The sniper who killed rightwing activist Charlie Kirk is believed to have jumped off a roof and fled into a neighborhood after firing one shot and has not been identified, the authorities in Utah said on Thursday, as they disclosed they have recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle they believe was used in the attack and are reviewing video footage of the person they believe was responsible.
The urgent hunt continued on Thursday for the shooter who fired a single bullet that hit Kirk as he hosted an open air discussion event attended by around 3,000 people at a Utah Valley University event in Orem the day before.
Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI Salt Lake field office, said early on Thursday at a press conference that officials had recovered the gun they think was used when Kirk was shot from long range.
“A rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled” and the FBI laboratory will be “analyzing this weapon”, Bohls said.
He added that investigators have also collected “footwear, impression, a palm print and forearm imprints for analysis”.
Later on Thursday, the FBI released two images of a person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Kirk and asked for the public’s help in identifying them.
The pictures posted on X show a person in black sunglasses, a baseball cap, a long-sleeved black shirt and jeans.
Kirk, 31, was a provocateur and close ally of Donald Trump and a divisive figure who drove youth recruitment to the US president’s Make American Great Again (Maga) movement as a co-founder of the Turning Point USA rightwing organization.
His killing drew bipartisan condemnation of the rise in political violence in the US. On Thursday morning, Trump attended an event at the Pentagon commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US and announced that he will award the Medal of Freedom posthumously to Kirk. Commemorations also took place in New York, where the first passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists hit the World Trade Center that morning in 2001.
On Wednesday, two suspects in the Kirk shooting were taken into custody, but subsequently released. The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called it a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.
Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and , the authorities believe, fired from a roof.
Mason on Thursday asked the public to be “patient” as law enforcement continue to search for the suspect.
Reuters later reported, citing a Wall Street Journal report that in turn cited a person familiar with the investigation and an internal law enforcement bulletin, that investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of pro-transgender and anti-fascist sentiment inside the rifle in question. The Guardian has not independently verified this report.
Related: Charlie Kirk’s death shows political violence is now a feature of US life
The previous evening, hours after Kirk had been declared dead , Trump spoke in a video message from the Oval Office. He vowed that his administration would track down the suspect, in a highly partisan and subjective address in which he said that there had never been anyone so respected by youth as Kirk, even though Kirk was a highly polarizing political activist known for his outspoken bigotry.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.
Video footage posted online showed Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence in the moments before he was shot, with footage showing attendees ducking and screaming then running from the scene.
Kirk was rushed by his security team to an SUV and was declared dead later at the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital.
Kirk was a strong voice for the second amendment and opposed gun control in the US, saying at an event in 2023 that a few gun deaths every year were an acceptable price to pay for the right to own guns.
The UVU campus was locked down.
Roughly a dozen people were holding a vigil on Wednesday night at the entrance to the hospital where Kirk died, among several other gatherings..
The mourners draped the hospital sign in American flags and surrounded its base with a thicket of candles and homemade signs, including “Peacemakers wanted” and “we love you Charlie Kirk”.
CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, were in the crowd for the rightwinger’s speech and Paxton said he was right in front of Kirk as he was shot, and watched his body go limp. “Charlie Kirk was a major role model and hero for me,” said Paxton, who spoke with a red “Make America Great Again” (Maga) cap folded in his hand. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.”
Greg Cronin, a faculty member at UVU, said he was working in the building next to where Kirk was speaking and he hoped the shooting could bring people together in dialogue instead of further political division.
“We won’t minimize actions like this around the world, ever,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize the impact that they are allowed to have.”
The US president ordered flags to be lowered to half mast to honour him.
Cox, a Republican, appealed for an end to the political violence. “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” he said.
On Thursday morning, a swarm of law enforcement and media vehicles had filled up the roundabout marking the entrance to Utah Valley University, under clear skies and warm, sunny early fall weather. A bouquet of flowers lay strewn on the sidewalk beneath the university’s large nameplate.
Wendy Lucas, 44, wearing a camouflage cap, walked up to the pile, said a prayer, and added a small American flag and two small panda action figures to the pile. The pandas were for Kirk’s children, Lucas said, adding that she agreed with everything Kirk stood for.
“Every life should be valuable,” Lucas said. “This should not happen.”
Kirk’s appearances on podcasts and across social media brought him fame for many on the hard right and notoriety elsewhere for his bigotry, extremist, reactionary positions on the family and equality, and brash presentation of his views. Kirk frequently attacked the mainstream media and engaged with culture-war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.
The event in Utah on Wednesday was the first in his “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.
Experts have warned his death marks a watershed moment, with fears it could inflame an already fractured country and inspire more unrest.
Kirk was an unabashed homophobe and Islamophobe. As recently as Tuesday of this week he tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
His evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his politics. He argued that there is no true separation of church and state, the official separation of which being a key principle on which the United States was founded, and warned of a “spiritual battle” pitting the west against so-called wokeism from liberals, Marxism and Islam.
