Charlie Kirk’s family blamed Utah officials for failing to prevent the conservative activist’s assassination at a state university, in a wrongful death notice announced Wednesday that presages a possible lawsuit.
Attorneys for the family said Kirk’s death resulted from a string of “reckless decisions” by officials at Utah Valley University that left him exposed to a rooftop sniper, who fired a fatal shot from more than 400 feet (122 meters) away on Sept. 10, 2025. The university has faced harsh criticism for a lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting.
Kirk, 31, had been debating students in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings and with several thousand people in attendance. An Associated Press review following the shooting showed the campus in Orem did not use several public safety practices that have become standard safeguards at events around the country.
Campus police staffing was far below recommended levels for a school of that size. They also did not fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event attended by about 3,000 people. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.
“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump, Charlie Kirk’s close friend and political ally, by a rooftop shooter the previous year,” Kirk family attorney D. Loren Washburn wrote in the notice to state and university officials.
The document, dated Sept. 9, a day before the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s death, is a required step under state law before his family can file a formal claim or lawsuit. It names the university and its then-president, Astrid Tuminez; the campus police department and its chief, Jeffrey Long; and the state of Utah.
38 Comments
jontree255@lemmy.world · 83 pts · 5d
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 5d
It's worth the full quote:
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 5d
Credit where credit is due, he died for what he believed in.
tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 5d
I need someone to prove that the 2nd amendment is working as intended. In what world does having guns protect our other rights? I have seen these rights be legislated into and out of existence and they want to deny my people of even more but total silence from these supposed patriots.
jontree255@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
The 2nd amendment rights was always a distraction/wedge issue and also something extremely antiquated.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 5d
Only because there's a military, it was quite useful to the old union militias. What I'm saying dissolve the military and police, let me shoot some rich fuckwad with minimal risk of reprisal like my forefathers.
Zier@fedia.io · 31 pts · 5d
His mouth is what killed him.
wheezy@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 5d
The last word he said was violence; on a stage that read the words "prove me wrong".
https://youtu.be/NNBuN7DwJwM
Well, shoot.
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 5d
Expecting campus police to be prepared to counter snipers is an unreasonable ask, even in the US. Their job largely consists of parking enforcement and breaking up frat parties.
If he's such a target because of his views and political allies, his team is at fault for not choosing an appropriate indoor venue.
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 28 pts · 5d
Charlie Kirk's family is SICK! Charlie SPECIFICALLY said it's OK to have Some Gun Deaths to SAVE the Second Amendment and to NOT have Empathy in the Face of Gun Violence! How DARE they Try to make his Death Political AGAINST his Wishes!
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 25 pts · 5d
New reason to ban right wing speakers from campus: prohibitive security costs.
kmartburrito@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 5d
victorz@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 5d
Security failures led to his assassination?
Imma go out on a limb and say his views and punchable face, combined with some nut who had enough and nothing to lose, led to his assassination.
Neon_Carnivore@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 5d
Pretty sure all the racist shit he said is what got him killed.
Also: MLK Jr. was assassinated, JFK was assassinated, Malcolm X, Lincoln, etc... Charlie's punk ass just got shot. Don't aggrandize that bastard, not even in death.
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 5d
Dead on arrival. Supreme court ruled Cops have no obligation to protect anyone. What are they guilty of otherwise then?
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
Uranus_Hz@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 5d
They aren’t suing cops (of course) they are suing the university. Because conservatives hate education.
Nonprophet@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 5d
That's what got him killed?
Huh, all this time, I thought it was from being an asshole.
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 5d
Who gives a shit
Jarix@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 5d
Entirely too many people, it's like you aren't even paying attention
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 5d
No, I have much better things to do with my time than to keep up with that circus
Jarix@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
Then why ask if you don't even want to know/have much better things to do with your time.
It's LIKE you don't care, yet you still engage with the thing you claim not to care about.
Very strange
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 5d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question
You have too much time on your hands
Jarix@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
As do you
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 5d
You’re the one who engaged me because you don’t have the ability to register context clues, do something other than seek out argument.
Jarix@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
Considering you missed the sarcasm of my original comment and we went down this path which is highly amusing to me, it's fucking hilarious that you say I don't have the ability to register context clues.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 5d
Nope. If he had been a civilized and decent human, nobody would have shot him. This has nothing to do with "Utah officials".
friend_of_satan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
It's funny, but not entirely true. Other civlized, decent human beings have been assassinated. I'd say John Lennon fits that description.
watson387@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 5d
John Lennon? For real?
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
OK, his problem was that he stuck out too far.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 5d
That gun was legal to carry at that school. They literally couldn't have legally prevented his death
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 5d
ElcaineVolta@kbin.melroy.org · 5 pts · 5d
why are they being so histerical?? seems like they're trying to emotionally hijack the narrative, a guy with a lil face once told me that's a thing.
ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 5d
End Qualified Immunity, string them pigs up from a crane for failing to protect Charlie from getting Kirk’d
ACAB Epstein didn’t kill himself
TheLadyAugust@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
This guy was a social media influencer, why should the university, and thus the students, pay for his security? Like everybody else said, his mouth got himself shot.
lemmylump@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
That fuck was a pain in the neck, who advocated for what happened to him.
Utah, the University, and all those who were there should sue that covkroach's family.
victorz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 5d
Ahhh. A-HA. HA. Ha. Haaaa. 😆👍