Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, arrives at a heliport with members of the NYPD, Dec. 19, 2024, in New York. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — On the eve of court scheduled appearances for high-profile suspected gunmen Tyler Robinson and Luigi Mangione, a new law enforcement assessment warned of calls for further violence against politicians, business leaders and other dignitaries.
The assessment — prepared by the NYPD counterterrorism and intelligence bureau after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk — said the killing of the conservative pundit last week and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson late last year stems from the same toxic and violent atmosphere.
“The targeted attack occurred against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile threat environment in the U.S. amid ongoing concerns over the targeting of and violent threats persistently aimed at prominent political figures, CEOs, public officials, and other dignitaries. These individuals likely remain vulnerable at open-air speaking engagements and public events, which have been targeted by malicious actors seeking to advance political or ideological agendas and/or draw attention to unique personal grievances through violence,” the document, obtained by ABC News, said.
“This attack, along with a series of recent high-profile assaults linked to actors with a host of grievances, underscores the continued need for heightened vigilance among law enforcement officers and private-sector security personnel with dignitary/executive protection responsibilities. Rather than aligning with a single extremist ideology, malicious actors may adopt a personalized, hate-filled worldview drawn from a mix of beliefs, amplifying the risk of future attacks by lone offenders that glean tactical/targeting inspiration from prior acts of high-profile violence and find support in permissive online environments,” the bureau said in the document.
Robinson, the suspected gunman in Kirk’s killing, is expected to face capital murder charges in Utah on Tuesday. Authorities have said Robinson may have been “radicalized” online and that ammunition found in the gun used to kill Kirk included anti-fascist and meme-culture writings.
Luigi Mangione, who has been indicted on federal charges in the shooting of Thompson in Midtown, Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024, is due in a New York court on Tuesday when the judge is expected to rule on several outstanding motions, including defense motions to dismiss state murder charges and exclude certain evidence. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have suggested Mangione inspired other violence, namely the shooting in July targeting the NFL headquarters at 345 Park Av. His attorneys have denied that.
The NYPD assessment said the killing of Kirk could likewise inspire others.
“Regardless of motive, this incident has, and likely will continue to, resonate with a wide range of violent extremists in perceived justifications and calls for further violence. Additionally, the high-profile nature of this assassination will likely be amplified in propaganda messaging and heavily exploited by malicious actors as well as adversarial nation-states in mis/dis/mal-information aimed at fomenting division,” the assessment said.
(WASHINGTON) — Twelve policymakers at the Federal Reserve are set to take a high-stakes vote this week on the nation’s benchmark interest rate, attempting to steer the economy through a stormy bout of slow hiring and rising inflation.
In a highly unusual circumstance, however, two of the policymakers stand in limbo – uncertain if they will vote at all – with little more than 48 hours before the announcement.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has moved to fire one member of the Fed’s board of governors and secure Senate confirmation for another. The race to reshape the Fed comes after Trump railed for months against the central bank and its Chair Jerome Powell for declining to heed his call for lower interest rates.
The clash over the composition of the Fed board casts uncertainty over the Fed’s meeting on Wednesday, where officials are expected to announce the central bank’s first rate cut since December.
In a social media post on Monday, Trump reiterated his criticism of Powell, saying the Fed chair “MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND.”
Trump recently moved to fire board member Lisa Cook, who sued Trump over her attempted ouster, saying the decision violated her legal protections as an employee at the independent federal agency. Trump said he removed Cook over mortgage fraud allegations against her.
Federal law allows the president to remove a member of the Fed board “for cause,” though no president has attempted such a removal in the 112-year history of the central bank.
Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Fed to let Cook continue serving in her role as a governor of the Federal Reserve System as her lawsuit moves through the courts.
Days later, the Trump administration filed a request with an appeals court asking to remove Cook by Monday, before the scheduled vote on interest rates. In a court filing over the weekend, Cook asked the appeals court to reject Trump’s bid.
Last month, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.
In a statement provided to ABC News at the time, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Meanwhile, Trump has sought Senate confirmation for Fed board-nominee Stephen Miran, a top economic advisor at the White House. The Senate is expected to vote on Miran’s nomination on Monday night.
Miran has vowed to safeguard central bank independence but said earlier this month that he does not plan to resign from his position within the Trump administration. Miran has been nominated for a vacancy created by the early retirement of Fed board member Adrianna Kugler, whose term was set to end in January.
If confirmed, Miran said he plans to take an unpaid leave of absence from his current role. Miran reached the decision after “advice from counsel,” since his term on the Fed board would last four months, Miran said at a Senate hearing this month.
Five meetings and nine months have elapsed since the Fed last adjusted interest rates. The federal funds rate stands between 4.25% and 4.5%, preserving much of a sharp increase imposed in response to a pandemic-era bout of inflation.
That posture is expected to shift, however. Powell recently hinted at the possibility of an interest rate cut, appearing to indicate greater concern for flagging employment growth than for rising prices.
Investors peg the chances of a quarter-point rate cut this week at 96%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Sen. Joe Manchin arrives for the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the national security supplemental request on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A new memoir from former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who clashed with former President Joe Biden over his legislative agenda, highlights the sharp disagreements the former moderate Democrat had with the Biden White House and his party — and describes Biden’s campaign to pressure Manchin to back his plans.
ABC News obtained excerpts of Manchin’s memoir, “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,” before its release on Sep. 16.
One of the swing votes in the evenly split Senate, the longtime senator from the coal-producing state opposed Biden’s $2 trillion-plus Build Back Better proposal, a sweeping domestic policy, tax and social safety net package that included climate and tax provisions that Manchin rejected.
Manchin said his rejection didn’t stop Biden from trying to use the bully pulpit to convince Manchin to change his position.
In a private White House meeting, Manchin said he told Biden “this isn’t your legislation. It’s Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s. I’ve known you for a long time, and I do not believe that you believe this is the right thing for the country.”
“He grabbed my arm,” Manchin wrote of Biden. “‘Joe,’ he said, ‘the country needs you.'”
“When the most powerful man in the world is putting the weight of the world on you, it causes you to pause. I took a deep breath and grabbed his arm. ‘Mr. President,’ I said, ‘the country needs you too,'” Manchin wrote.
Manchin also criticized the Biden White House’s handling of negotiations with House and Senate Democrats over the infrastructure package, which at one point were held up in the House by progressives in what Manchin called “a misguided effort” to pass the larger domestic agenda.
“[Biden] came from a working-class family. He built his career fighting for hardworking families, the very people who felt forgotten by Washington,” Manchin wrote. “But now he seemed beholden to the elite and far-left social agenda baked into [the Build Back Better Act]. This wasn’t the Joe Biden I knew — or maybe, as a senator from Delaware, he wasn’t able to show his true stripes before.”
Manchin said he felt that Biden “was losing touch with the very values that defined his career.”
Once Manchin revealed in a Fox News interview that he would not support the proposal, effectively killing it in the Senate, Manchin said he received a “hostile” voicemail from Biden, and that Biden was “irate” when he returned his message.
Manchin said he told Biden he was frustrated with the White House’s outreach, and the fact that Biden singled out his opposition in a statement, telling Biden he believed it put his family “in harm’s way and disregarded my genuine attempt to work with you.”
Biden ended the conversation on a cool note, according to Manchin.
“‘We have a pissed off Irishman and a pissed off Italian, I think we should let things cool off.’ We didn’t talk for three months,” Manchin wrote.
(NEW YORK) — Former Southern District of New York prosecutor Maurene Comey alleged in a lawsuit Monday that her ouster from the U.S. Attorney’s office was “unlawful and unconstitutional” and likely happened because of who her father is.
Comey, who prosecuted high profile defendants including Sean Combs, Robert Hadden, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, was fired in July.
Her lawsuit said President Donald Trump, the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other defendants did not identify a cause or provide her due process.
“In truth, there is no legitimate explanation. Rather, Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both,” the lawsuit said.
“The politically motivated termination of Ms. Comey — ostensibly under “Article II of the Constitution” — upends bedrock principles of our democracy and justice system. Assistant United States Attorneys like Ms. Comey must do their jobs without fearing or favoring any political party or perspective, guided solely by the law, the facts, and the pursuit of justice,” the lawsuit said.
Comey said she had just been assigned a high-profile public corruption case when she received an email on July 16 at 4:57 p.m. with a memo informing her that “your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately.”
According to the lawsuit, Comey’s supervisors “were visibly shocked and upset,” and Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, provided no explanation.
“All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else,” the lawsuit quoted Clayton as telling Comey.
Comey’s attorneys said the president lacks the authority to fire ordinary federal prosecutors, who are career civil servants, for perceived disloyalty.
“Neither the President nor the Department of Justice have unlimited authority to remove Assistant United States Attorneys,” the lawsuit said.
Comey is seeking reinstatement along with back pay.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance (L) on stage with Charlie Kirk (R) during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance hosted Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday, during which he said “left-wing extremism” is “part of the reason” Kirk was killed last week.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(Orem, UTAH) — The suspect arrested in the fatal shooting Charlie Kirk had an “obsession” with the conservative influencer, based on the alleged shooter’s digital footprint, FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Monday on Fox News.
Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah native, is accused of fatally shooting Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University on Aug. 10.
Bongino said the suspect appeared to have exhibited “multiple warning signs.”
“I believe co-workers stated he had detached himself when the topic of politics came up and walked away,” Bongino said on Fox News.
Bongino said they are looking into whether anyone knew the shooting could happen and didn’t alert authorities, referring to online chats Robinson allegedly had about Kirk.
“Did they … hear it and think it was a joke? That is what we’re trying to find out now,” he told Fox News. “If there is a larger network here, we will get that out to the public as soon as we can.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also announced on “Fox & Friends” that DNA found at the crime scene, specifically the towel wrapped around the firearm used in the shooting, and on a screwdriver, links Robinson to the killing of the conservative influencer.
Robinson was arrested last week for felony discharge of a firearm, aggravated murder and obstruction of justice, according to probable cause documents, and was booked into the Utah County Jail.
Charging documents against Robison are expected to be filed early this week, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Friday.
Robinson was apprehended after his father recognized him in photographs released by authorities, Cox said on Friday. His father told Robinson to turn himself in, with the 22-year-old initially saying no, but later changing his mind, officials said.
The father then called a youth pastor, who is also a U.S. Marshals task force officer. The officer advised the father to have Robinson stay in place. This information was then conveyed to the FBI.
Cox thanked Robinson’s family, who “did the right thing.”
Investigators also interviewed a family member of Robinson who said the suspect had “become more political in recent years,” Cox said.
In a recent incident the family member detailed to investigators, Robinson came to dinner and in a conversation with another family member he mentioned Kirk was coming to Utah Valley University. They talked about why they didn’t like him and his viewpoints.
President Donald Trump, who announced Friday on “Fox & Friends” that the suspected shooter was in custody, said Robinson should get the death penalty.
“In Utah, you have death penalty, and a good governor there, I have gotten to know him,” Trump said of Cox. “The governor is intent on the death penalty in this case and he should be.”
Before the arrest of the alleged shooter, officials said they had obtained “good” video footage of the individual and were able to track the movements of the suspect.
On the day of the shooting at approximately 11:52 a.m., the suspect arrived on the Orem campus and then proceeded to travel through the stairwells up to the roof of the building near where the outdoor event was taking place, before the suspect fired down at Kirk, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said last week.
Kirk was hit by a single shot at approximately 12:20 p.m. and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
After the shooting, the suspect traveled to the other side of the building, jumped off and fled off-campus into a neighborhood, Mason said.
On Friday, Erika Kirk, the conservative commentator’s wife, said “no one will ever forget my husband’s name.”
“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” Erika Kirk said on Friday in her first public message since her husband’s death.
Teenage girl using a smart phone during an exam in the classroom (StockPlanets/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — While many states have at least partially banned cellphones in the classroom this back-to-school season, some are still leaving those decisions to their local education agencies, according to a new data analysis conducted by ABC News.
ABC News reached out to the education departments of every state, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by email this summer to discuss the policies.
Overall, 20 states (including D.C. and the Virgin Islands) have completely banned wireless communication devices — including personal phones or tablets — for the entire instructional day. There are, however, exceptions for students with disabilities who have individualized education programs.
In contrast, 17 states — such as Maryland and Wyoming — that have not banned the use of wireless communication devices in schools on the state level.
The remaining 16 states have chosen a more relaxed approach, with some recommending the individual school districts decide their own policies, and others, like Puerto Rico, only requiring a policy to be formed by 2026.
The Department of Education is on a quest to return all education responsibilities and decisions to the states. It leaves cellphone guidance to the local level.
Cellphone usage continues to be one of the most contentious issues for education leaders. Education experts told ABC News that electronic devices stifle engagement, disrupt learning by causing distractions, and create adverse mental-health issues in adolescents.
Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd — an education policy center at Georgetown University, said he believes using cellphones in schools is generally problematic with the harm outweighing the good.
“It’s a problem,” Toch argued. “We’re trying to get kids to engage, to immerse themselves in the subject at hand, to communicate with their peers, to be part of a learning community,” he said.
“There’s lots of research to suggest that [phones] are very detrimental to students’ levels of concentration and undermine, for those reasons and others, their learning,” Toch added.
‘Even worse after COVID’
The modern smartphone debuted in 2007 — nearly 20 years ago — but school cellphone issues were exacerbated over the last few years, according to educators who spoke to ABC News.
When students returned to the classroom after the COVID-19 pandemic, they brought back their phones, according to Vermont’s Harwood Union Middle and High School Assistant Principal Jessica Deane. She said phones in school have been a problem since their invention, and emphasized that the problem has never been more prominent than since the pandemic.
“I’ve been asking students to put their phones away since 2005,” Deane told ABC News. “It seemed even worse, coming back after COVID.”
Teachers across the country, such as Julia Casey in Missouri, said the new ban has made her job more manageable because she doesn’t have to police students.
“I don’t have to, like, correct that behavior,” Casey said, adding that the ban has helped students “stay on task a lot more.”
‘Bell-to-bell’
The most strict cellphone measures include implementing a “bell-to-bell” school-day ban for this academic year. The bans are mandated in places such as Arkansas, Texas, Virginia and more.
The states require phones be stored separate and away from students.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed an executive order banning phones in her state, too.
“This will help improve focus, mental health and safety — so every student can learn and thrive without distractions,” Kotek said in a recent post on X.
New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest school district, also has a bell-to-bell policy in place for its nearly one million students, but the schools will be required to provide at least one method for families to reach their children during the school day in the case of an emergency.
In Kansas, the state board of education commissioned a task force — consisting of parents, educators and students — on student screen time, which found that its schools should limit cellphone use, with some school going with a bell-to-bell ban.
“We wanted the local school districts to have that control,” Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson told ABC News. “What we have found is that most school districts in Kansas are implementing a bell-to-bell ban.”
Emergency situations
One of the top concerns for parents and families is their ability to contact their children in case of an emergency.
School safety is the No. 1 priority for educators, according to interviews with city leaders and education officials, especially with the influence of recent school shootings.
For communication purposes, phones can be valuable tools for students during the school day, according to Toch.
“There could be instances where kids don’t … have a way to communicate with family members — or don’t have an ability to communicate a problem that they see and that they might want to use their phone to alert others to,” Toch told ABC News.
Celebrating Washington, D.C.’s bell-to-bell policy, D.C. Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee argued that if there’s an emergency “the last thing we want students to do is to be on their cellphone.”
“We want them to be focused on the guidance and direction that they will be receiving from adults in the situation,” he said.
Kansas Commissioner Watson said any school incident is tragic, but he claimed there was “no evidence” to suggest having cellphones helps in the case of an emergency, according to his conversations with law enforcement.
In his state, Watson said districts are making their own choices and it’s paying off for the students.
“Kids are more engaged,” Watson explained.
“Kids are happier. There’s less bullying that takes place. There’s less distractions academically. That daily behavior goes on and on.”
(NEW YORK) — A Utah man is facing terrorism charges after being arrested for placing an incendiary device under a news media vehicle in Salt Lake City, according to authorities.
Adeeb Nasir, 58, of Magna, Utah, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of placing the explosive device, which was lit but “failed to function,” according to police.
On Friday, Salt Lake City Police Bomb Squad and Unified Fire Authority Arson/Bomb Squad responded to a suspicious device placed underneath a news media vehicle parked next to an occupied building, which was found to be real.
Nasir faces nine charges, including two counts of weapon of mass destruction and two counts of threat of terrorism.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assumed primary jurisdiction over the investigation and served a federal search warrant at the residence on Saturday with the help of local authorities’ bomb squads.
“The FBI discovered what appeared to be potentially hazardous materials that could pose a threat to public safety,” the FBI said in a statement to ABC News.
After the FBI’s initial investigation, two suspects were associated with the incident and both resided at the same residence where the search warrant was served.
The second individual was listed as Adil in Nasir’s probable cause summary, and arrest documents have not been found at this time. The relationship of the two individuals has not been released.
“The initial FBI search warrant authorized the seizure of evidence specifically related to the incendiary devices,” documents said.
Squad members cleared the home and found two hoax weapons of mass destruction inside, along with two firearms and illegal narcotics.
Neighboring homes were evacuated during the search due to the explosives found.
There was no information about a possible motive.
Nasir was booked into Salt Lake County Jail and ordered to be held without bail, according to documents.
(LONDON) — North Korean officials on Monday said the country’s status as nuclear state “has become irreversible,” despite efforts by the West to negotiate an end to the production of those weapons, according to state media.
“The position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state which has been permanently specified in the supreme and basic law of the state has become irreversible,” North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. said in a press statement, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the intergovernmental body for nuclear cooperation, has no “legal right and moral justification” to interfere with what North Korea consider an “internal affair,” the mission’s press statement said.
The statement on Monday was one of several anti-U.S. messages issued by North Korea that coincided with the launch of Freedom Edge 25, a joint military exercise being held by the United States, South Korea and Japan, off South Korea’s Jeju Island. Those drills are scheduled to run through Sept. 19.
North Korea’s Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, said on Sunday that those drills “pose a grave challenge to the security interests of our state and a major danger of undermining regional stability and escalating military tension,” according to state media.
The secretive state on Monday accused the United States of violating its own stated obligation of preventing nuclear proliferation “while concentrating more than anyone else on nuclear power buildup.”
“The U.S. has gone to extremes in its nuclear threat as days go by and the U.S.-led nuclear alliance is getting desperate in its confrontational moves,” the North Korean officials said on Monday.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi earlier this month pointed to North Korea’s nuclear development programs as “clear violations” of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
He said his agency nonetheless “continues to maintain its enhanced readiness to play its essential role in verifying the DPRK’s nuclear program.”
(NEW YORK) — The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk has put Utah Valley University (UVU) under scrutiny as security experts said the location of the stage for the outdoor event where the conservative commentator was targeted was particularly vulnerable, and questioned why no metal detectors were in place and bags seemingly were not checked.
More than 3,000 people were on hand Wednesday as the 31-year-old Kirk, CEO and co-founder of the conservative grassroots organization Turning Point USA, spoke in an open-air courtyard on the Orem, Utah, campus, which is at the bottom of a bowl-shaped area surrounded by buildings, law enforcement officials said.
A gunman fired the deadly shot at Kirk with a high-powered bolt-action rifle from the rooftop of a campus building a substantial distance from where Kirk was speaking, hitting him in the throat, officials said.
The suspect in the shooting, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested on Friday night after his father recognized him from surveillance images and video released by investigators, authorities said.
“This is a police chief’s nightmare,” Chief Jeff Long of the Utah Valley University campus police department said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Witnesses told ABC News that the event was not just open to the students on campus, but to the general public as well.
Long said he worked with Kirk’s private security team to establish security protocols for the event, which was the first stop on a nationwide tour of college campuses Kirk launched, called The American Comeback Tour.
“We worked together. He has his team and they do this all over the country. We all know that. It’s not uncommon for them. They’re very comfortable on campuses. And I was coordinating with his lead security guy,” Long said.
Turning Point USA did not respond to an ABC News request for comment.
Long said six campus police officers were working the event, including some in plainclothes who were monitoring the crowd.
“We train for these things, and you think you have things covered, and these things, unfortunately, they happen,” Long said. “You try to get your bases covered and, unfortunately, today [Wednesday] we didn’t. Because of that, we have this tragic incident.”
But multiple witnesses who attended the event told ABC News there seemed to be little to no security at all.
“We walked in, we were kind of surprised because there was like no security check. They didn’t check us for IDs. They didn’t pat us down. You just walked in,” Jasmine Martinez, a mother of five, told ABC News on Thursday.
Justin Hicken, who also attended the event, said he, too, was surprised by the seeming lack of security.
“I just followed the crowd into some of the campus buildings and … once you made your way through the campus buildings, it opens up into a courtyard where the stage or the amphitheater drops down like a pit,” Hicken told ABC News, adding that he also was not scrutinized by any security when he arrived at the free event.
He said that while the crowd was mostly comprised of college-aged people, “There were people of all ages there.”
“There were elderly people with walkers, there were children, there were families. It was a big group,” Hicken said. “I would say it was probably about 97% or 98% pro-Charlie. There were a few people you could tell were in opposition to him being there but for the most part, it was a very pro-Charlie crowd.”
Before the event, an online petition was circulated asking school officials to prevent Kirk from speaking on the UVU campus. The petition stated in part that “Charlie Kirk is known for his divisive rhetoric that often supports policies and laws which aren’t inclusive and can marginalize various communities.” The petition gathered more than 900 signatures.
“We affirm our commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue,” the university said in a Sept. 3 statement in response to the petition. “The university respects the rights of student clubs and organizations to invite various speakers to campus. As a public institution, UVU upholds First Amendment rights and fosters an environment where ideas – popular or controversial – can be exchanged freely, energetically, and civilly.”
However, Don Mihalek, a retired senior special agent for the U.S. Secret Service and an ABC News contributor, questioned the location of the stage with roofs of buildings surrounding the area where Kirk was shot, given that President Donald Trump was shot at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally at an outdoor venue in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a man who fired from rooftop 400 feet from where Trump was speaking.
Investigators said the gunman who shot Kirk fired an older model imported Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle from the roof of a building and appeared to have a clear line of sight to where Kirk was seated under a shade canopy more than 100 yards away.
“The location of the event was in the middle of a college quad, it sounds like, which was surrounded by tall buildings, which present line-of-sight issues,” Mihalek said.
Mihalek added, “In my view, in this day and age, you can’t not do proper advanced planning for an event, especially an outdoor event, and take into account all the standard security measures for an event.”
Mihalek said pre-planning for possible security issues, including access control to the event, line-of-sight issues and monitoring of the crowd, “all has to be baked into the event planning process.”
Robert Boyce, the retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department and an ABC News contributor, said that from a security standpoint, the outdoor venue should have never been chosen for an event featuring such a controversial speaker.
Boyce further said that the venue for the event shouldn’t have been outdoors.
“For a controversial person speaking in any way, with any kind of petition, any outside threats we don’t know right now, you really can’t have it outside,” Boyce said. “You have to have a door to control and that’s important, especially in these times. We’re really at a different point in our history that’s really hard to believe. But you want to control that door. This way, you know who’s inside and you can walk around and see and identify anybody who’s acting out of sorts.”
Boyce also questioned why the event was opened to the general public.
“It’s inexplicable to me why a university would let outside people come in and watch this on their campus, and that has to be answered,” Boyce said.
In response to the questions raised about the security plan for the event, a university spokesperson told ABC News, “I’m not able to answer those specifics at this time.”
The university spokesperson directed ABC News to a page on the school’s website answering some frequently asked questions about the Charlie Kirk event. Under the question “What security measures were taken?” the website states “Kirk’s lead security staff coordinated with UVU Police Chief Jeff Long regarding the security measures,” echoing Chief Long’s statement during the Sept. 10 news conference.
The website page also said that Kirk had previously visited the school with Turning Point USA in 2019.
The Utah Board of Higher Education – the governing body for the Utah System of Higher Education, which is comprised of 16 public colleges and universities, including UVU – issued a statement last week, saying it will “continue working with state leaders to identify ways to keep our campuses safe and welcoming for everyone.”
The statement added, “We believe strongly that Utah’s campuses must remain places where individuals can share and debate differing viewpoints openly and respectfully. Attempts to diminish that freedom have no place here and we will continue working to ensure our students, faculty and visitors feel safe to express themselves.”
