these kind of events that shooting fun So my
name is Jeff Long.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I'm the police chief here at UVU, and I'll tell
you right now, we are devastated. We're a small, small
police department. We have a very large campus. We have
over forty thousand students, and we love our students, we
love our visitors, and we're devastated by what happened today.
This is the police chief's nightmare. I'm very saddened for
the Kirk family. I know his uh, his wife and
(28:05):
parents uh found out about this. You know, obviously he's
away from home, he's here in Utah. They find out
by police officer that visits their home.
Speaker 7 (28:13):
That's tragic.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Nobody wants that. But I can tell you about our
venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside.
We did have six officers work in that event. We
had probably over three thousand people that were in attendance
sat down in kind of a bowl area here on
the Civiral campus. We have a waterfall area and so
he was kind of in a lower area surrounded by
(28:35):
by buildings. You know, we had uh some playing closed
police officers that were in the crowd as well. You know,
we trained for these things and you think, you know,
you have things covered, and you know these things you know,
unfortunately they happen. You try to get you try to
get your bases covered, and unfortunately today we didn't and
(28:57):
because of that we had this tragic incident. So we
have officers there. We had Charlie Kirk's team.
Speaker 8 (29:03):
He has a.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
Security team that travels with him and they were here
with him when when he when he was shot. I'm
sorry see the weapon recovery. I at this point I
can't disclose that shot.
Speaker 9 (29:18):
There was a question being asked about mass shooting.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Was that person apprehended?
Speaker 7 (29:22):
And do you know who asked that question?
Speaker 8 (29:25):
Say a question again? I don't know what if I
discover Sam why.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
Charlie Kirk's shot.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
He was answering a question about mass shooting specifically, was
that person attended?
Speaker 7 (29:33):
And do you know who asked that question?
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
We do not have that at this moment, ladies and gentlemen,
we have time for just one more question, so thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, the question with the chief as well.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
Was it your team or Kirks team.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Or a combination of both that kind of set the
security protocol.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
For the event.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
So we worked together. You know, he has his team
and they do this all of the country. We all
know that this is not uncom for them. Uh, They're
very comfortable on campuses.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
And I was coordinating with his lead security guy and
uh so, yeah, we were working together.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Was this a sh shooter type of shots this, ladies.
Speaker 11 (30:12):
And gentlemen, that's that's Those are all the questions that
we will be answered today.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Again, thank you for for covering this. Uh, we will.
Speaker 11 (30:20):
Be We'll be updating you as soon as we have
additional information through through normal channels working with law enforcement. Again,
are our deepest condolences to the to the Kirk family
and and to the.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Students who were who were there today.
Speaker 11 (30:36):
And uh, I would I would just ask everyone everywhere
to please pray for their family and uh and to
pray for our country and we need it now more
than ever.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Thank you, the governor of Utah. All right, they're walking
off stage here.
Speaker 11 (30:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
That was the press conference in Utah law enforcement officials
giving some information over the Charlie Kirk assassination. Charlie Kirk,
the conservative political activist and media personality and top advisor
to Donald Trump, gunned down while on stage at Utah
(31:14):
Valley University in orem Utah, in front of hundreds of
people who gathered in an outdoor amphitheater like setting, and
he was on stage under a canopy and he was
doing a question and answer with the audience. His organization
is Turning Point USA, and he's constantly on tour, having
often these college appearances, and somebody shot him in the neck.
(31:40):
Blood spurted everywhere. They took him to the hospital quickly,
but he died in the hospital, and it was There's
been conflicting reports ever since it happened, and it was
a little confusing trying to follow their presentation at this
press conference. The FBI director Cash Patel has posted on
(32:03):
social media that a suspect has been taken into custody.
There was a guy that I mentioned before, an older
man with glasses. He was bald with white fringe for hair,
and he was on his knees and cuffed by police
(32:23):
and he was shouting about his rights and people were
shouting at him, and it looked like he was a suspect.
Now he is in custody, and I assume he's a
different guy. He was charged with obstruction of justice, so
said law enforcement officials, and that they didn't consider him
to be the shooter. So it wasn't particularly clear there
(32:46):
the way they presented it. I'm looking at a New
York Times story and they have Cash Pattel saying that
a suspect has been taken into custody. There are if
you've seen video or photos of the shooting, you'll see
people running from the event after Kirk was shot on stage,
(33:08):
his head jerking back as blood poured from his neck.
There is rooftop video recorded before and after the shooting
showing a person on the roof of the loc Center,
which is about one hundred and fifty yards from where
Clark where Kirk was on stage. In one video, an
(33:29):
onlooker says they saw somebody run across the roof and
lie down, pointing out the visible outline of the person.
In a second video, the person can be seen rushing
away from that spot immediately after the shooting. We will
continue covering this.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty we're on.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
From one in till four and after four o'clock. Excuse me,
we have the podcast John Belt Show on demand. Obviously,
the whole show today was on the Charlie Kirk murder.
And there's conflicting statements being made by officials, as I
(34:15):
mentioned right before the commercial break, and I've been looking
at all the news feeds I can find, and the
Utah Governor, Spencer Cox said, and this came across five
minutes ago. At this point, there's no information that would
lead us to believe that there's a second person involved.
(34:38):
They're actively looking for people, the governor said. The authorities
have a person of interest in custody that's being interviewed
right now. Cash Btel has posted on social media the
FBI director that the suspect who killed Kirk had been
taken into custody. At the news conference, Utah law enforcement
(35:00):
officials described the individual and custody only as a person
of interest who is being interviewed about the shooting. So
not quite as definitive as what cash Ptel is say
is saying. And it's still not explained whether the person
in custody is that older man that was seen in
(35:22):
videos on his knees handcuffed by police. He's been charged
with obstruction of justice. They had said he was not
the suspect of the shooting. That he's being charged with
something not directly related. He did apparently put up some resistance.
Maybe he's the same guy that they suspect is the shooter.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
There was nothing in the statements that the law enforcement
officials made that cleared that up.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And there's.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
What Cashpateel wrote is just that they have a custody
suspect and custody. It's just not clear. And what the
governor said is there's there's a somebody being interviewed, so
we'll see. I mean, it's obviously seems to be, you know,
(36:14):
one guy obviously did the shot. They saw one guy
roaming around on the roof or crawling on the roof,
and they do have video, but the police officials said
it's grainy close circuit TV video, so the quality is
not wonderful. And he was dressed in black clothing. And
(36:37):
that's all they have right now that they're willing to
share publicly. Obviously they know a lot more, and they
gave reporters basically one possible headline that there is. Depending
on who you're talking to, it's either a person of
interest or a suspect, and he either is considered the
shooter or he's just considered someone they want to talk
(37:00):
to about the shooting. I think that's the way to
sum the whole thing up. Well, obviously a lot more
will come out, and this is uh, this is this
is bad because there are a lot of extremists out there.
There are a lot of insane people. I can't imagine
what's being whipped up on the Internet and on social
(37:23):
media about this. And you know, this could this could
start a tip for tat warfare. It's just people have
gotten insane and the social media and and instant media
is just making everybody crazy, absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
We'll talk more coming up.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
We've got Conway next, and Heather Brooker has the news
live in the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
always hear the show live on KFI Am six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am six forty.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
John Cobelt Show continues as you've been hearing, Charlie Kirk,
the conservative activist and popular media personality, was a shot
to death, shot in the neck while he was on
stage hosting an event at Utah Valley University. And we
(00:24):
are going to have a press conference from authorities in
Utah any minute now. Should have started already, but it hasn't,
and we'll bring you that instantly. Let's talk with Alex Stone,
ABC News the latest what he knows. Alex, Hey there, John. Yeah,
we're waiting for that news conference to begin as well
right now. That the podium set up and they should
get going on that. But yeah, this was a midday.
(00:47):
He had been at Utah Valley University in aorum outside
of Provo, and he was giving that speech as part
of this America comeback tour that he'd been doing. Now
was called Prove Me Wrong, the kickoff event for his
Proved Me Wrong tour. But he was going to go
to Colorado and other places in Utah and go to
(01:07):
Minneapolis and Virginia. According to the website and turning point.
USA had said that they were having big turnouts in
their events in the spring that they were doing, and
that they were planning on this being a big event
as well, and there were a lot of people who
were there. Initially police saying, as you've been reporting, that
there was the shooter in custody. It appeared to have
(01:28):
been an older man who they took into custody, And
now they say that guy had nothing to do with
it and that he is not a suspect, and that
they have got nobody in custody at this point. But
just a lot of panic as this unfolded. These women
they were there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
He just everyone got down.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Everyone was so scared.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I heard a loud bang, which I figured a shot
would be a little bit louder.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Just one shot straight in Charlie Kirk, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That one shot a higher caliber weapon. According to guitar
experts who heard and saw what went on in the
video that has been up there, we know he was
taught about transgender issues, answering questions in that moment. He
had been earlier throwing T shirts and things out in
the crowd. That this was part of this proved me
wrong to her, and he was in the middle of
(02:12):
the Q and A and then the one shot right
into it appeared more of his chest area, but witnesses
said also it was into his neck and that he
essentially died right there. And I have heard reports, and
you know, you can never tell what's true in the
early hours that it maybe was somebody on a roof
hundreds of yards away. Yeah, the belief is that the
(02:34):
shooter had an advantage of elevation and from where the
shot came from. Now, there were a lot of people
in the crowd who said that they were really shocked
going in, that nobody had their bag searched, nobody was
looked over. That it was just kind of an open
event on campus, and it appears it was designed that way.
But based on where this shot came from, it doesn't
(02:55):
look like it was in the crowd, and looks like
it was a higher caliber rifle round that they came
from a rooftop or a balcony. There's a deck area
that's up above kind of where the audience was standing.
It looked like probably a little bit higher than that,
but that the shooter had the advantage of elevation and
fired and then apparently got out of there now that
the police don't have anybody in custody. Obviously his views
(03:19):
are controversial. Were there a lot of protests? You know,
before the start of it. Was there a lot of
rancor in the audience? It was described to us probably
I think sixty to seventy percent supporters and then you
had twenty thirty forty percent who were opponents who were
there to argue against him, and that there was nothing
(03:40):
indicating that it was going to get violent. Again, I mean,
this seems like more of a planned thing the way
it was carried out than a protester in the moment
doing something. But there were some there who were there,
I mean, being a college campus and not all that
surprising that there would be folks there to counter him.
But it was, according to those in attendance, overwhelming supporters
of his. All right, so momentarily we should have a
(04:05):
press conference and they'll start giving us some details.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, any moment.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
This is the sound inside that room right now, is
here everybody getting ready and the doors are starting to
open up, so hopefully in the next couple of minutes
that the speakers will be going up there.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
We understand that the governor and others are going to.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Be speaking, all right, Alex Stone, ABC News, thank you
for coming out.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Thanks John.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, and you know we'll return to Alex uh
when necessary, and uh he'll be standing by at the
press conference and we're going to bring that to you live.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. You know, I
I'm was aware of Charlie Kirk. I never followed him
(04:45):
or watched him very much.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
He was more in a lane of you know, Christian
nationalism and religion. Obviously very very smart, talented guy at
a very young age. But I can't say that I
knew a whole lot about his movement other than the
obvious that he had put together a tremendous number of
(05:09):
followers to recruited them to support these causes. A big
supporter of Trump, A big turnout for Trump came from
his organizations and effect. If I remember correctly, when Elon
Musk was spending a lot of money on voter turnout,
(05:31):
Turning Point USA was one of the recipients. And some
conventional political professionals thought that that was kind of ridiculous
that they weren't doing it the old way. And it
turned out that giving money to Charlie. Charlie Kirk's organization
is the new right way to do this. It is
(05:51):
hard to explain, and I actually I do find this
as a generational difference. I think you may have heard
a few minutes ago when Gavin Newsom was taught talking
about how two of his children were very excited that
their dad, Gavin was going to interview Charlie Kirk on
Gavin's podcast and the Sun didn't want to go to school.
(06:12):
He's thirteen and he wanted to stay and meet Kirk.
Is that I have noticed that older people still are
wrapped up in whatever CBS or CNN or ABC is doing.
And that's just not where it's at anymore. It's not
the Wall Street Journal and New York Times of the
(06:34):
LA Times. You know, certainly we talk about their biases
at these organizations, but that's not where most people are
getting their news. They're getting their news. They're getting influenced
for their view with their views by guys like Charlie
Kirk and those podcasts and those especially the podcast video
(06:54):
and audio podcasts, and there's a lot of alternative online
news sources. Recently, over the years, I'm spending more time
reading those places because there isn't much left to the
traditional media, and even you know, if you open up
the La Times or on the website, rather there's only
(07:15):
a handful of new stories each day. Many of the
stories are half a day, a day, two days old
on their front page. And people got tired of the
incredible progressive bias, the left wing bias, and it's splintered
out into a thousand places, and you really really have
(07:35):
relatively small audiences watching local TV news, national newscasts. CNN
has withered away considerably. Fox is holding their own, but
of course they have their own particular way of presenting
the news that not everybody can deal with. So it's
(07:57):
it's a tough environment. It's more difficult gathering accurate information
these days, believe me, and knowing what to trust and
what's true. And there is not a there's not a
consensus news operation in the country that everybody trusts and
believes in, and a lot of them really deal in
bad faith on a daily basis, and we've talked about
(08:17):
that tremendously. So Kirk in his circles, is more influential
than most of the mainstream media networks or mainstream newspapers.
I went through how many millions and millions of people
are on his social media accounts. Believe me, it's way
more people than what is watching the NBC nightly News,
Way more people than is watching CNN at any given moment,
(08:41):
way more people than are subscribing to The New York
Times of the LA Times or even what you're seeing, well,
you can't see very much unless you subscribe online. And
there you know, the Times is profitable. Wall Street Journal
is profitable. Virtually no other mainstream newspaper style website is
profitable in the whole country. And the revenues for television
(09:04):
news have dwindled considerably. What's left is a tremendous number
of medication commercials, drug commercials. And why is that Because
it's older people, in some cases very old people, who
are still watching the news on television. All the action
is online on social media, and it's audio and video
(09:26):
podcasts on the Internet, and that is where all the
energy is coming from. And there's very little coming from
what used to be mainstream media. And you know, you
can talk for days and weeks and months as to
why that is. It doesn't matter why it is anymore.
That's the way it is. People you know under thirty
don't know of any other world. They don't know anything
about old style networks and old style mainstream newspapers. A
(09:49):
lot of older people still talk in those terms, and
I find it's really striking how the two worlds are
far different and they don't really understand each other. But
the mainstream media's influence is really diminished significantly, and it's
guys like Charlie Kirk who are who had more and
more a larger role to play and how people view
(10:12):
the world.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Are we are going to continue.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
We are waiting on a news conference from Utah authorities
on Charlie Kirk getting assassinated on stage in Utah.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
The conservative activists.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
We're on every day from one until four o'clock and
then after four o'clock. John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. Moistline for Friday is eight seven seven
mois staighty six eight seven seven Mois Steady six or
usually talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. And one big
missing piece of the story of Charlie Kirk, the conservative
(10:54):
activist and media personality. He got shot to death today
on stage from a bullet that came far away they
think maybe a couple of hundred yards from a rooftop
at Utah Valley University. And he was making an appearance.
His organization is called Turning Point USA. It organizes and
(11:17):
activates millions of people, especially young people, around the Country's
always on tour, appearing at colleges and other places. So
he was up on stage and doing his presentation when
a bullet hit him in the neck, got him, according
to the La Times, in the carotid artery, and he
was dead shortly thereafter. And the big missing piece is, well,
(11:40):
who did this? There is no news or even a
hint as to a suspect. It's hard to believe that
they don't have video cameras everywhere, and the police are
probably actively chasing down the shooter, but nothing has leaked
(12:03):
out so far. There was very briefly, and this was
in every major media story you know for a few minutes,
is that the police had gotten it turned out to
be an older guy. He had white hair on a
fringe bald, clearly elderly, and he was on his hands
(12:26):
and knees and the police said cuffed him and were
detaining him, and people were shouting at him, and he
was yelling about his rights, and so in that moment
it looked like he was the guy. It just it
didn't look like he would be the guy. But that
lasted about five minutes and then the police said the
university said, no, no, he wasn't the guy. We don't
(12:48):
have a suspect. So unless they're going to announce something
in the next few minutes, and we're waiting still on
a press conference that was scheduled to start at three o'clock,
and we're monitoring everything, and we got Alex Stone from
ABC News there as well. We don't have even a
hint of who this was, or why they did it,
or exactly where they did it from. We are going
(13:10):
to talk with Jennifer Coffin Daffer coming up after three
point thirty unless the news conference is running. And Jennifer
has been a special agent with the FBI. She's worked
in law enforcement for almost thirty years and she specializes
in at the time in gangs, narcotics, organized crime, electronic surveillance, counterintelligence.
(13:34):
She resulted her work resulted in the disruption of the
Crypts criminal street gang in Fort Worth and the dismantlement
of the Mediine cartel responsible for distributing thousands of kilos
of cocaine throughout the Midwest and the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
She is now.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Working for a private security company and she also is
a law and justice contributor commentator for News Nation, has
been doing that for the last two years or so.
So if we don't have a press conference, we're going
to talk with Jennifer Coffendaffer as the world waits to
find out who did this, and the real danger is
(14:14):
is that this may start a tick for tat between
extremists on both sides, people trying to take out politicians
or media figures activists. Most of the Democrats in Los
Angeles have come out publicly and said this is horrible.
(14:37):
Karen Bass wrote on x I'm absolutely disgusted by today's
attack on Charlie Kirk. Political violence in all forms is
unacceptable and reprehensible. We must all reject it. We played
the clips of the Gavin Newsom hosting Kirk on Newsome's
podcast a few months ago, and he says the attack
on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, reprehensible. In the United
(14:58):
States of America, we must reject violence in every form democratic.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
Hey, John, We're going to go now to that news
conference on the desk of Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Vice President Val Peterson, who's been in touch with President
to menace, and then we'll hear from kevinra Cox.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
I'll turn the time over to mister Mason.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Hello, everyone, I'm Bou Mason, Commissioner for the Utah Department
of Public Safety. Today, at approximately twelve to twenty Mountain
standard time, political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
In an event at the Utah Valley University.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga's Hospital, where
he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will
be co leading the criminal investigation to find this killer
along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We're working in
unison with the County Sheriff's office, the local police department,
(16:10):
and the university Police department, all of which have been
very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after
the shooting, we did have a suspect in custody, George Zen,
but he was released from custody after we identified that
he did not match the shooting suspect and was not
an accurate person of interest.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
However, he has.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Been booked into the County Jail by Utah v University
Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have
an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident
occurred with a large crowd round. There was one shot
fired and one victim. While the suspect is at large,
(16:56):
we believe this was a targeted attack towards one individual.
There's a tragic moment in our state and in our
country as we hear. We encourage everyone who's struggling with
news of the incident to call nine and eight our
state a mental health across crisis line.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
In addition to that.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other
ways we can communicate through the public for tips and
other information.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
Thank you, good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
On behalf of the FBI, We extend our sincerest condolences
to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts
are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event.
We know that what you experienced was very difficult. Our
thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we
(17:51):
heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the
Salt Lake Field Office responded immediately. We have full resources
devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence.
To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co
lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We are working
(18:13):
on setting up a digital media tip line, and as
soon as it's established, we'll get that information out to everyone.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
I know. There's a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
This is very much an active case, and this investigation
is in its early stages. We are following all the
leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information,
please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
On behalf of President Tuman Is who we've been communicating with,
and she's on her way back right now.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
I say that.
Speaker 9 (18:45):
On behalf of Utah Valley University, we are shocked and
saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express
our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We agree with
our students, faculty, and staff who were witness to this
unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning
Point USA to speak on our campus.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
We firmly believe that UVU is a place.
Speaker 10 (19:08):
To share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
We do not condone any form of violence at UVU
and seek to make our campus a safe place for all.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 11 (19:29):
Thank you for joining us on this dark and tragic occasion.
I want to thank our law enforcement officers who are
leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long and his response
here with the UVU Police Department. We're grateful for your
leadership and your team, and again to the speakers that
(19:52):
you've just heard from who are co leading this investigation.
I also want to recognize Sherip Mike Smith, who has
been in valuable partner as this investigation moves forward. I've
been in touch with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel.
We are completely aligned with our state and federal partners
(20:16):
as we work through this case.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Now, this is a dark day for our state.
Speaker 11 (20:24):
It's a tragic day for our nation, and I want
to be very clear that this is a political assassination.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
We are.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
Celebrating two hundred and fifty years of the founding of
this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of independence,
that this great experiment on which we embark together two
hundred and fifty years ago, that we are endowed by
our creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of
(20:58):
those is life, and today a life was taken. Charlie
Kirk was first and.
Speaker 7 (21:10):
Foremost a husband and a dad to young children. He
was also.
Speaker 11 (21:25):
Very much politically involved, and that's why he was here
on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech
and debate to shape ideas and to persuade people.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Historically, our university.
Speaker 11 (21:45):
Campuses in this nation and here in the state of
Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are
formulated and debated. And that's what he does. He comes
on college campuses and he debates as foundational to the
formation of our country, to our most basic constitutional rights.
(22:09):
And when someone takes the life of a person because
of their ideas or their ideals, then that very constitutional
foundation is threatened. Now we have a person of interest
in custody. The investigation is ongoing, but I want to
(22:32):
make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this,
we will find you, we will try you, and we
will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law,
and I just want to remind people that we still
have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Our nation is broken. We've had.
Speaker 11 (23:08):
Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination
on the governor of Pennsylvania, and we had an attempted
assassination on a presidential candidate and former president of the
United States and now current President of.
Speaker 7 (23:29):
The United States.
Speaker 11 (23:33):
Nothing I say can unit us as a country. Nothing
I can say right now can fix what is broken.
Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our
hearts are broken.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
We mourn.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
With his wife, his children, his family, his friends. We
mourn as a nation. If anyone, in the sound of
my voice celebrated even a little bit at.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
The news of this shooting, I would beg you to
look in the mirror.
Speaker 11 (24:12):
And to see if you can find a better angel
in there somewhere. I don't care what his politics are.
I care that he was an American. We desperately need
our country. We desperately need leaders in our country. But
more than the leaders, we just need every single person
(24:37):
in this country to think about where we are and
where we want to be, to ask ourselves. Is this
what two hundred and fifty years has wrought on us?
I pray that that's not the case. I pray that
(24:57):
those who hated what Charlie Cooks stood for will put
down their social media and their pens and pray for
his family, and that all of us, all of us
will try to find a way to stop painting our
(25:18):
fellow Americans.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
With that, we're happy to take a few questions.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
The FBI director is posting that is social that a
suspect is in custody, which is like clarification, do you
or do you not have a suspective shooter in customer?
Speaker 11 (25:32):
We have a person of interest in custody that is
being interviewed right now.
Speaker 8 (25:36):
It's not George Zam.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
That is not George Zim. That is correct.
Speaker 10 (25:41):
Are you still associated if we're looking for another shooter
or anybody.
Speaker 11 (25:45):
Else for latedviews, Yes, we are actively looking for anyone
and everyone who has any any possible information relating to
the shooting.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Can you tell us details about the suspect.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Being taken into custody, where the how long ago?
Speaker 11 (26:01):
We cannot at this point, but we will get you
that information when when we can.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Is there believe to be.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
A second individual involved in the shooting.
Speaker 11 (26:11):
At this point, there is no information that would lead
us to believe that there is a second person involved.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
The possible shooting.
Speaker 11 (26:21):
We want to talk about what we know there.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
The only information we have on the suspect the possible
shooter is taken from close Servit TV here on campus.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
We do have that. We're analyzing it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
But it is security camera footage, so you can you
can kind of guess what the quality of that is.
But we do know dressed in all all dark clothing.
We don't have much better description other than that the
shot came from here on campus, from a location.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
At a fair.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Potentially from a roof, Yes, a longer distance shot from a.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
Roof, so clarified with the security camera foot that you
have and the personal interests that's in custody.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
To those, does that achu That's what we're trying to
decipher right now.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
So did an FBI or DH said anything on the
threatboard this morning?
Speaker 7 (27:17):
I can't speak that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as
soon as we have further information, we will be sure
to release it.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Any Kassu foreign intelligence.
Speaker 8 (27:27):
Involvement as now, I can't comment on any of that.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
Hi, you can.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
You talk a little bit about the security of an
event itself, but who was there, security wives and what happens.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
On these kind of events that shooting fun So my
name is Jeff Long.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I'm the police chief here at UVU, and I'll tell
you right now, we are devastated. We're a small, small
police department. We have a very large campus. We have
over forty thousand students, and we love our students, we
love our visitors, and we're devastated by what happened today.
This is the police chief's nightmare. I'm very saddened for
the Kirk family. I know his uh, his wife and
(28:05):
parents uh found out about this. You know, obviously he's
away from home, he's here in Utah. They find out
by police officer that visits their home.
Speaker 7 (28:13):
That's tragic.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Nobody wants that. But I can tell you about our
venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside.
We did have six officers work in that event. We
had probably over three thousand people that were in attendance
sat down in kind of a bowl area here on
the Civiral campus. We have a waterfall area and so
he was kind of in a lower area surrounded by
(28:35):
by buildings. You know, we had uh some playing closed
police officers that were in the crowd as well. You know,
we trained for these things and you think, you know,
you have things covered, and you know these things you know,
unfortunately they happen. You try to get you try to
get your bases covered, and unfortunately today we didn't and
(28:57):
because of that we had this tragic incident. So we
have officers there. We had Charlie Kirk's team.
Speaker 8 (29:03):
He has a.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
Security team that travels with him and they were here
with him when when he when he was shot. I'm
sorry see the weapon recovery. I at this point I
can't disclose that shot.
Speaker 9 (29:18):
There was a question being asked about mass shooting.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Was that person apprehended?
Speaker 7 (29:22):
And do you know who asked that question?
Speaker 8 (29:25):
Say a question again? I don't know what if I
discover Sam why.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
Charlie Kirk's shot.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
He was answering a question about mass shooting specifically, was
that person attended?
Speaker 7 (29:33):
And do you know who asked that question?
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
We do not have that at this moment, ladies and gentlemen,
we have time for just one more question, so thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, the question with the chief as well.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
Was it your team or Kirks team.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Or a combination of both that kind of set the
security protocol.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
For the event.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
So we worked together. You know, he has his team
and they do this all of the country. We all
know that this is not uncom for them. Uh, They're
very comfortable on campuses.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
And I was coordinating with his lead security guy and
uh so, yeah, we were working together.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Was this a sh shooter type of shots this, ladies.
Speaker 11 (30:12):
And gentlemen, that's that's Those are all the questions that
we will be answered today.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Again, thank you for for covering this. Uh, we will.
Speaker 11 (30:20):
Be We'll be updating you as soon as we have
additional information through through normal channels working with law enforcement. Again,
are our deepest condolences to the to the Kirk family
and and to the.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Students who were who were there today.
Speaker 11 (30:36):
And uh, I would I would just ask everyone everywhere
to please pray for their family and uh and to
pray for our country and we need it now more
than ever.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Thank you, the governor of Utah. All right, they're walking
off stage here.
Speaker 11 (30:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
That was the press conference in Utah law enforcement officials
giving some information over the Charlie Kirk assassination. Charlie Kirk,
the conservative political activist and media personality and top advisor
to Donald Trump, gunned down while on stage at Utah
(31:14):
Valley University in orem Utah, in front of hundreds of
people who gathered in an outdoor amphitheater like setting, and
he was on stage under a canopy and he was
doing a question and answer with the audience. His organization
is Turning Point USA, and he's constantly on tour, having
often these college appearances, and somebody shot him in the neck.
(31:40):
Blood spurted everywhere. They took him to the hospital quickly,
but he died in the hospital, and it was There's
been conflicting reports ever since it happened, and it was
a little confusing trying to follow their presentation at this
press conference. The FBI director Cash Patel has posted on
(32:03):
social media that a suspect has been taken into custody.
There was a guy that I mentioned before, an older
man with glasses. He was bald with white fringe for hair,
and he was on his knees and cuffed by police
(32:23):
and he was shouting about his rights and people were
shouting at him, and it looked like he was a suspect.
Now he is in custody, and I assume he's a
different guy. He was charged with obstruction of justice, so
said law enforcement officials, and that they didn't consider him
to be the shooter. So it wasn't particularly clear there
(32:46):
the way they presented it. I'm looking at a New
York Times story and they have Cash Pattel saying that
a suspect has been taken into custody. There are if
you've seen video or photos of the shooting, you'll see
people running from the event after Kirk was shot on stage,
(33:08):
his head jerking back as blood poured from his neck.
There is rooftop video recorded before and after the shooting
showing a person on the roof of the loc Center,
which is about one hundred and fifty yards from where
Clark where Kirk was on stage. In one video, an
(33:29):
onlooker says they saw somebody run across the roof and
lie down, pointing out the visible outline of the person.
In a second video, the person can be seen rushing
away from that spot immediately after the shooting. We will
continue covering this.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty we're on.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
From one in till four and after four o'clock. Excuse me,
we have the podcast John Belt Show on demand. Obviously,
the whole show today was on the Charlie Kirk murder.
And there's conflicting statements being made by officials, as I
(34:15):
mentioned right before the commercial break, and I've been looking
at all the news feeds I can find, and the
Utah Governor, Spencer Cox said, and this came across five
minutes ago. At this point, there's no information that would
lead us to believe that there's a second person involved.
(34:38):
They're actively looking for people, the governor said. The authorities
have a person of interest in custody that's being interviewed
right now. Cash Btel has posted on social media the
FBI director that the suspect who killed Kirk had been
taken into custody. At the news conference, Utah law enforcement
(35:00):
officials described the individual and custody only as a person
of interest who is being interviewed about the shooting. So
not quite as definitive as what cash Ptel is say
is saying. And it's still not explained whether the person
in custody is that older man that was seen in
(35:22):
videos on his knees handcuffed by police. He's been charged
with obstruction of justice. They had said he was not
the suspect of the shooting. That he's being charged with
something not directly related. He did apparently put up some resistance.
Maybe he's the same guy that they suspect is the shooter.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
There was nothing in the statements that the law enforcement
officials made that cleared that up.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And there's.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
What Cashpateel wrote is just that they have a custody
suspect and custody. It's just not clear. And what the
governor said is there's there's a somebody being interviewed, so
we'll see. I mean, it's obviously seems to be, you know,
(36:14):
one guy obviously did the shot. They saw one guy
roaming around on the roof or crawling on the roof,
and they do have video, but the police officials said
it's grainy close circuit TV video, so the quality is
not wonderful. And he was dressed in black clothing. And
(36:37):
that's all they have right now that they're willing to
share publicly. Obviously they know a lot more, and they
gave reporters basically one possible headline that there is. Depending
on who you're talking to, it's either a person of
interest or a suspect, and he either is considered the
shooter or he's just considered someone they want to talk
(37:00):
to about the shooting. I think that's the way to
sum the whole thing up. Well, obviously a lot more
will come out, and this is uh, this is this
is bad because there are a lot of extremists out there.
There are a lot of insane people. I can't imagine
what's being whipped up on the Internet and on social
(37:23):
media about this. And you know, this could this could
start a tip for tat warfare. It's just people have
gotten insane and the social media and and instant media
is just making everybody crazy, absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
We'll talk more coming up.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
We've got Conway next, and Heather Brooker has the news
live in the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
always hear the show live on KFI Am six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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