Charlie Kirk's family alleges 'stunning failures' by Utah officials led to his assassination
The conservative activist was speaking to a crowd of thousands on the university campus when he was shot and killed by a gunman positioned on a roof.
Charlie Kirk’s family has accused Utah Valley University and state officials of “stunning failures and reckless decisions” that they say contributed to the conservative activist’s assassination in 2025 during a campus event.
In a legal notice, the family’s lawyers said Kirk’s Turning Point USA event on the university campus was not adequately secured or monitored, leaving him vulnerable.
Kirk, 31, was addressing a crowd of thousands on the university campus when he was shot and killed by a gunman who was positioned on a roof.
The university said it was aware of the claim but declined to comment further on the allegations, according to a statement provided to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
“We are aware of the notice of claim. UVU addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes,” the university said in its statement. “Our focus remains on supporting our campus community.”
The legal notice was filed on 9 September, one day before the first anniversary of Kirk’s death, and is usually a step before a lawsuit.
It names Utah Valley University, local police, the state of Utah, and other university officials as parties that were allegedly aware of threats against Kirk but failed to take action to protect him.
“Through a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions, the UVU Parties created a foreseeable danger to Charlie,” the notice alleges.
“Placing a politically controversial figure like Charlie Kirk in an outdoor event in the quad surrounded by tall buildings and other elevated observation platforms is accurately described as walking him into a fishbowl,” it says.
Kirk’s family says the university did not carry out a meaningful security assessment before the event, did not assign enough police officers, and did not have an ambulance on site.
The family also alleges the university ignored warnings about securing the rooftops around the courtyard where Kirk was speaking.
“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump, Charlie Kirk’s close friend and political ally, by a rooftop shooter the previous year,” the family’s attorney D Loren Washburn wrote in the court filing.
Tyler Robinson, a 23-year-old Utah man accused of shooting Kirk from a roof, is scheduled to appear in court next month to learn the date of his trial.
Robinson denies aggravated murder, a capital offence in the state, along with six other charges.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.