Charlie Kirk, a conservative American activist and influential ally of United States President Donald Trump, has been shot dead at a university event in Utah in an apparent targeted assassination.
Trump announced the death of Kirk, the 31-year-old cofounder of activist youth group Turning Point USA, in a social media post on Wednesday.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said later that he had ordered flags across the US to be lowered to half-mast until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
Utah authorities said Kirk was killed with a single shot in what is believed to be a targeted attack.
Police are still looking for the killer.
Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reports from Washington, DC.
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