By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The manhunt for an assassin who fired a single shot to silence conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, intensified Thursday as the 31-year-old Kirk was honored and remembered across the political spectrum, from President Donald Trump down to local talk hosts.
During a press briefing Thursday, Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Salt Lake City, told reporters a weapon has been recovered from a wooded area where the killer is believed to have initially fled. The weapon, according to CNN, was describe as a “high-powered, bolt-action rifle.”
If that description is accurate, it would be the type of firearm easily capable of being used to make the 200-yard shot from a rooftop where the assassin is believed to have been. The rifle is a critical piece of evidence which could lead law enforcement to identify and arrest the killer.
At the Thursday briefing, Utah DPS Commissioner Beau Mason said there had been “breakthroughs” in the investigation, including some “good video footage” of the suspect.
Kirk’s slaying in front of thousands of people gathered for an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah has ignited a fierce discussion on broadcast and social media. It is already marked by the firing of MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd, who suggested in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s tragedy that Kirk was “one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Dowd also remarked, “We don’t know any of the full details of this yet. We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.”
His comments prompted an apology from MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler, who declared in a prepared statement, “During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable… We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
Alarmingly, CNN reported the results of a survey posted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which revealed that 34 percent of college students support the use of violence to stop a campus speech, up from 24 percent in 2021.
Although divisiveness was obvious, including Democrat objections on the U.S. House floor when a moment of prayer for Kirk was requested by Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, remarks of sorrow for Kirk, and condemnation of political violence, poured in from world leaders, according to Fox News.
