OREM, Utah (AP) — A new report on Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year says his Turning Point USA organization insisted he speak outdoors despite security concerns, while the university where he was killed didn’t properly assess dangers like the possibility of a rooftop shooter.
Those were among the key findings in an after-action report released Friday by Utah Valley University. The external, independent review assessed security procedures for the conservative
firebrand’s Sept. 10, 2025, talk on the Orem campus, the university said. Investigators examined planning conversations between Turning Point and university officials, and the university’s response to the shooting.
The university did not conduct a formal security assessment, did not create a written event action plan and deferred critical decision making to Turning Point USA, the report said.
According to the report, a Turning Point representative insisted at an August 2025 planning meeting that Kirk speak at a courtyard on campus because he had been there previously and the organization was familiar with the location. Some university officials expressed reservations about holding the event in an outdoor space with tall buildings around, but ultimately allowed the event to proceed.
“In our assessment, those decisions were consequential,” the report said.
The outdoor location “created significant protective operations considerations,” the report said, but the planning process failed to include a documented line-of-sight assessment, pre-event briefing or walk-through with security stakeholders. Nor was there clear coordination with the speaker’s private security team and external law enforcement partners, the report said.
