Regan Morris in Orem, Utah & Max MatzaBBC News
Heavily armed policed are searching door-to-door for the suspect who fatally shot influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a busy event at Utah Valley University.
The campus remains in lockdown as police roam the area searching for the shooter who fired a single shot, hitting Kirk in the neck as he was speaking at the outdoor student event.
The 31-year-old founded Turning Point USA, a group that seeks to spread conservative ideas on American campuses, when he was still a teenager.
President Donald Trump called Kirk a patriot and said his death was a “dark moment for America,” Trump said.
In a video post, Trump said he is “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk”.
Officials say only six police officers were working security at the event – which attracted at least 3,000 people to the outdoor quad – along with private security hired by Kirk.
No one else was shot at the event, and video shows students running for cover as the gunshot rang out at 12:20 local time (18:20 GMT).
Officials on Wednesday gave conflicting answers about whether the suspect, who dressed in all black and is believed to have fired from a nearby rooftop, had been caught.
Police confirmed that two people were taken into custody for interrogation, but released after finding “there are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals”.
One man, George Zinn, was released after being charged with obstruction of justice. The other suspect was released with no charges filed.
“There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter,” the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement on Wednesday night.
They said they believed the incident was a “targeted attack”.
“The shooter is believed to have fired from the roof of a building down to the location of the public event in the student courtyard.”
Hours after the shooting, people gathered near the locked-down campus, hoping to retrieve vehicles and other possessions they left behind as they fled.
Police are roaming the area, barring anyone from entering the campus as the search for the gunman intensifies.
BBC Verify has confirmed the authenticity of several videos of the shooting which have been posted online.
One video shows students crowded around a white tent emblazoned with the words, “THE AMERICAN COMEBACK” and “PROVE ME WRONG”.
Kirk can be seen sitting alone under the tent with several others standing nearby.
In another video verified by the BBC, Kirk is seen speaking at the rally before a single gunshot is heard.
He then appears to jolt backwards before the camera pans away and the crowd begins to run in panic.
Kirk had been discussing gun violence in the US in the moments before he was shot.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?” one audience member asks him.
“Counting or not counting gang violence,” he responds, before the shot rings out.
Witnesses described their horror at realising that Kirk had been shot.
“It’s a little surreal. Especially then. It felt like a dream,” a first-year student named Gavin told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
“Everyone started praying… Then, we started running.”
Deseret News reporters Emma Pitts and Eva Terry described witnessing the attack.
“I’ll never get the image out of my head,” Pitts said. “It looked like a fountain of blood came out of his neck. His body went limp and then his eyes closed.”
She added that she was surprised that “nobody scanned our equipment, nobody scanned our bags, there was no security like that”.
Kirk’s wife and children were at the event, according to Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullins
Lawmakers from across the US expressed anger over the shooting and voiced disapproval at the violence surrounding his death.
In a video message from the Oval Office that Trump shared on social media, he hailed Kirk as “a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loves so much”.
He called him a “model for truth and freedom” and went on to blame his death on “radical left political violence”.
He also pledged to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence”, and ordered that all US flag on federal properties be flown at half-mast.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called the attack a “political assassination” and suggested that the killer could receive the death penalty.
“This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation,” he said, adding that he was in touch with the White House and FBI.
The attack shocked Americans, and led to statements being issued by every living former US president, as well as world leaders including UK PM Keir Starmer, and the leaders of Argentina, Italy, Canada and Israel.
Republican Congressman Mike Kennedy told BBC News that Kirk will be remembered as a champion for free speech, and that his death “did not silence Charlie Kirk’s voice, and he will continue to be heard and registered”.
Intimidation and violence does not work against American citizens, he says, and “we’ll continue to move forward with our constitutional privilege of freedom of speech and promoting that as Charlie did throughout his whole life”.
