(Los Angeles) Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, a major voice of pro-Trump youth in the United States, was seriously injured by shot on Wednesday during a public meeting.
Fond of oratorical jousts with the students, the 31 -year -old broker was participating in an event on the Utah Valley University campus in the west of the country, when he was targeted, according to the university.
Around midday local time, “a shot was fired on Charlie Kirk, guest speaker. He was touched and evacuated from the places by his bodyguards. Campus police are conducting the investigation, a suspect was placed in detention, “wrote the University on X.
Videos show Charlie Kirk, collapsing on his chair, apparently seriously touched in the neck and cries of panic being heard in the audience.
“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk”, a “formidable type,” wrote US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social network.
“Dear God, protects Charlie in this dark hour,” wrote Vice-President JD Vance on social networks, with a photo of the two men accompanied by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son.
TRUTH Social screenshot
Charlie Kirk had been an important cog in the last Donald Trump electoral campaign.
“Political violence has no room in America,” said former vice-president Kamala Harris, joined in this sense by many other figures from the Democratic Party, of the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, to Senator Bernie Sanders.
“Fallen back”
The former parliamentarian of Utah Jason Chaffetz, who was there, told Fox News that Charlie Kirk answered questions from the public when he was touched.
“The first question was on religion. He spoke for about 15-20 minutes. The second question, in an interesting way, focused on transgender shooters, shooters who make multiple victims, and during his answer, the shot broke out, “said the politician, visibly shaken.
“At that time, I looked at Charlie, I cannot say that I saw blood, that I saw him get shot on it, but as soon as the shot took place, it fell back,” he added.
“Lots of people started screaming, and everyone started running,” he continued.
Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Charlie Kirk abandoned his studies to devote herself to activism.
Photo Cheney Orr, Reuters Archives
Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump during a partisan event in Arizona in 2024.
He is at the head of a youth movement: Turning Point USA. Co-founded in 2012 by the influencer, then aged 18, this association became in a decade the largest group of young conservatives in the United States.
It includes an army of enthusiastic activists, some of whom had been sent by bus to Washington to the demonstration of January 6, 2021 which had led to the invasion of the Capitol.
Its influence-6.9 million subscribers on Instagram and 3.8 million on YouTube-has largely served Donald Trump to seduce young American men by promoting an ultra-traditional design of the family.
