(Orem) A manhunt was underway on Thursday to find the murderer of the young American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a faithful ally of President Donald Trump, shot the day before during a public meeting on the campus of a University of Utah.
The American authorities announced Thursday that they had found the weapon that would have been used in the murder of the conservative pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk and have “good video images” of the alleged murderer.
“I can tell you that we found what we consider to be the weapon used yesterday. It is a powerful rifle, “said Robert Bohls, director of the local antenna of the FBI, the federal police, during a press conference in Orem, Utah (west). “We have good video images of this individual,” said Utah police, handsome Mason, about the alleged murderer.
President Trump implicated “the radical left” for the murder of the one he described as “martyr of truth and freedom”. “It’s a dark moment for America,” he said.
The 31-year-old pro-Trump flag holder, aged 31, was shot in the neck while he was participating in a meeting in front of around 3000 people in a university. The murderer’s motivations remain unknown for the time being.
“For years, the radical left has compared formidable Americans like Charlie to the Nazis and the worst criminals and mass murder of the world. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for terrorism that we know today in our country, and this must stop immediately, “said the American president in a video published on his Truth Social network.
Photo Lindsey Wasson, Associated Press
People gather for a vigil in tribute to Charlie Kirk in front of the regional hospital of Timpanogos, in Utah.
“My administration will find all those who have contributed to this atrocity and to any other political violence, including the organizations that finance and support them”.
Vice-president JD Vance, who will go to UTAH on Thursday to meet the family of the conservative influence, had paid tribute to him earlier to “a real friend”.
“Martyr”
Utah republican governor Spencer Cox described the murder of “political assassination”, recalling that “the death penalty (was) still in force here, in the state of Utah”.
Several Trumpist figures called Charlie Kirk as a “martyr” fell for the defense of conservative and Christian values. Foreign leaders of all stripes also condemned this murder, many of whom described him as “political”.
Two people were arrested before being released, according to the authorities. “Our investigation continues,” said FBI boss Kash Patel.
The death of Charlie Kirk was captured by videos that quickly circulated on social networks. According to the American authorities, the murderer has drawn from a roof located more than a hundred meters from the place of the event.
“It is very frightening,” said AFP near the Samuel Kimball campus, an 18 -year -old computer engineering student who did not attend the intervention of Charlie Kirk, but feels “aligned with his values”.
“It gives me the impression that I should be very careful when I express my political opinions,” he added. “If I was someone who was thinking of doing politics, I would be afraid of being shot”.
President Trump ordered the half -mast of American flags in tribute to the one who had been an important cog in his last presidential campaign.
“Political violence”
Photo Daniel Becerril, Reuters
A sign on which we can read “Thank you, Charlie” in front of the American flag at half mast of the White House.
On the left, the unhappy candidate for the 2024 election, Kamala Harris, estimated that “political violence has (Vait) no room in America”.
Former President Joe Biden also called for this type of violence “ceases immediately”, in unison with other figures on the left: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders and the governor of California Gavin Newsom.
Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Christian and defender of the port of firearms, this father of two children had abandoned his studies to devote himself to activism.
He was 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.
With its 6.9 million subscribers on Instagram and 3.8 million on YouTube, its influence had largely served Donald Trump to seduce young American men by promoting an ultra -astonal design of the family.
Tensions in the European Parliament after the refusal of a tribute to Charlie Kirk
Did the ultra-conservative activist Charlie Kirk, murdered in the United States, deserved a minute of silence in the European Parliament? The refusal of this tribute, claimed by the extreme right, caused tensions in the hemicycle on Thursday.
The extreme European right, which cultivates very good relations with the Trump galaxy, proposed a minute of silence in the European Parliament in his memory, as had been done in the American Congress.
But when the MEP got up to observe this minute of silence, he was interrupted by the president of the session, who reminded him that this motion had been refused before practical reasons.
The MEPs of his group protested strongly by typing repeatedly on their offices, while the rest of the hemicycle applauded the session president.
Agency France-Presse
