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Officials have delivered a statement to the press after the shooting of Conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The head of the Utah Department of Public Safety, Beau Mason, said: “Shortly after the shooting, we did have a suspect in custody but he was released after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect and was not an accurate person of interest. "However, he has been booked into the county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department for obstruction of justice.”The fatal shooting happened on Wednesday afternoon at Utah Valley University, where Mr Kirk was addressing students during the opening event of an autumn campus tour.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR THE FULL STATEMENT
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Kirk family and into the students who were there
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Today, it's approximately 12.20 Mountain Standard Time. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot at an event at the Utah Valley University
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He was taken by a private vehicle to Timpanogos Hospital, where he later passed
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The Utah Department of Public Safety will be co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer
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along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shortly after the shooting, we did have a suspect in custody, George Zinn, but he was
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released from custody after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect
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and was not an accurate person of interest. However, he has been booked into the county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department
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for obstruction of justice. We do still have an active investigation for the person of interest
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This incident occurred with a large crowd around. There was one shot fired and one victim
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While the suspect is at large, we believe this was a targeted attack towards one individual
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The possible shooter is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus
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We do have that. We're yzing it. But it is security camera footage, so you can kind of guess what the quality of that is
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but we do know dressed in all dark clothing, but we don't have a much better description other than that
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The shot came from here on campus from a location at a fair..
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From the roof? Potentially from a roof yes A longer distance shot from a roof As soon as we heard about the shooting special agents and personnel from the Salt Lake Field Office responded immediately
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We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence
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To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside with our partners
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We are working on setting up a digital media tip line, and as soon as it's established, we'll get that information out to everyone
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I know there's a lot of questions. This is very much an active case, and this investigation is in its early stages
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We are following all the leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information, please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement
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Thank you. I'll say that on behalf of Utah Valley University, we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk
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We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We agree with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy
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He was invited by the student group Turning Point USA to speak on our campus
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We firmly believe that UVU is a place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully
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Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus a safe place for all
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And I would just ask everyone everywhere to please pray for their..
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I've been in touch with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel
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We are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as we work through this case Now this is a dark day for our state It a tragic day for our nation And I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination
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We have a person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now
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That is not George Zinn. That is not George Zinn. That is correct
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Yes, we are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any possible information
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relating to the shooting. Charlie Kirk was first and foremost a husband and a dad to two young children
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He was also very much politically involved, and that's why he was here on campus
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Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate, to shape ideas and to persuade people
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Historically, our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah
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have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated
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And that's what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates
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Now, we have a person of interest in custody. the investigation is ongoing
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But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this
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we will find you. We will try you. And we will hold you accountable
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to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah Our nation is broken We had political assassinations recently in Minnesota
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We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania, and we had an attempted assassination
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on a presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States
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Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken
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Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken
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we mourn with his wife, his children, his family, his friends. We mourn as a nation
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If anyone in the sound of my voice celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting
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I would beg you to look in the mirror and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere
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I don't care what his politics are. I care that he was an American
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I pray that those who hated what Charlie Cook stood for will put down their social media and their pens
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and pray for his family and that all of us, all of us
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will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans
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