September 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk in critical condition after being shot at Utah college event
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are following this developing story that we're talking about
out of Orum, Utah. Conservative commentator political activist Charlie Kirk
has been shot while giving a speech. Guess it's considered
a debate to some degree at the college campus there
at Utah Valley University. And I will just say that
(00:30):
it does not look good at all. Some of the
video that has come in is extremely graphic. It's around
different places on social media, and he was he was
shot as he was finishing up a sentence. Basically, I
played for you a little bit the far away version
(00:51):
of the video. You could hear the gunshot in the background.
This is what I played for you a second ago.
So that video appeared to be a couple hundred yards
maybe one hundred yards away from where he was speaking
under kind of a pop up tent, sitting on a
stage by himself.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
There were armed security around him.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I counted in some of the other videos probably six
or eight different guys that appeared to be security, just
standing with their backs to him, facing the crowd, and
then unfortunately, there was yet another video that appears to
show a much closer version of that same shot. You
can see somebody right up next to the stage, probably
(01:36):
second or third row away from Charlie Kirk. This is
the audio from that video counting gang violence. Great the images,
I will say, thankfully this is radio because you don't
have to see it, but the image is extremely graphic
in that second video that was more up close and
(01:59):
you could see clearly he was shot in the neck
sort of the lower left side, just above his collar bone.
As of right now, they're saying that his condition is unknown,
but I mean, you got to be honest. When you
see a shot like that and a wound like that,
(02:19):
it does not look good at all. One of the
people that was on the ground with Charlie Kirk at
this event in orum Utah at Utah La University was
a former Republican Congressman from Utah, Jason Chafitz, and he
was on with Fox News a short time ago.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I'm guessing there were two thousand people there or so
and ready to have a dialogue and listen to Charlie
and you know, take one, come one, come all to
ask answer questions, I, you know, in the let's see
forty five minutes or so, you know, since it's happened,
not even that long, thirty minutes since it's happened. You know,
(02:57):
the question was what a transgender shooters? Mass shootings? But
as soon as the shot rang out, everybody hit the
deck and then everybody started scattering and yelling and screaming,
as you might imagine. And you know, I went from
(03:17):
watching Charlie Kirk to looking over to you know, make
sure our daughter and our son in law were okay,
and everybody just was in disbelief and just scattered.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mentioned that Vice President Vance had come out with
a message on Twitter to pray for Charlie Kirk. President
Trump took the truth social and said, we must all
pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great
guy from top to bottom, and then in all caps,
God bless him again. At this point turning point, USA
has said that Charlie Kirk's condition is unknown. I think
we have to take a dose of reality, and based
(03:51):
on the images that we've seen, it is very dire,
if not grave. I'm not going to pronounce the guy
dead because I don't know, but in all honesty, it
would be a miracle if he survived something like that. Again,
at this point, they do say a suspect is in custody.
Another problem that we have with social media at an
event like this is there are a lot of videos
(04:11):
that are floating around.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
There's no way for us to verify them.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But there is one that does show a man on
the ground on his knees being handcuffed, surrounded by law
enforcement officers, and at this point it's not even worth
describing him because we can't verify the verify that that
was a video taken even in orum Utah. At this point,
it is incredible to say that in today's day and
(04:39):
age of political discourse that's gotten so far out of
hand that somebody giving a speech like that in a
place like orum Utah, where I'm sure he had plenty
of people who were supporting him. It takes one nut
job in the crowd, as we've seen, to destroy the
fabric of of what was supposed to be just an
(05:03):
open practice of free speech. Charlie Kirk, this powerful activist,
director of Turning Point USA, talk show host podcaster debater,
he has been shot while at an event they're in
orum Utah, apparently shot in the neck. Based on the
early video that has come out, the far away video
(05:26):
that was first out there, you couldn't really see where
he was wounded. But again in some of the subsequent videos,
where the person taking the video is much closer to
the stage, you can clearly see that he was hit
in the neck. There's no aftermath video other than people
leaving scattering out of the courtyard where he was speaking,
(05:47):
and at this point we don't we don't have an
eye on who was able to administer first aid, if
anybody was, so all of these details are are still
to come. But again, Charlie Kirk shot somewhere while he
was in orum Utah at Utah Valley University, as you
heard Jason Chafitz, the former congressman say, the largest school
(06:10):
in the state of Utah.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
None of it is good news. The potential is that
it's going to get even worse depending on the outcome
whether or not he survives this shooting. According still to
major news outlets, the extent of the injuries is unclear,
but you can clearly see in some of these early
videos that it is incredibly grave. Whatever it is that
(06:36):
he's facing, if he's still if he's still there, all right,
We're going to follow this story. I'll continue to look
up some stuff over the break, see if we can
get some more information on this developing story out of Orum, Utah.
Charlie Kirk shot while he was given a speech there
on the campus at Utah Valley University.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
This is a day that all of our political discourse
has come to a crashing halt because of the shooting
apparently of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He was giving a
speech in orum Utah at Utah Valley University. Jason Chafitz
is a former congressman from Utah who was at the
(07:22):
event when Charlie Kirk was shot just about an hour ago.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Being there seeing it within proximity, it seemed like it
was a close shot. The venue is such that there's
a four story building which is the administrative building to
the south. The other buildings around the side are not
quite so high, but you could be on the second
level and watch Charlie.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
The police had moved the people.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
There were some people that were above Charlie, so that's
being there. There's a place to be there, but the
police moved people out to the sides, and so you
couldn't be right above where you were at. But if
I had to guess, and again it's still raw, but
if I had to guess and give a police statement
right here right now today, see where that water is.
(08:08):
It looked to me like it was in close proximity
straight ahead right in that area.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Now, Jason Chaffitz, they're talking to Fox News about the
shooting and to kind of follow along with his descriptions
there and to try to fill out sort of the
picture based on what we've seen. Now, there's a big
quad area, big courtyard area that is surrounded by relatively
low buildings maybe two three four stories, and as the
(08:36):
former congressman said, there's about two thousand people. It looks
like right around this tent where you know, sort of
a pop up tent with a backdrop, where Charlie Kirk
was just sitting on a stool and he was speaking
into a microphone sitting on the chair and answering questions
from people who would come up. There were immediately in
(08:56):
front of the tent. It looked like there were probably
you know, ten to twelve deep was as close as
they got.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And then he referred to a water feature.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
There is some water in this kind of stepped down
large amphitheater, and you couldn't stand there. But he, the
former congressman, said, if he were to guess, and if
he were to give a police statement, he believed that
that shot came from within close proximity. I mentioned that
one of the first videos that came in of this
shooting from Utah Valley University was from farther away, and
(09:29):
it appeared to be about one hundred yards away from
where Charlie Kirk was. And the people that you can
see sort of over the shoulders of their reaction to
the gun shot was to turn their head to the right.
Now they were off to Charlie Kirk's left. So even
if the if the shooter was somewhere even in the
center of this venue, whatever it was, they would have
(09:51):
turned their heads to the right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But they did turn. It looked farther right now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Jason chaff had said he believed the shot came from
relatively close, and if those guys are any indication, it
may have come from farther back than the congressman suggested,
But the Utah Valley University Police Department has already come
out and said that they are looking into this and
that they do have a suspect in custody. If this
(10:17):
was a close proximity thing, if there was a shooter
within that crowd.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
There were officers all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mentioned that based on the security that you could
see immediately around the stage. There were six or eight
of these security guys around there there, you know, playing
close private security, I assume, but we're more body security.
They're obviously not going to be able to do anything
if somebody brings a weapon to the university like they did.
Donald Trump has taken to truth social again, or I
(10:49):
should say I remind you that he has taken to
truth social and said we must all pray for Charlie
Kirk and God bless him. Allow me a moment of
description here, because it was it's in my head now,
feel like I got to share this. There are two
different videos that I've seen so far of the actual incident.
(11:09):
The one farther away and you can only see his
body react as if he'd been hit by something. The
second video is much much closer and as I was
describing sort of the first group of people that were
closest to the stage, maybe ten or twelve deep. The
person who's taking the video appears to be behind only
one other person, so they were as close to the
(11:31):
stage basically as you could get. And that image is
the most telling in terms of the devastating nature of
the wound. It's clear that he was hit in the neck,
and it's clear that he immediately was out.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
We again, we don't know the final disposition of this.
We don't know. They have not updated any any condition
or anything like that. Turning Point USA the execu he
is the executive director of TPUSA. They have come out
with a statement which simply says that they are looking
into this, for lack of a better term, that they
(12:15):
are trying to figure out exactly what happened. Aubrey Leach,
is public relations manager for Turning Point, said quote, we
are confirming that he was shot and we are praying
for charl Praying for Charlie. Utah Valley University is believed
to be the largest school in the state of Utah,
which would explain why the crowd was so massive. A
(12:37):
two thousand people is the estimate from the former congressman,
and the live video or the most recent video that
we're seeing from the venue itself, from the large amphitheater
just shows officers sort of on the steps of the
Amphitheater making people stay farther away, making sure that they
(12:58):
stay away from what is turned into a crime scene. Now,
which before eleven o'clock this morning, Utah time, was this
supposed to be this big political discussion and in this
case turns into a crime scene with thousands of potential
witnesses and all of this. There are FBI agents that
(13:19):
are on the way, according to the FBI director Cash Ptel.
He took to Twitter to say as much. Pam Bondi,
the Attorney General, has also said that she will be
sending staff members and send out her prayers and thoughts
to Charlie Kirk and his family as we get some
more information about all of this. Is this is perhaps
one of the most gruesome displays of political violence that
(13:41):
we've seen in some time. Doesn't have to be a
politician that is the target of one of these things.
When these things happen, we all lose. We all stand
to lose a great deal of not just freedom, but
compassion for people in this in this event. So again,
Charlie Kirk shot while giving a speech at Utah Valley
(14:03):
University in the courtyard there.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
He was sitting beneath a tent when he was hit.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Charlie was there as part of the American Comeback Tour,
which was featuring him and several other speakers hosted by
Turning Point USA chapter at Utah Valley University. Former Senator
sorry a current Senator of Utah, Mike Lee also posted
on x and said that Charlie had been shot, that
he was tracking the situation, and he asked for prayers
(14:29):
for Charlie Kirk and the students that were gathered as well. Again,
at this point, we don't know of any other injuries,
whether people got hurt at all, as they were all
stampeding out of that courtyard to get away from the gunshots,
but we do know at least one suspect is in
custody at this point. We will continue to follow this story,
get some more information here during the breaks as well,
(14:51):
and keep you updated throughout the day. Garyan Shannon will
continue You're.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Listening to Garyan Shannon on demand from kfi A.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
We are following a story out of orum Utah, Utah
Valley University. Conservative activist Turning Point USA executive director Charlie
Kirk has apparently been shot while giving a speech to
college students there at to Utah Valley University. A couple
things to note about this. We don't know his condition.
(15:22):
There has been no confirmation one way or the other
if he's alive, if he's not. The close up video
that we have seen and you may have been checking
out or seen on social media already, is pretty gruesome.
It will in many cases be taken down from social
media because it is that gruesome. I've noticed that a
bunch of the TV stations that have been relying on
(15:45):
video will freeze the video before you see his body
recoil from having been hit. So again, if that's your thing,
you can go check it out and find it yourself.
You can hear a solitary gunshot though in those videos
you can hear one single gunshot, and in the closer
(16:06):
videos you can see that it looks like Charlie Kirk
was shot in the neck just above the collarbone on
the left side, and it is a.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Gruesome, gruesome wound.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The hospital that he was taken to is not that
far away. He was taken off the stage by private security,
according to people who were there at the moment that
this happened, and the university says that a suspect is
in custody.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
That's again, at this point all we know.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We know nothing about the suspect, and we still do
not know anything about the condition of Charlie Kirk. A
couple things to know about Charlie Kirk, specifically in kind
of his history in politics. I could give two flip
and corny turds whether you like the guy or not.
He was a guy who fought for political He fought
(16:57):
for that's the way to put He fought for salient,
thoughtful political discourse. You don't have to agree with the
guy to do that. A point of a point to
that is that he was the first to sit down
with Gavin Newsom and the Gavin Newsom Podcast. Remember that
(17:19):
back in the spring of this year. That made so
many headlines like, first of all, why if you're on
Gavin newsom side, why would you want to talk to
Charlie Kirk? And then on Charlie Kirk's side, why would
you want to talk to talk to Gavin Newsom? One
of the selling points for Charlie Kirk in terms of
who he was as a personality was he constantly offered dialogue.
(17:39):
He constantly offered to answer your questions, whatever they might
have been, or counter your opinions, whatever they might have been.
His whole tour that he was on, the American Comeback Tour,
the tent that he was in literally had the banner
on it that said, prove me wrong. He kind of
made a name for himself and YouTube videos and social
(18:00):
media when he would sit down with people almost entirely
on college campuses and allow for a public and calm
discourse about the issues. Again, I don't care if you
appreciated his positions or not.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
That's not what this is.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
This is a discussion of a guy who rises through
the ranks politically speaking, whatever team you think he's on,
and is taken down apparently because of that. There is
an intersection here as well, because there is this is
on a college campus. If there's so many discussions about
violence that takes place on college campuses, shootings on college campuses,
(18:39):
it should not be lost that he was being asked
to question specifically about mass shootings. I think the question,
according to some people who were listening to this while
he right before he was shot, there was a question
specifically about mass shootings perpetrated by people who say that
they are transgender. Charlie Kirk is thirty one years old.
(19:01):
His birthday is middle of next month. Kid from Illinois.
He volunteered for the Senate campaign of an Illinois Republican
in twenty ten when he would have been what seventeen
years old. In his senior year at high school, he
created a campaign to reverse a price increase for cookies
of all things, wrote an essay alleging that there was
(19:24):
bias in high school textbooks that got him an early
television shot. They wanted to talk to this young kid
who was politically active, and he actually started Turning Point USA.
He's been a CEO, chief fundraiser, the public face of
Turning Point USA since its founding. He co founded it
in the year twenty twelve at the age of eighteen,
(19:46):
and according to The New York Times that Turning Point
USA became a major major player in the first run
for president for Donald Trump and then obviously in the
third run for for Donald Trump. He turned the organization
into this well funded media operation. According to the New
York Times. Backed by conservative mega donors. The activities include
(20:09):
publication of the professor watch list, the school board watch list.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And it is a.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
It should strike everyone that political discourse like this again,
no matter what team you think you're on or claim
to be on, or want to be on, or hate
the other side for being on, or whatever, it is
that this is an escalation that cannot we can't come
back from it. This isn't going to go away anytime soon.
Now you're going to have both sides inflamed by this,
(20:40):
suggesting that this somehow should become the norm, and we
need to we need.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
To reject that as a people.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
There was an eyewitness account again from a former congressman,
Jason Chafitz, former Utah congressman, who was there at the
moment that this happened, and he described briefly what it
was that he aw when Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Just about an hour and a half.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
I'm guessing there were two thousand people there or so
and ready to have a dialogue and listen to Charlie
and you know, take one, come one, come all to
ask answer questions I you know, in the let's say
forty five minutes or so, you know, since it's happened,
not even that long, thirty minutes since it's happened. I
(21:25):
you know, the question was what about transgender shooters mass shootings?
But as soon as the shot rang out, everybody hit
the deck and then everybody started scattering and yelling and
screaming as you might imagine. And you know, I went
(21:45):
from watching Charlie Kirk to looking over to you know,
make sure our daughter and our son in law were okay,
and everybody just was in disbelief and just scattered.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
So I've seen at this point two videos of the shooting. University,
by the way, is now telling media outlets that the
shot actually came from a building about two hundred yards
away from where Charlie Kirk was sitting. In the middle
of this, I guess the bowl of this amphitheater sort
(22:20):
of a I don't want to call it a natural amphitheater,
but it is. It's got grass on it, and then
there are big concrete steps in between each patch of
grass that goes to what we saw originally. The idea
of the shot came from far away that goes to
what we saw originally, which was a video also far
away with one hundred, one hundred and fifty yards away
from where he was standing, and that video taken over
(22:43):
someone's shoulder. You hear a single gun shot. You can
see his body react to being hit. But whoever's recording
instinctively turns to the right and kind of looks at
a building that was also far away from where Charlie
Kirk was sitting. Again, the CEO, founder of Turning Point USA,
was shot at this event at Utah Valley University, the
(23:06):
largest university in all of Utah. There are forty six
thousand students at Utah Valley University, forty six thousand. By comparison, BYU,
which I thought was larger BYUS only got about thirty
six thousand students. So we will bring you any updates
that we can find out here. As we wrap up
the show, we're going to hand it off to John
(23:27):
of course at the top of the hour, waiting also
for any sort of condition on Charlie Kirk and any
information we know about the suspect in this case, in
this shooting of Charlie Kirk. We'll continue with that and
we come back to Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from kfi AM.
Six forty.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
University officials there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Utah Valley University in Orum, Utah have said that the
campus is going to be closed until further notice.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That is not a giant surprise.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Activist and Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
While giving a speech.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I guess the couple different places referred to it as
a debate that he was taking part in. He does
these things where he does these events where he in
front of a large group of people will ask for
questions or debate points, and he will argue his political stance.
One of the I guess telltale signs of a Charlie
Kirk event is that kind of dialogue. That's the back
(24:32):
and forth that he has promoted for years. He's only
thirty one years old and for the last gosh thirteen
fourteen years. That's kind of what he's been doing, is
encouraging people to encouraging people to take part in dialogue
like that. He believing that his political stance is enough
(24:52):
to win you over one way or the other with logical.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Arguments, etc.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
While this has been going on, there was a shoot
at a high school in Colorado, This actually would have
been just after noon local time, so we're talking about
three hours ago. Now, this was Evergreen High School, about
twenty eight miles southwest of Denver. And this was it's
up in the mountains, or I should say at least
the foothills of the Rockies. I don't know exactly what
(25:18):
kind of condition the geography of where Evergreen High School is,
but at one point Jefferson County sheriff there in Colorado
said that there was one person and that at least
two students were shot. Again, this is Evergreen High School,
Jefferson County, Colorado, southwest of Denver.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I did a quick check.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It's about twenty miles west of Columbine High School.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Just because that's of.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Course, we the perhaps geography that a lot of people
know about Colorado. And when it comes to these shootings,
the White House has chimed in. Both Caroline Levitt, the
White House spokesperson, and President Trump have come forward and
asked for prayers for Charlie Kirk, and just in all honesty,
(26:03):
I can't imagine that he survived that because of what
it is that we saw in the videos, the close up,
closest version that I've seen so far was taken from
almost directly on the rail in front of Charlie kirk
(26:24):
speaking position. He's up on a platform, but he's under
a tent, under sort of a pop up with a backdrop,
and he's sitting on what kind of looks like a
director's chair, if you will, and he's holding a microphone
and answering questions from the crowd. When he was shot,
you heard one single shot ring out, and according to
the university, they've apparently been telling media outlets that the
(26:49):
shot itself came from a university building, which would have
been approximately two hundred yards away from where Charlie Kirk
was sitting. We do have at the very least a
little bit of the dispatch audio that has come in
from Orum Utah in response to the shooting on the campus.
(27:11):
There was one shot. We are staging at the front
of the school by the roundabout. I mentioned the up
close video. The audio that I'm about to play for
you is from that video. The audio itself is not gruesome,
but if you use your imagination, you can see very
clearly that he was hit in the neck.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
By this bullet. Counting gang violence.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
From that point on, the couple thousand people. It looks
like that we're in this large amphitheater kind of quad area.
The vast majority of them ran away from the stage.
There's a handful of people that you can see sort
of barricading themselves behind large planters and behind pylons of
these buildings, but for the most part, everybody was was
(28:00):
running away from there. And again I pointed to Jason Chaffits,
this former congressman out of Utah who was there at
the time of the shooting and saw what happened. He
was there, apparently with family, was part of the event,
the American Comeback Tour, which was hosted by the Turning
Point USA chapter there at the college campus. Jason Chaffits, again,
(28:24):
former congressman from Utah, who saw the whole thing being.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There, seeing it within proximity, it seemed like it was
a close shot. The venue is such that there's a
four story building which is the administrative building to the south.
The other buildings around the side are not quite so high,
but you could be on the second level and watch Charlie.
The police had moved the people. There were some people
that were above Charlie, so that's seeing there. There's a
(28:51):
place to be there, but the police moved people out
to the sides, and so you couldn't be right above
where you were at. But if I had to guess,
and again it's still raw, but if I had to
guess and give a police statement right here right now today,
see where that water is. It looked to me like
(29:11):
it was great in close proximity, straight ahead, right in
that area.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So at this point, no details on Charlie Kirk's condition,
But the University of Utah, sorry, Utah Valley University, does
say that a shooting suspect is in custody. Now, there
are a handful of videos that show somebody being led
away in handcuffs with their literally with their pants around
their ankles as they're being dragged off by law enforcement.
(29:37):
And it's an older white guy, glasses, balding, kind of pudgy.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
We don't even know specifically if that is the suspect,
but it is in that same venue. It is in
that amphitheater kind of area at Utah Valley University. So
that's kind of the information that we know at this point. Again,
on the other side of this, in Colorado, at least
two students shot at a Denver area high school. No
connection obviously other than the timing of all of this.
(30:07):
So we hear at KFI are going to continue to
cover this story throughout the course of the day. John's
obviously going to have the latest information when he comes
along here at the top of the hour, and as
we follow this through the day, more on obviously the
condition of Charlie Kirk, maybe a potential identity, on whoever
the shooting suspect is in this case, and if this
(30:28):
is part of something even worse. Tomorrow we're going to
recap it all. Gary and Shannon, We'll see you tomorrow.
John's up next.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Stay drive.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Everybody you've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show,
you can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are following this developing story that we're talking about
out of Orum, Utah. Conservative commentator political activist Charlie Kirk
has been shot while giving a speech. Guess it's considered
a debate to some degree at the college campus there
at Utah Valley University. And I will just say that
(00:30):
it does not look good at all. Some of the
video that has come in is extremely graphic. It's around
different places on social media, and he was he was
shot as he was finishing up a sentence. Basically, I
played for you a little bit the far away version
(00:51):
of the video. You could hear the gunshot in the background.
This is what I played for you a second ago.
So that video appeared to be a couple hundred yards
maybe one hundred yards away from where he was speaking
under kind of a pop up tent, sitting on a
stage by himself.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
There were armed security around him.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I counted in some of the other videos probably six
or eight different guys that appeared to be security, just
standing with their backs to him, facing the crowd, and
then unfortunately, there was yet another video that appears to
show a much closer version of that same shot. You
can see somebody right up next to the stage, probably
(01:36):
second or third row away from Charlie Kirk. This is
the audio from that video counting gang violence. Great the images,
I will say, thankfully this is radio because you don't
have to see it, but the image is extremely graphic
in that second video that was more up close and
(01:59):
you could see clearly he was shot in the neck
sort of the lower left side, just above his collar bone.
As of right now, they're saying that his condition is unknown,
but I mean, you got to be honest. When you
see a shot like that and a wound like that,
(02:19):
it does not look good at all. One of the
people that was on the ground with Charlie Kirk at
this event in orum Utah at Utah La University was
a former Republican Congressman from Utah, Jason Chafitz, and he
was on with Fox News a short time ago.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I'm guessing there were two thousand people there or so
and ready to have a dialogue and listen to Charlie
and you know, take one, come one, come all to
ask answer questions, I, you know, in the let's see
forty five minutes or so, you know, since it's happened,
not even that long, thirty minutes since it's happened. You know,
(02:57):
the question was what a transgender shooters? Mass shootings? But
as soon as the shot rang out, everybody hit the
deck and then everybody started scattering and yelling and screaming,
as you might imagine. And you know, I went from
(03:17):
watching Charlie Kirk to looking over to you know, make
sure our daughter and our son in law were okay,
and everybody just was in disbelief and just scattered.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mentioned that Vice President Vance had come out with
a message on Twitter to pray for Charlie Kirk. President
Trump took the truth social and said, we must all
pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great
guy from top to bottom, and then in all caps,
God bless him again. At this point turning point, USA
has said that Charlie Kirk's condition is unknown. I think
we have to take a dose of reality, and based
(03:51):
on the images that we've seen, it is very dire,
if not grave. I'm not going to pronounce the guy
dead because I don't know, but in all honesty, it
would be a miracle if he survived something like that. Again,
at this point, they do say a suspect is in custody.
Another problem that we have with social media at an
event like this is there are a lot of videos
(04:11):
that are floating around.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
There's no way for us to verify them.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But there is one that does show a man on
the ground on his knees being handcuffed, surrounded by law
enforcement officers, and at this point it's not even worth
describing him because we can't verify the verify that that
was a video taken even in orum Utah. At this point,
it is incredible to say that in today's day and
(04:39):
age of political discourse that's gotten so far out of
hand that somebody giving a speech like that in a
place like orum Utah, where I'm sure he had plenty
of people who were supporting him. It takes one nut
job in the crowd, as we've seen, to destroy the
fabric of of what was supposed to be just an
(05:03):
open practice of free speech. Charlie Kirk, this powerful activist,
director of Turning Point USA, talk show host podcaster debater,
he has been shot while at an event they're in
orum Utah, apparently shot in the neck. Based on the
early video that has come out, the far away video
(05:26):
that was first out there, you couldn't really see where
he was wounded. But again in some of the subsequent videos,
where the person taking the video is much closer to
the stage, you can clearly see that he was hit
in the neck. There's no aftermath video other than people
leaving scattering out of the courtyard where he was speaking,
(05:47):
and at this point we don't we don't have an
eye on who was able to administer first aid, if
anybody was, so all of these details are are still
to come. But again, Charlie Kirk shot somewhere while he
was in orum Utah at Utah Valley University, as you
heard Jason Chafitz, the former congressman say, the largest school
(06:10):
in the state of Utah.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
None of it is good news. The potential is that
it's going to get even worse depending on the outcome
whether or not he survives this shooting. According still to
major news outlets, the extent of the injuries is unclear,
but you can clearly see in some of these early
videos that it is incredibly grave. Whatever it is that
(06:36):
he's facing, if he's still if he's still there, all right,
We're going to follow this story. I'll continue to look
up some stuff over the break, see if we can
get some more information on this developing story out of Orum, Utah.
Charlie Kirk shot while he was given a speech there
on the campus at Utah Valley University.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
This is a day that all of our political discourse
has come to a crashing halt because of the shooting
apparently of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He was giving a
speech in orum Utah at Utah Valley University. Jason Chafitz
is a former congressman from Utah who was at the
(07:22):
event when Charlie Kirk was shot just about an hour ago.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Being there seeing it within proximity, it seemed like it
was a close shot. The venue is such that there's
a four story building which is the administrative building to
the south. The other buildings around the side are not
quite so high, but you could be on the second
level and watch Charlie.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
The police had moved the people.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
There were some people that were above Charlie, so that's
being there. There's a place to be there, but the
police moved people out to the sides, and so you
couldn't be right above where you were at. But if
I had to guess, and again it's still raw, but
if I had to guess and give a police statement
right here right now today, see where that water is.
(08:08):
It looked to me like it was in close proximity
straight ahead right in that area.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Now, Jason Chaffitz, they're talking to Fox News about the
shooting and to kind of follow along with his descriptions
there and to try to fill out sort of the
picture based on what we've seen. Now, there's a big
quad area, big courtyard area that is surrounded by relatively
low buildings maybe two three four stories, and as the
(08:36):
former congressman said, there's about two thousand people. It looks
like right around this tent where you know, sort of
a pop up tent with a backdrop, where Charlie Kirk
was just sitting on a stool and he was speaking
into a microphone sitting on the chair and answering questions
from people who would come up. There were immediately in
(08:56):
front of the tent. It looked like there were probably
you know, ten to twelve deep was as close as
they got.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And then he referred to a water feature.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
There is some water in this kind of stepped down
large amphitheater, and you couldn't stand there. But he, the
former congressman, said, if he were to guess, and if
he were to give a police statement, he believed that
that shot came from within close proximity. I mentioned that
one of the first videos that came in of this
shooting from Utah Valley University was from farther away, and
(09:29):
it appeared to be about one hundred yards away from
where Charlie Kirk was. And the people that you can
see sort of over the shoulders of their reaction to
the gun shot was to turn their head to the right.
Now they were off to Charlie Kirk's left. So even
if the if the shooter was somewhere even in the
center of this venue, whatever it was, they would have
(09:51):
turned their heads to the right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But they did turn. It looked farther right now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Jason chaff had said he believed the shot came from
relatively close, and if those guys are any indication, it
may have come from farther back than the congressman suggested,
But the Utah Valley University Police Department has already come
out and said that they are looking into this and
that they do have a suspect in custody. If this
(10:17):
was a close proximity thing, if there was a shooter
within that crowd.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
There were officers all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mentioned that based on the security that you could
see immediately around the stage. There were six or eight
of these security guys around there there, you know, playing
close private security, I assume, but we're more body security.
They're obviously not going to be able to do anything
if somebody brings a weapon to the university like they did.
Donald Trump has taken to truth social again, or I
(10:49):
should say I remind you that he has taken to
truth social and said we must all pray for Charlie
Kirk and God bless him. Allow me a moment of
description here, because it was it's in my head now,
feel like I got to share this. There are two
different videos that I've seen so far of the actual incident.
(11:09):
The one farther away and you can only see his
body react as if he'd been hit by something. The
second video is much much closer and as I was
describing sort of the first group of people that were
closest to the stage, maybe ten or twelve deep. The
person who's taking the video appears to be behind only
one other person, so they were as close to the
(11:31):
stage basically as you could get. And that image is
the most telling in terms of the devastating nature of
the wound. It's clear that he was hit in the neck,
and it's clear that he immediately was out.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
We again, we don't know the final disposition of this.
We don't know. They have not updated any any condition
or anything like that. Turning Point USA the execu he
is the executive director of TPUSA. They have come out
with a statement which simply says that they are looking
into this, for lack of a better term, that they
(12:15):
are trying to figure out exactly what happened. Aubrey Leach,
is public relations manager for Turning Point, said quote, we
are confirming that he was shot and we are praying
for charl Praying for Charlie. Utah Valley University is believed
to be the largest school in the state of Utah,
which would explain why the crowd was so massive. A
(12:37):
two thousand people is the estimate from the former congressman,
and the live video or the most recent video that
we're seeing from the venue itself, from the large amphitheater
just shows officers sort of on the steps of the
Amphitheater making people stay farther away, making sure that they
(12:58):
stay away from what is turned into a crime scene. Now,
which before eleven o'clock this morning, Utah time, was this
supposed to be this big political discussion and in this
case turns into a crime scene with thousands of potential
witnesses and all of this. There are FBI agents that
(13:19):
are on the way, according to the FBI director Cash Ptel.
He took to Twitter to say as much. Pam Bondi,
the Attorney General, has also said that she will be
sending staff members and send out her prayers and thoughts
to Charlie Kirk and his family as we get some
more information about all of this. Is this is perhaps
one of the most gruesome displays of political violence that
(13:41):
we've seen in some time. Doesn't have to be a
politician that is the target of one of these things.
When these things happen, we all lose. We all stand
to lose a great deal of not just freedom, but
compassion for people in this in this event. So again,
Charlie Kirk shot while giving a speech at Utah Valley
(14:03):
University in the courtyard there.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
He was sitting beneath a tent when he was hit.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Charlie was there as part of the American Comeback Tour,
which was featuring him and several other speakers hosted by
Turning Point USA chapter at Utah Valley University. Former Senator
sorry a current Senator of Utah, Mike Lee also posted
on x and said that Charlie had been shot, that
he was tracking the situation, and he asked for prayers
(14:29):
for Charlie Kirk and the students that were gathered as well. Again,
at this point, we don't know of any other injuries,
whether people got hurt at all, as they were all
stampeding out of that courtyard to get away from the gunshots,
but we do know at least one suspect is in
custody at this point. We will continue to follow this story,
get some more information here during the breaks as well,
(14:51):
and keep you updated throughout the day. Garyan Shannon will
continue You're.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Listening to Garyan Shannon on demand from kfi A.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
We are following a story out of orum Utah, Utah
Valley University. Conservative activist Turning Point USA executive director Charlie
Kirk has apparently been shot while giving a speech to
college students there at to Utah Valley University. A couple
things to note about this. We don't know his condition.
(15:22):
There has been no confirmation one way or the other
if he's alive, if he's not. The close up video
that we have seen and you may have been checking
out or seen on social media already, is pretty gruesome.
It will in many cases be taken down from social
media because it is that gruesome. I've noticed that a
bunch of the TV stations that have been relying on
(15:45):
video will freeze the video before you see his body
recoil from having been hit. So again, if that's your thing,
you can go check it out and find it yourself.
You can hear a solitary gunshot though in those videos
you can hear one single gunshot, and in the closer
(16:06):
videos you can see that it looks like Charlie Kirk
was shot in the neck just above the collarbone on
the left side, and it is a.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Gruesome, gruesome wound.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The hospital that he was taken to is not that
far away. He was taken off the stage by private security,
according to people who were there at the moment that
this happened, and the university says that a suspect is
in custody.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
That's again, at this point all we know.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We know nothing about the suspect, and we still do
not know anything about the condition of Charlie Kirk. A
couple things to know about Charlie Kirk, specifically in kind
of his history in politics. I could give two flip
and corny turds whether you like the guy or not.
He was a guy who fought for political He fought
(16:57):
for that's the way to put He fought for salient,
thoughtful political discourse. You don't have to agree with the
guy to do that. A point of a point to
that is that he was the first to sit down
with Gavin Newsom and the Gavin Newsom Podcast. Remember that
(17:19):
back in the spring of this year. That made so
many headlines like, first of all, why if you're on
Gavin newsom side, why would you want to talk to
Charlie Kirk? And then on Charlie Kirk's side, why would
you want to talk to talk to Gavin Newsom? One
of the selling points for Charlie Kirk in terms of
who he was as a personality was he constantly offered dialogue.
(17:39):
He constantly offered to answer your questions, whatever they might
have been, or counter your opinions, whatever they might have been.
His whole tour that he was on, the American Comeback Tour,
the tent that he was in literally had the banner
on it that said, prove me wrong. He kind of
made a name for himself and YouTube videos and social
(18:00):
media when he would sit down with people almost entirely
on college campuses and allow for a public and calm
discourse about the issues. Again, I don't care if you
appreciated his positions or not.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
That's not what this is.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
This is a discussion of a guy who rises through
the ranks politically speaking, whatever team you think he's on,
and is taken down apparently because of that. There is
an intersection here as well, because there is this is
on a college campus. If there's so many discussions about
violence that takes place on college campuses, shootings on college campuses,
(18:39):
it should not be lost that he was being asked
to question specifically about mass shootings. I think the question,
according to some people who were listening to this while
he right before he was shot, there was a question
specifically about mass shootings perpetrated by people who say that
they are transgender. Charlie Kirk is thirty one years old.
(19:01):
His birthday is middle of next month. Kid from Illinois.
He volunteered for the Senate campaign of an Illinois Republican
in twenty ten when he would have been what seventeen
years old. In his senior year at high school, he
created a campaign to reverse a price increase for cookies
of all things, wrote an essay alleging that there was
(19:24):
bias in high school textbooks that got him an early
television shot. They wanted to talk to this young kid
who was politically active, and he actually started Turning Point USA.
He's been a CEO, chief fundraiser, the public face of
Turning Point USA since its founding. He co founded it
in the year twenty twelve at the age of eighteen,
(19:46):
and according to The New York Times that Turning Point
USA became a major major player in the first run
for president for Donald Trump and then obviously in the
third run for for Donald Trump. He turned the organization
into this well funded media operation. According to the New
York Times. Backed by conservative mega donors. The activities include
(20:09):
publication of the professor watch list, the school board watch list.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And it is a.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
It should strike everyone that political discourse like this again,
no matter what team you think you're on or claim
to be on, or want to be on, or hate
the other side for being on, or whatever, it is
that this is an escalation that cannot we can't come
back from it. This isn't going to go away anytime soon.
Now you're going to have both sides inflamed by this,
(20:40):
suggesting that this somehow should become the norm, and we
need to we need.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
To reject that as a people.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
There was an eyewitness account again from a former congressman,
Jason Chafitz, former Utah congressman, who was there at the
moment that this happened, and he described briefly what it
was that he aw when Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Just about an hour and a half.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
I'm guessing there were two thousand people there or so
and ready to have a dialogue and listen to Charlie
and you know, take one, come one, come all to
ask answer questions I you know, in the let's say
forty five minutes or so, you know, since it's happened,
not even that long, thirty minutes since it's happened. I
(21:25):
you know, the question was what about transgender shooters mass shootings?
But as soon as the shot rang out, everybody hit
the deck and then everybody started scattering and yelling and
screaming as you might imagine. And you know, I went
(21:45):
from watching Charlie Kirk to looking over to you know,
make sure our daughter and our son in law were okay,
and everybody just was in disbelief and just scattered.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
So I've seen at this point two videos of the shooting. University,
by the way, is now telling media outlets that the
shot actually came from a building about two hundred yards
away from where Charlie Kirk was sitting. In the middle
of this, I guess the bowl of this amphitheater sort
(22:20):
of a I don't want to call it a natural amphitheater,
but it is. It's got grass on it, and then
there are big concrete steps in between each patch of
grass that goes to what we saw originally. The idea
of the shot came from far away that goes to
what we saw originally, which was a video also far
away with one hundred, one hundred and fifty yards away
from where he was standing, and that video taken over
(22:43):
someone's shoulder. You hear a single gun shot. You can
see his body react to being hit. But whoever's recording
instinctively turns to the right and kind of looks at
a building that was also far away from where Charlie
Kirk was sitting. Again, the CEO, founder of Turning Point USA,
was shot at this event at Utah Valley University, the
(23:06):
largest university in all of Utah. There are forty six
thousand students at Utah Valley University, forty six thousand. By comparison, BYU,
which I thought was larger BYUS only got about thirty
six thousand students. So we will bring you any updates
that we can find out here. As we wrap up
the show, we're going to hand it off to John
(23:27):
of course at the top of the hour, waiting also
for any sort of condition on Charlie Kirk and any
information we know about the suspect in this case, in
this shooting of Charlie Kirk. We'll continue with that and
we come back to Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from kfi AM.
Six forty.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
University officials there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Utah Valley University in Orum, Utah have said that the
campus is going to be closed until further notice.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That is not a giant surprise.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Activist and Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk was shot.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
While giving a speech.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I guess the couple different places referred to it as
a debate that he was taking part in. He does
these things where he does these events where he in
front of a large group of people will ask for
questions or debate points, and he will argue his political stance.
One of the I guess telltale signs of a Charlie
Kirk event is that kind of dialogue. That's the back
(24:32):
and forth that he has promoted for years. He's only
thirty one years old and for the last gosh thirteen
fourteen years. That's kind of what he's been doing, is
encouraging people to encouraging people to take part in dialogue
like that. He believing that his political stance is enough
(24:52):
to win you over one way or the other with logical.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Arguments, etc.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
While this has been going on, there was a shoot
at a high school in Colorado, This actually would have
been just after noon local time, so we're talking about
three hours ago. Now, this was Evergreen High School, about
twenty eight miles southwest of Denver. And this was it's
up in the mountains, or I should say at least
the foothills of the Rockies. I don't know exactly what
(25:18):
kind of condition the geography of where Evergreen High School is,
but at one point Jefferson County sheriff there in Colorado
said that there was one person and that at least
two students were shot. Again, this is Evergreen High School,
Jefferson County, Colorado, southwest of Denver.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I did a quick check.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It's about twenty miles west of Columbine High School.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Just because that's of.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Course, we the perhaps geography that a lot of people
know about Colorado. And when it comes to these shootings,
the White House has chimed in. Both Caroline Levitt, the
White House spokesperson, and President Trump have come forward and
asked for prayers for Charlie Kirk, and just in all honesty,
(26:03):
I can't imagine that he survived that because of what
it is that we saw in the videos, the close up,
closest version that I've seen so far was taken from
almost directly on the rail in front of Charlie kirk
(26:24):
speaking position. He's up on a platform, but he's under
a tent, under sort of a pop up with a backdrop,
and he's sitting on what kind of looks like a
director's chair, if you will, and he's holding a microphone
and answering questions from the crowd. When he was shot,
you heard one single shot ring out, and according to
the university, they've apparently been telling media outlets that the
(26:49):
shot itself came from a university building, which would have
been approximately two hundred yards away from where Charlie Kirk
was sitting. We do have at the very least a
little bit of the dispatch audio that has come in
from Orum Utah in response to the shooting on the campus.
(27:11):
There was one shot. We are staging at the front
of the school by the roundabout. I mentioned the up
close video. The audio that I'm about to play for
you is from that video. The audio itself is not gruesome,
but if you use your imagination, you can see very
clearly that he was hit in the neck.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
By this bullet. Counting gang violence.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
From that point on, the couple thousand people. It looks
like that we're in this large amphitheater kind of quad area.
The vast majority of them ran away from the stage.
There's a handful of people that you can see sort
of barricading themselves behind large planters and behind pylons of
these buildings, but for the most part, everybody was was
(28:00):
running away from there. And again I pointed to Jason Chaffits,
this former congressman out of Utah who was there at
the time of the shooting and saw what happened. He
was there, apparently with family, was part of the event,
the American Comeback Tour, which was hosted by the Turning
Point USA chapter there at the college campus. Jason Chaffits, again,
(28:24):
former congressman from Utah, who saw the whole thing being.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There, seeing it within proximity, it seemed like it was
a close shot. The venue is such that there's a
four story building which is the administrative building to the south.
The other buildings around the side are not quite so high,
but you could be on the second level and watch Charlie.
The police had moved the people. There were some people
that were above Charlie, so that's seeing there. There's a
(28:51):
place to be there, but the police moved people out
to the sides, and so you couldn't be right above
where you were at. But if I had to guess,
and again it's still raw, but if I had to
guess and give a police statement right here right now today,
see where that water is. It looked to me like
(29:11):
it was great in close proximity, straight ahead, right in
that area.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So at this point, no details on Charlie Kirk's condition,
But the University of Utah, sorry, Utah Valley University, does
say that a shooting suspect is in custody. Now, there
are a handful of videos that show somebody being led
away in handcuffs with their literally with their pants around
their ankles as they're being dragged off by law enforcement.
(29:37):
And it's an older white guy, glasses, balding, kind of pudgy.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
We don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
We don't even know specifically if that is the suspect,
but it is in that same venue. It is in
that amphitheater kind of area at Utah Valley University. So
that's kind of the information that we know at this point. Again,
on the other side of this, in Colorado, at least
two students shot at a Denver area high school. No
connection obviously other than the timing of all of this.
(30:07):
So we hear at KFI are going to continue to
cover this story throughout the course of the day. John's
obviously going to have the latest information when he comes
along here at the top of the hour, and as
we follow this through the day, more on obviously the
condition of Charlie Kirk, maybe a potential identity, on whoever
the shooting suspect is in this case, and if this
(30:28):
is part of something even worse. Tomorrow we're going to
recap it all. Gary and Shannon, We'll see you tomorrow.
John's up next.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Stay drive.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Everybody you've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show,
you can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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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.