Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Hyoung Chang
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Crime, Colorado, Gun Crime
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Crime, Colorado, Gun Crime
A school shooting took place around the same time Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
On September 10, at approximately 12:20pm, a single shot rang out across the Sorensen Centre courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.
Kirk, 31, was at the university for a debate and was sitting in front of a crowd of people when a bullet appeared to hit his neck. The harrowing incident was caught on camera, and screams were heard in the moments that followed Kirk's shooting.
Sadly, the father-of-two didn't survive the ordeal.
Advert
The FBI have since located a rifle believed to have been used by the shooter, who is still at large at the time of writing.
FBI special agent in charge Robert Bohls said that the gun was a high-powered bolt-action rifle and they believe that it is 'the weapon that was used in yesterday's shooting'.
Just ten minutes after Kirk was reportedly shot, a student at Evergreen High School in Colorado, Denver, opened fire on fellow school-goers.
Shots were fired both inside and outside the school building, and law enforcement officers who responded found the shooter within five minutes of arriving, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said.
According to Kelley, more than 100 police officers from around the Denver area rushed to the school to try to help as over 900 students remained on lockdown.
None of the law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting fired any shots, authorities said.
The shooter, a male, shot two students before proceeding to turn the gun on himself. He was rushed to hospital for urgent medical attention, but later died of self-inflicted wounds, police said.
In an update on the shooter, police said in a social media statement: "The male suspect responsible for the shootings at Evergreen High School today has died from his self-inflicted injuries."
The other two wounded students, who have not been identified, were transported to hospital as well.
A spokesperson for St. Anthony’s Hospital (where they were taken to) said that one of the wounded student's is in a stable condition but the other is in a critical state, CNN reported.
The authorities are working to get a search warrant for the suspect's home. Investigators are also looking to interview students who witnessed the harrowing ordeal that marked the 47th school shooting in the US this year.
Reacting online to there being two high-profile shootings in one day, one person penned on Twitter: "We interrupt the shooting at a college to bring you news of a shooting at a high school. This is America."
"Gun violence is at an all time high," noted another, while a third said: "America has to be the worst place to live in... First Charlie Kirk, and now this."
If you or someone you know has been affected by gun violence, please find more information and support via Survivors Empowered on their website.