Witnesses: Here’s what they saw when Charlie Kirk was gunned down at Utah Valley University

“One huge shot.” “Everyone’s panicking.” “It’s horrific.”

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People run after a shot was fired during an appearance by Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

After conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot during a speaking event Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, swarms of attendees fled the area, some wading through water in a campus fountain as they sought shelter.

UVU alum Tyler Teasdale, who saw the shooting, said in a phone interview that he saw a team of bodyguards immediately carry Kirk into a black SUV, which then sped away with the door still open.

Kirk, 31, died of his injuries, President Donald Trump later announced on social media.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Teasdale said the event was “calm” at first, but added there was, in his view, a distinct lack of security. He recalled seeing four security guards in the area, which he said “seemed very unbalanced for the amount of crowd.”

The gunshot rang out just before 12:30 p.m., after someone had asked Kirk a question about mass shootings, UVU student Dallin Gilbertson said.

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(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People take cover after a gunshot was fired during an appearance by Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

“I just heard a loud noise, and I saw blood come from [Kirk’s] neck. … I just saw him stop for a second and then fall over,” another UVU student, Kyah Bahr, said. “And then everybody jumps to the ground. My sister, she grabs me and pulls me onto the ground.”

Amid the fleeing crowd, panic set in as Teasdale tried to reach his younger brother, Seth, to ensure he was OK, Tyler recalled.

Fleeing in all directions

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People run after a shot was fired during an appearance by Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Seth Teasdale had just moved toward the front of the event and was about 30 or 40 feet from Kirk when the gunshot echoed across the pavilion. Seth said he immediately dropped down to protect himself and ran away to seek safety.

Many people ran through one of UVU’s nearby campus fountains, he added, to get away from the area and bypass the rushing crowds.

“It was all wet and slippery, and people were slipping and falling on the water [tracked into nearby buildings],” Seth Teasdale recalled. “I’m seeing tens and tens of people crying, running, and there’s contents from people’s bags and purses all throughout UVU. … It’s just a mess because everyone’s panicking.”

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The scene after a gunshot was fired at an appearance by Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

UVU student Brynlee Holms was in the back of the crowd when the “super loud” gunshot “echoed through the whole place.” They “fled everywhere,” she said, “all different directions.”

“And then I started running,” Holms said. “I got trampled actually a little bit. Luckily, someone was kind enough to help me back up, but we all just ran, I didn’t even know where I was going.”

Holms said she was told to go to the Student Success Center, where people hid in a back office for about 20 minutes until they were informed it was safe to go.

Tyler Teasdale said when he finally made it toward the front, where the crowd had been, he was corralled by authorities with a group of other witnesses to be interviewed.

“Whatever side of politics you’re on, I don’t think this will ever be the answer,” Seth Teasdale said. “… It just makes things worse for everyone. It closes an open forum that people feel like they have to be able to talk with the public. And it’s horrific.”

Crowd spills into nearby neighborhood

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Law enforcement conducts a search of the Utah Valley University campus in Orem after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot during an event on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Lisa Thornton’s 94-year-old mother lives “three houses” from campus. Thornton said she was helping her mother clean her windows when the gunshot was fired and she saw fleeing students “streaming all through our yard, people running, horrible, crying, yelling.”

Among those throngs of evacuees came Thornton’s nephew, Shaner Broderick, 31, and more than a dozen others from his Latter-day Saint ward, or congregation, in Vineyard. Broderick’s uncle, former state Rep. Phil Lyman, and his staff also took shelter there.

About a dozen people crammed into the house Wednesday afternoon, hunkering down until authorities gave the all-clear.

Thornton said once everyone had arrived at her mother’s home, she looked outside and saw a “big group of people,” maybe more than 100 of them, in what appeared to be military uniforms. She said they ran up the street in a line.

‘One huge shot’

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A crowd watches as conservative commentator Charlie Kirk appears at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Broderick said he and the others from his ward had taken the day off to see Kirk. They got there early, he said, and saw “absolutely no security whatsoever.”

They grabbed second-row seats, close enough to catch the Trump hats Kirk and others tossed into the crowd. Lyman told The Salt Lake Tribune that he remembered looking at Kirk and thinking, “Man, he looks so young, and he’s so tall. He’s so happy, … chucking these hats, having the time of his life.”

Broderick said the first question in the debate-style event came from someone who rambled about Utah’s predominant faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The next question, Broderick said, someone asked about mass shootings that have involved a transgender shooter.

“And then just, boom,” Broderick recalled. “One huge shot.”

A Tribune transcript of the event appears to show there was a follow-up question about gang violence before the shot.

Broderick and his ward mates “dogpiled on top of each other” to create human shields if any more shots came. None did. Broderick remembered he got up, planning to run away, and then “saw [Kirk] in his chair with blood.”

“He was leaned back,” Broderick said, “like, out of it, and there was blood on his neck.”

He saw Kirk’s staff pick him up and then Broderick ran away to the refuge of his grandmother’s house.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Broderick, a UVU alum, said he was in shock, noting he could still feel the blood pulsing through his arms. He said he was “so sad” that such violence could take place in his hometown, on his college campus.

“That doesn’t happen here,” he said, “in Utah.”

“‘I’ve always watched [Kirk] on his speeches and watched him on Instagram Reels,” Broderick said, “and I’m grateful for his influence that he’s done to bring more men, young men and young people, even women, into politics on the right, on the conservative side.”