A retired FBI official believes the killer who targeted Charlie Kirk selected a rooftop that offered both a clear shot and a quick escape route, allowing them to be “miles and miles away” not long after pulling the trigger.
Law enforcement reported that the shooter, who was still at large as of early Thursday, fired the lone deadly round from the top of the Losee Center Building at Utah Valley University. The building stood roughly 200 yards from where Kirk was sitting in a temporary tent addressing a crowd of 3,000.
“If you come off that roof — and I’ve seen the drone footage of this — there’s an open-air parking lot behind that building,” retired FBI supervising agent James Gagliano explained on “Fox and Friends.”
“So this is a big concern because this person, within three to five minutes of that shot going off, that person could have been in a vehicle on his way out and miles and miles away,” he said.
“Provo airport’s only about 45 minutes from there,” he added, noting that the assassin might have quickly fled the state as well.
Kirk, 31, a husband and father of two, was struck in the throat while speaking outdoors on Wednesday. The shot sent panicked students running and screaming as he collapsed to the ground bleeding.
Video captured right after the shot was fired seems to show a small, dark figure leaping and dashing across a rooftop in the distance while the audience ducked in fear.
Another recording, filmed earlier, depicts a dark form lying flat on the same rooftop where the sniper was later positioned, as bystanders below speculated about what they were seeing. Moments later, the shot was fired at Kirk.
“People are suggesting this was a professional hit. And yet from that distance, we’re talking a little over 500 feet, just short of 200 yards, that’s not a tough shot with a rifle, if this suspect had a scope,” Gagliano said.
“It’s a very easy shot.”
US Army Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad, a decorated sharpshooter, echoed that assessment, calling it an “easy shot” and saying there was no reason to assume the gunman was highly trained, making the case even harder to solve.
Ranstad, who once held the American record for the longest confirmed sniper kill in Afghanistan, criticized the lack of security at the university, describing it as “a buffet for someone who wanted to kill someone.”
“When you have events like that, you look at the security, if you push 250, 300 yards, it’s an easy shot,” he said.
“Not to mention out in the open, wind is low out in the country. It’s not like in the city, where a bullet flying past the buildings will move more,” Ranstad added.
According to UVU Police Chief Jeff Long, only six campus officers were assigned to the event, working in tandem with Kirk’s private security staff.
Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries, leaving behind his wife and two young children.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators detained two people for questioning but later released both of them.
Even so, Gagliano expressed confidence that the manhunt would soon yield results, predicting authorities would have the shooter in custody before the end of the day Thursday.
{Matzav.com}Investigators revealed Thursday morning that the person who killed Charlie Kirk was a young adult who appeared to fit in with college students before climbing to a rooftop and firing a single round with a bolt-action rifle.
According to Beau Mason of the Utah Department of Public Safety, the shooter reached the Utah Valley University campus at 11:52 a.m. on Wednesday, less than thirty minutes before taking the fatal shot at the Turning Point USA event that ended Kirk’s life.
Officials confirmed they are in possession of surveillance recordings showing the suspect, though they stressed the footage will not be made public at this stage.
Robert Bohls, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge, stated that the firearm used in the attack was located in a wooded area near the school. He also noted that the Bureau has already received upwards of 130 leads connected to the case.
