What security measures were in place at fatal Charlie Kirk event?

The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus Wednesday raises questions about what security measures were in place to protect him and students attending the event.

UVU police Chief Jeff Long briefly addressed that question at a news conference hours after the tragedy.

“We’re devastated by what happened today. This is a police chief’s nightmare,” he said.

Kirk spoke sitting under a pop-up tent at the bottom of a tiered outdoor amphitheater in the center of campus surrounded by buildings.

Long said six police officers were working the event along with plain-clothes officers among the crowd he estimated to be about 3,000 people. He didn’t specify the number of undercover officers. The UVU police force, he said, is “small” and covers a large campus with 40,000 students.

“We train for these things. You think you have things covered and these things, unfortunately, they happen. You try to get your bases covered and unfortunately today we didn’t,” he said.

Kirk also had a security team at the event, the chief said.

“They do this all over the country. We all know that. This is not uncommon for them. They’re very comfortable on campuses. I was coordinating with his lead security guy and we worked together,” Long said.

Witnesses said they saw Kirks’ security near him as he spoke.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said neither the state public safety department nor the FBI were involved in the planning of the event.

No security checks at Kirk event

Kirk, a conservative political activist, rose to prominence holding outdoor political debates on college campuses across the country. His conservative youth organization, Turning Point USA, was kicking off an "American Comeback Tour." The UVU event was the first of 15 scheduled stops nationwide.

Deseret News reporter Emma Pitts, who was at the event, said she wasn’t scanned and her bag wasn’t checked when she entered the venue. She said didn’t feel there was a high security presence, which surprised her because Kirk was controversial.

“There’s a part of me that is scared covering events like this because they are so public and people are so angry,” she said. “Nobody scanned our equipment, nobody scanned our bags, there was no security like that.”

Spencer Carpenter attended Wednesday’s event fully expecting to go through a metal detector and bag check. He even threw away the metal toothpick on his keychain as he walked to the venue thinking it would be confiscated.

“There was no security,” he said.

Carpenter said that surprised him given how big of a public figure Kirk is. “The way I looked at it, anyone could bring a gun in there and nobody would have known,” he said.

Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the single shot that killed Kirk originated on campus from a “longer” distance, “potentially from a roof.” UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, a central campus building about 200 to 300 yards east of the amphitheater where Kirk was speaking. Video taken before and after the shooting show a person the roof of the building officials identified as the shooter’s location.

Police questioned and released two persons of interest Wednesday and are searching for the shooter.

As more information about the shooting emerges, Utahns are starting to ask more questions about event security:

Why was there no rooftop security or threat assessment for a high-profile political rally? Why was the scene reportedly left accessible enough that reporters could walk back to it hours later? And what’s being done to ensure this can’t happen again at a Utah campus?

Wednesday’s deadly shooting at UVU had some similarities to the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in 2024.

A former president of the United States and presumptive Republican Party nominee at the time, Trump was speaking at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Thomas Crooks fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle from the roof of a nearby building. Trump was wounded in his upper right ear. Corey Comperatore, who was sitting in the VIP bleachers behind Trump, was killed and two others were critically injured. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks.

Outdoor venues present security challenges

“The most challenging thing — this goes back to when Kennedy was killed — open air is just so difficult to control," said former Salt Lake City police chief Chris Burbank.

Burbank said that at first glance, there probably should have been more police officers on hand and more restricted access for the Kirk event at UVU.

“Did they expect several hundred and did several thousand show up? Or did they actually expect several thousand people there. Those are the types of questions that I just don’t have the answers to,” he said.

But Burbank said maybe there were no security concerns, noting the format of Kirk’s program is really about open debate.

“The more security you throw on top of those things, it does quash the openness of debate and everything else a little bit. Was this absolutely what they wanted to do and is this how they wanted to do it and was this the perfect venue?” he said.

“This should be appropriate in the United States. It’s unfortunate that we’ve gotten to this point. It’s tragic.”

Burbank said a public figure such as Kirk visiting a college campus typically has the ability to determine the level of security. Maybe there was a perceived level of safety because Kirk was a conservative person going to a conservative part of the country, he said.

“I don’t want to have to go through airport-style security to walk on a campus in America. But, man, are we moving that direction and do we want to? Can we stop this violence some other way than just restrictive, oppressive security measures?” Burbank said.

“Somehow we need to be able to gather to police ourselves to engage in dialogue without killing somebody. I might be saying this until I’m in the grave but I’m going to keep trying.”