A suspect is in custody after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot Wednesday at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Deseret News reported.
The outlet said bystanders reported seeing Kirk shot near his neck during a Q&A with students.
Deseret News cited a UVU alert to students that indicated a suspect is in custody. The outlet added that the campus has been evacuated.
"A single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker. Police are investigating now, suspect in custody," the alert reads, according to Deseret.
The following video allegedly shows the suspect:
— (@)
The male who is kneeling on the ground is heard saying that he has "the right to remain silent."
The suspect's name wasn't immediately released, the outlet added.
Blaze News has reached out to campus communications and police in Orem for additional information.
This is a breaking news story; updates will be added.
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In these wild political and cultural times, maybe we can allow ourselves a moment to “have some fun just for the fun of it.” Let’s take an off-beat look at Donald Trump’s 2024 comeback through the lens of Rube Goldberg, the cartoonist who turned everyday tasks into ridiculous, roundabout contraptions.
Goldberg, born July 4, 1883, became famous for illustrating convoluted chain reactions: a ball drops, a lever tilts, a cat jumps, and eventually, the napkin wipes your chin. His crazy spirit seems to have animated the past four years of American politics.
Take the self-operating napkin:
From the waning days of 2020 through November 2024, Democrats and their allies in the media and deep state plotted a simple game. They thought they could topple Trump like dominoes. Line up the indictments, knock over the first tile, and watch the rest fall neatly into place: Trump would give up, his supporters would grow weary, and one or more cases would stick, leaving him ineligible for office and likely even in prison.
Democrats trusted in dominoes. Reality looked more like a Goldberg machine — and divine providence.
The Democrats’ gambit did not pay off.
Instead of dominoes falling in precise order — A into B into C into D — events spun out in unpredictable ways. As I wrote in my 2023 book, “Obvious”:
Instead of things falling domino-style in precise order — A into B into C into D, and so on — life is more like A hitting G falling into C popping up H accelerating M ... all the way to Z. We take an action, start the ball rolling, and through many unseen and sometimes quirky circumstances, incredible results materialize.
That’s what happened. Democrats didn’t set off dominoes. They set loose a Rube Goldberg machine.
One of the strangest, and most powerful, moments came in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2024. An assassin’s bullet nearly took Trump’s life. Instead, Trump sprang up and shouted, “Fight, fight, fight!” That image electrified the nation.
Add to that miraculous scene a wave through a McDonald’s drive-through window, a campaign dump truck plastered with Trump signs, even headlines about people “eating cats and dogs,” and you begin to see the Rube Goldberg contraption click along — until it delivered not chaos but victory.
Courtroom dramas fizzled. Character assassination failed. Even physical assassination attempts backfired. What Democrats had hoped would be Trump’s undoing became the very chain of events that returned him to power.
Rube Goldberg is spinning in his grave (perhaps literally).
Through another lens, the lesson is simpler: “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). What looks chaotic to us is under His direction. He arranges the pieces, sets events in motion, and brings about His will.
Democrats trusted in dominoes. Reality looked more like a Goldberg machine — and divine providence.
The game is not over. More events lie ahead, more unexpected turns in the chain reaction. The real question is not whether the machinery keeps moving but whether we will find ourselves on the winning side when the final result arrives.
Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.
The Florida federal judge overseeing the case against accused would-be presidential assassin Ryan Wesley Routh has denied the government’s motion to exclude Routh’s sniper expert witness, who found that Routh’s weapon jammed twice out of four test shots earlier this year.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon issued an eight-page ruling denying federal prosecutors’ request to prevent testimony from Michael McClay, a former instructor in the U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper School.
Judge Cannon, noting that the U.S. Department of Justice plans to call an FBI sniper expert during Routh’s trial, said: “As of [sic] a result of that significant overlap, and mindful of the general principle of equal treatment in the context of expert witnesses, the court is not in a position to declare that McClay’s proposed testimony is wholly irrelevant and warranting full exclusion.”
'As the bolt went forward to cycle the second round from the magazine, the cartridge misfed and jammed at the throat of the chamber.'
Routh, who faces a Sept. 8 trial on five charges related to the alleged attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump at his Florida golf resort, earlier sought subpoenas for McClay and two mental health experts expected to testify about Routh’s alleged lack of intent on Sept. 15, 2024.
Routh, 58, of Greensboro, N.C., is charged with the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of the assassination attempt, intentionally assaulting a Secret Service officer, illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces possible life in prison if convicted.
RELATED: Suspected would-be presidential assassin Ryan Routh will represent himself at federal trial
The FBI said Routh set up a sniper’s nest just outside the fence near the sixth green of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Routh allegedly possessed a “military-grade” SKS rifle with a magazine containing 19 rounds with one in the chamber, ready to fire on President Trump, prosecutors said.
The FBI said Routh traveled from his home in Greensboro to West Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 14, 2024, and that on “multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, Routh’s cell phone pinged towers near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and his golf club.
A Secret Service agent riding a golf cart toward the sixth green spotted someone in the brush outside the fence. After seeing a rifle poking through the chain-link fence, the agent fired four shots toward the gunman, who fled on foot and escaped the area by car.
Judge Cannon issued an order in May allowing test-firing of Routh’s rifle, “limited to an examination of its actual or potential operability.”
As the result of the test, McClay is expected to testify that he:
loaded the magazine into the rifle, placed the weapon onto fire (position), and pulled the trigger. The rifle expelled the projectile into the berm and the bolt extracted the spent casing. As the bolt went forward to cycle the second round from the magazine, the cartridge misfed and jammed at the throat of the chamber.
McClay then repeated the firing test “with the same result — a successful fire and then a jam on the second attempt to fire the weapon,” the document said.
Prosecutors sought to bar McClay from testifying at all in the trial.
“According to the United States, McClay’s account of his live-fire test is irrelevant and unhelpful, and the same goes for his opinion that the rifle was not the ‘optimal precision sniper tool,’” the judge wrote. “As for the rest of McClay’s disclosures, the United States says they do not state actual opinions and do not otherwise provide a basis for McClay to testify.”
The court “determines that the current record does not support the United States’ broad request to exclude McClay as a witness. As it stands, McClay proposes to testify as an expert on matters that sufficiently align with the topics identified by the United States’ expert disclosures, albeit with some differences.”
Prosecutors expect to call Erich D. Smith, an FBI firearms/toolmark examiner, who tested and examined the rifle in September 2024, who will testify “that he fired it twice, and that it ‘functioned normally when tested in the Laboratory,’” the judge’s order said.
“Smith’s test fire was primarily for the purpose of conducting a search in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN),” the document said.
FBI Special Agent Nicholas Schnelle, a special weapons and tactics expert, is expected to testify “regarding, among other things, Defendant’s ‘observation point’ or ‘final firing point,’ as well as ‘why a vantage point is desirable for a particular target.’”
RELATED: Alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh makes wild demand, turning upcoming trial 'into a circus'
Judge Cannon reminded the parties that “a conviction for attempt does not require that a defendant actually commit the final act required for conviction for the underlying crime.”
Routh is also seeking to call and offer testimony from Heather Holmes, Psy.D., and Rodolfo Buigas, Ph.D., about his alleged “lack of intent” on Sept. 15, 2024. Reports from both mental health experts have been submitted to Judge Cannon under seal.
On Aug. 1, Judge Cannon granted a DOJ motion to submit certain prosecution evidence under seal by authority of the Classified Information Procedures Act. The judge concluded that if revealed, the evidence “could cause serious damage or exceptionally grave damages to the national security of the United States.”
Routh, who is now representing himself pro se, only has access to public docket entries.
Judge Cannon on Aug. 4 ordered the DOJ to file under seal the entire contents of the “Dear World” letter alleged to have been written by Routh. The FBI earlier released a redacted version of the letter, in which Routh apologized “for failing to assassinate the 45th president and offering a $150,000 bounty to ‘whomever can complete the job.’”
Judge Cannon ruled the federal jury in Routh’s trial will be partially sequestered, including lunch and dinner breaks. Their names will be kept secret, and U.S. marshals will pick them up and deliver them to a secret safe location each day.
The ruling is meant “to preserve juror anonymity and privacy in light of media coverage, prevent from potential harassment or intimidating contact, and serve the fair administration of justice under the circumstances,” the judge said.
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Aimee Betro — a 45-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin — in September 2018 met a 31-year-old British man who used the name "Dr. Ice" on a dating app, according to the Daily Mail.
Betro traveled to London on Christmas Day 2018, where she met that man — Mohammed Nazir — and reportedly spent a night with him. While Betro left the U.K. and returned to the United States, the pair continued to communicate.
'Where are you hiding? Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed.'
Betro returned to Great Britain in August 2019, according to reports.
During a trial that ended Tuesday, a defense lawyer asked Betro what she thought of Nazir, and she responded, "He was very charming, and I did like him. He was sweet, and I did have feelings for him."
Nazir reportedly was able to convince the American woman to do his "bidding."
BBC News reported that Nazir and his 59-year-old father, Mohammed Aslam, had a dispute with Birmingham businessman Aslat Mahumad.
The British outlet reported that the father and son were injured during a physical confrontation with Mahumad at his clothing store in July 2018.
Nazir and Aslam reportedly hatched a scheme against Mahumad and planned to use Betro in their plot.
RELATED: Arrested wife of 'Ghost Adventures' TV star accused of hiring hit man to kill him: 'Was it done?'
The Daily Mail reported that Betro called Mahumad on Sept. 7, 2019, and said she wanted to purchase a car he was selling online.
Prosecutor Tom Walkling told the court, "Mr. Mahumad recalls being called by a woman with an American accent. ... He was confused, as he hadn't listed his number online. The woman said she wanted to buy the car today, but Mr. Mahumad said she could see it tomorrow."
Betro's alleged plot to lure Mahumad to her failed, so she reportedly purchased a Mercedes E240 from another seller.
Walkling said the man who sold the car to Betro indicated that he "sold it to someone he described, perhaps unkindly, as a short, fat woman who spoke with an American accent, wore a summer dress, and had a bag over her shoulder."
Police say Betro drove to Mahumad's family home on the night of Sept. 7, 2019, in her newly purchased Mercedes.
While Betro reportedly was lying in wait with a gun, Mahumad's 33-year-old son Sikander Ali returned home around 9:10 p.m.
Jurors at the Birmingham Crown Court were shown surveillance video of a figure with a covered face approaching Ali and attempting to fire at him at point-blank range. However, police said the gun jammed, and Ali escaped by speeding away in his SUV.
'I think she was fatally flawed.'
While Ali was fleeing, his vehicle allegedly clipped the Mercedes and damaged the car's door so severely that it wouldn't close.
Investigators said Betro ditched the Mercedes, but left a black glove — which had her DNA on it — in the vehicle.
Jurors were shown screenshots of text messages Betro purportedly sent to Mahumad after the attempted killing, and she allegedly told her intended target, "Where are you hiding? Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed."
Betro took a taxi to return to the Mahumad's home just hours after the first alleged assassination attempt, police stated. CCTV showed a figure firing three shots through the windows of the home in the early hours of Sept. 8, 2019. However, there was no one home at the time.
Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas claimed Betro used a niqab in an attempt to hide her face, but it "didn't work very well."
"It was a fairly poor attempt [at disguise], and again, whether or not the attitude was that the British police wouldn't be up to it, I think she was fatally flawed, if that was ever the consideration in her mind," Orencas explained.
Orencas claimed Betro's motivation for the attempted murder was because she was "in love or infatuated with Nazir."
The Daily Mail reported that Betro flew to the U.S. the day after the shooting, and Nazir did the same three days later.
While on the lam for nearly six years, Betro reportedly fled the U.S. and traveled to Armenia — but was soon tracked down by an unlikely source.
The Daily Mail said it found Betro in Armenia and informed the West Midlands Police about her location on June 15, 2024. The Daily Mail agreed to withhold publishing the news until she was arrested.
"I would like to put it on formal record and thank the Daily Mail for the information that they kindly shared with us," Orencas stated before adding that "there were parallel inquiries going on, but without a doubt, the Daily Mail were of great assistance."
Armenian authorities detained Betro and extradited her to the U.K. to face trial.
On Tuesday, jurors convicted Betro of conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol with intent to cause fear of violence, and illegally importing ammunition.
Betro is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
According to GB News, Specialist Prosecutor Hannah Sidaway stated, "This prosecution is a culmination of years of hard work doggedly pursuing Aimee Betro across countries and borders while she remained relentless in her bid to escape justice. Betro tried to kill a man in a Birmingham street at point-blank range. It is sheer luck that he managed to get away unscathed."
Meanwhile, Nazir and Aslam were arrested last year and convicted of conspiracy to murder.
Nazir was sentenced to 32 years in prison, and Aslam was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Walkling insisted that "revenge was the motive" for the assassination attempt, BBC News said in a separate story.
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A day after suspected would-be presidential assassin Ryan Wesley Routh refused to meet with his court-appointed defense attorney at a federal lockup in Miami, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon approved Routh’s motion to proceed to trial as a pro se defendant representing himself.
Routh, 59, of Greensboro, N.C., faces Sept. 8 jury selection in his trial on five federal counts charging him with aiming a sniper rifle through a fence and trying to kill President Donald J. Trump on Sept. 15, 2024, at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf resort.
‘The attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken.’
Routh wrote a letter to Judge Cannon, entered on the court docket July 11, complaining bitterly about his federal public defenders and stating that it’s “best I walk alone.” The judge held Faretta hearings on July 10 and July 24 before ruling in an eight-page order that Routh can proceed as his own attorney.
The judge ordered federal public defenders Kristy Militello and Renee Sihvola to serve on the case as standby counsel.
Militello filed a motion with the court to withdraw from the case after she said Routh repeatedly refused to meet with her for their scheduled July 22 consultation at the Federal Correctional Institution-Miami.
“While undersigned counsel was on the train to Miami, BOP [Bureau of Prisons] legal staff emailed to advise that Mr. Routh refused our scheduled, in-person legal visit,” Militello wrote. “Undersigned counsel continued our trip to the detention center in Miami and upon arrival asked BOP staff to inform Mr. Routh that his counsel was present, in person, and wished to meet with him.”
“Mr. Routh has now refused six attempts from members of our office/the defense team to meet with Mr. Routh,” Militello wrote. “As a result, undersigned counsel submits that the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken. It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand.”
Judge Cannon issued a four-page order warning Routh that he will be required to follow Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, and local rules for the federal Southern District of Florida.
“A pro-se defendant bears responsibility for actively preparing the case for trial and exercising control over his defense, and must obtain any essential discovery, file all necessary pleadings and motions, and comply with all scheduling orders and Court instructions,” Judge Cannon wrote.
The judge warned that “any vexatious, obstructionist, or obstreperous behavior or other misconduct may result in an order revoking defendant’s pro-se status, along with any other sanctions the court deems appropriate.”
RELATED: Ryan Routh's former employee pleads guilty to helping arm Trump's alleged would-be assassin
Federal prosecutors filed a motion in limine on July 8 expressing concern that Routh sought to “turn this trial into a circus.” The government seeks to limit how the defense can proceed in accordance with standard rules of evidence, especially Routh’s expected attempt to litigate his character before trial begins.
Prosecutors called out Routh’s “odd claim” that the government has not identified “specific pieces of evidence at issue.”
“As outlined below,” prosecutors wrote in a July 24 filing, “to the best of our ability lacking a defense exhibit list, we have done so. And our arguments are more persuasive in light of the defendant’s decision to represent himself — this court has a responsibility to ensure that trial does not become a circus and that the jury is not burdened and distracted by plainly inadmissible evidence.”
Prosecutors said the defense has “refused to inform the court of matters as simple as whether Routh was at the golf course on September 15, 2024.”
The FBI said Routh set up a sniper’s lair just outside the fence of the Trump International Golf Club and lay in wait for nearly 12 hours with a “military-grade” SKS 7.62x39-caliber rifle aimed toward the sixth green. President Trump was playing the fifth fairway on Sept. 15 when a Secret Service agent doing an advance sweep saw a rifle poking through the chain-link fence. The agent opened fire after determining that the rifle was pointed at him.
Routh fled the area at 1:31 p.m. without taking a shot at President Trump, the FBI said. He reportedly took off north in a Nissan SUV with stolen plates on Interstate 95. Routh was stopped and arrested by officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office at 2:14 p.m.
This attempted assassination was the second attempt on President Trump’s life in a little more than two months.
Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks somehow got onto a slightly pitched roof of a building overlooking the Butler County Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania on July 13 and fired eight rifle shots at the stage of a Trump rally, striking Trump in the right ear, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounding David Dutch and James Copenhaver. A Secret Service counter-sniper shot and killed Crooks.
Both cases led to a flurry of investigations that savaged the Secret Service for alleged inept communication, failure to share credible threat information, and negligence in failing to staff the Butler event with counter-surveillance teams and drones capable of shooting down potential aerial threats aimed at the president.
The Secret Service was also pilloried for failure to adequately screen the Trump golf club in West Palm Beach, such as patrolling the perimeter with agents or overhead drones. The Secret Service failures at the time led to calls for then-candidate Trump to replace his Secret Service detail with private armed security.
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Charlie Kirk — a generational voice of the conservative movement — was assassinated Wednesday while hosting one of his famous campus discussion events. We still don’t know the identity of the shooter, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know who is responsible. Radical leftists bear great blame for engaging in inflammatory rhetoric that can only […]
Sen. Ron Johnson has issued a subpoena to FBI Director Kash Patel for the agency's records on the shooter and the shooting.
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