Tension lingers at Utah campus traumatized by Charlie Kirk killing

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By Andrew Hay

OREM, Utah (Reuters) -The campus of Utah Valley University was mostly deserted and silent on Thursday, a stark contrast with the scenes of panic and disbelief that erupted 24 hours earlier when a sniper killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk in front of 3,000 young people gathered to hear him speak.

“It’s eerie, tense, quiet,” said McKinley Shinkle, a 25-year-old electrical engineering student when asked to describe how it felt on campus, which was ordered closed for the rest of the week. 

The single shot that struck Kirk rang out soon after the charismatic ally of President Donald Trump began taking questions from the audience at one of his signature outreach events, where he challenges students to debate contentious issues on topics including gun control and race. 

Witnesses, many of them stuttering with emotion, have described hearing a loud bang that they did not at first recognize as a gunfire. Some were close enough to the canopy under which Kirk sat to see blood flowing from his neck and spreading down a white T-shirt he wore that was emblazoned with the word “Freedom.” 

Jeff Long, chief of the university’s police department, said he had six officers working at the fatal event. “You know, we trained for these things and you think you have things covered,” Long said at a press conference. “You try to get your bases covered. Unfortunately, today, we didn’t.”

Videos online showed some in the crowd screamed, wept and prayed, many of them pushing their way out of the open area where the gathering was held, desperately trying to reach cover. Others stood frozen as if in shock or ducked to the ground.

McKinley Shinkle and his cousin Anthony Shinkle, a biology student at Utah Valley, said they were walking toward the event when the shot was fired, and people began running towards them.

“People shouldn’t have to be afraid just to speak their mind,” Anthony Shinkle said.

The Shinkle cousins put up signs in the window of their student apartment that read “FREEDOM” and “YOU CAN’T KILL THE TRUTH” in support of Kirk and what he stood for.

What little activity there was on the campus – located about 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City in Orem, Utah – involved law enforcement investigators.

Yellow police tape restricted access to several locations, including a university building that the gunman was believed to have used as a perch to fire down at an amphitheater where Kirk was speaking, about 200 yards (180 meters) away. Investigators scoured the building for forensic evidence on Thursday.

The campus of Utah Valley – the largest public university in the state – is much like dozens of other large schools across the country, dotted with modern buildings where students can earn certificates in skills such as cabinet-making, as well master’s degrees in education and law.  

About a third of the 46,000 enrolled there are older students, and 42 countries are represented in its student body.

QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD DISRUPTED

After the shooting, the suspect dropped down from the roof of the campus building and fled into an adjoining neighborhood, ditching the rifle he used in a wooded area across the road, officials said. 

On Thursday, those woods were also hemmed by yellow tape, while American flags fluttered in the breeze in front of many of the ranch-style houses that lined a nearby street. 

The display of flags was initially intended as a tribute to the Americans killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks. But after the shooting, residents said the flags took on a different meaning, representing a trauma closer to home.

In many ways, the affluent university town of Orem seems like an idealized American city. Children play on front lawns on its quiet residential streets and its 100,000 residents can see the Wasatch Mountains towering to the east over the high desert. 

Many residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and describe themselves as conservative.

Since the shooting, the peaceful vibe been disrupted by SWAT teams patrolling the streets and police helicopters hovering above.

“It can happen anywhere but it’s strange that it happened here,” said homemaker Christy Luque, echoing the disbelief shared by many of her neighbors. “It’s just a quiet small town.”

Luque, 51, a registered Republican, voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. She said she was appalled by President Donald Trump’s treatment of women.

Across the street, 16-year-old Colton Fitch, who took the day off from school to process what happened, said it was the scariest day of his life.  

“It started getting real when there was a SWAT team truck blocking the road,” said Fitch, who was playing basketball in his front yard with his cousin, Max Fitch, also 16. Both were fans of Kirk.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Orem; Editing by Frank McGurty and Lincoln Feast.)