President Donald Trump announced early Friday that a suspect has been arrested for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” during a live interview at the cable giant’s Manhattan studio, saying he heard just minutes before his 8 a.m. interview.
“Somebody who was very close to him turned him in,” the president said, saying it was relayed through “a minister who was involved with law enforcement.”
“I hope he’s going to be found guilty and I hope he gets the death penalty. What he did — Charlie Kirk was the finest person and he didn’t deserve this.”
Trump did not name the suspect. Later this morning, investigators will hold a public update.
Authorities and sources told The Post that the suspect was thought to have fired a single shot from a high place about 200 yards away from the tent where Kirk, 31, was sitting at the university’s Losee Center.
At first, reports said that the suspect was a gunman in jeans, a black shirt, and a black vest sitting on top of a structure east of the school’s library with a long rifle.
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Kirk, who co-founded Turning Point USA and has two kids, had just answered a question from someone in the audience regarding mass massacres by transgender individuals at the outdoor gathering on the Orem campus when he was shot once.
The conservative influencer jerked back and seemed to be in pain as he grabbed his neck. A single gunshot went out from the crowd, sending thousands of people into a panic, according to dramatic video from the event.
“I didn’t watch,” Trump told Fox News on Friday of the shockingly graphic videos.
“I heard about it… I would have never made a good doctor, let me put it that way,” the president said. “I mean, I heard enough. I didn’t want to watch it… I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”
The manhunt includes officers from at least four different law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, the Orem Police, the Utah Department of Public Safety, and the Utah Valley University Police.
Hours after the brutal murder, FBI Director Kash Patel indicated that a person of interest was in custody. He later said that the person had been released after being questioned.
That person was not the same one as the one being looked at now.
The FBI also set up a tip line on Wednesday night, asking those who were there to come forward with more information and video of the occurrence. On Thursday, they offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information that would help identify and catch the culprit.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Trump wrote in a mournful post on Truth Social after news of Kirk’s death spread.
He later said he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk” in a video posted on the platform.
“Charlie inspired millions. And tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” the president said, adding that Kirk is now a “martyr for truth and freedom.”
“This is a dark moment for America,” Trump added.
A nurse told Laci Williams, a long-time friend and former colleague, that Kirk was sent to a neighboring hospital for emergency surgery after he was shot. Williams then told The Post and later confirmed rumors that he had died.
The activist was most known for his “Prove Me Wrong” debates on college campuses, where anybody from the community could argue with him.
He was shot and killed in the middle of one of those debates for his “American Comeback Tour.”
Kirk leaves behind his wife, former Miss Arizona Erika Frantzve, and two young children.