During a press conference Wednesday evening, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) praised Charlie Kirk for his defense of free speech and noted that Utah still has the death penalty.
Cox said, “Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate, to shape ideas and to persuade people.”
He noted how university campuses have been a place where “truth and ideas are formulated and debated, and that’s what [Kirk did].”
Cox added, “And when someone takes the life of a person, because of their ideas or their ideals, then [our] very constitutional foundation is threatened.” He continued:
We have a person of interest in custody, the investigation is ongoing. But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this. We will find you, we will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty in Utah.
Minutes before the press conference began, FBI direct Kash Patel posted to X:
FOX13 noted that law enforcement indicated the shot was “fired from the top of the Losee Center on the [Utah Valley University] campus, which is approximately 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
