Charlie Kirk shooting had 'hallmarks' of a 'professional assassination': experts

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FILE PHOTO: Founder and president of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/File Photo

On Wednesday afternoon, September 10, U.S. politics was rocked by the shooting of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk — founder of the far-right youth group Turning Point USA and a prominent figure in the MAGA movement — at an event in Utah. Police continued to investigate the killing the following day, and many questions remained unanswered.

According to security experts, the shooting had the elements of a professional assassination.

Newsweek's Theo Burman, in an article published on September 11, reports, "The prominent conservative activist, who was 31, was struck in the neck by a single gunshot as he delivered a speech to a large crowd on campus at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday. He collapsed and was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Analysts point to the firing of a single shot and a preestablished escape route as evidence that the shooting had been carefully planned."

Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan told Fox News' Jesse Watters that the killer likely planned the attack carefully.

According to Kaplan, "This assassination, different to the attack (on Donald Trump) back in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a very well-planned, very well-orchestrated plot that was put in motion days before. This individual had a plan of escape to elude detection of being out on a rooftop, and also being able to evade and elude law enforcement. This assassination of Charlie Kirk, to me, is indicative of a professional hit, and I'm not so sure we are quickly going to be able to apprehend this individual without some luck."

Kaplan described the shooter as someone who had "some level of sophistication" and appeared to "have mapped out exactly how this was going to go down."

Former New York State Sen. Michael Balboni, a Republican who served on a committee on homeland security matters, emphasized that the killing was professionally done during a Fox News appearance.

Balboni told Fox News, "One shot hitting the target from 200 meters away and then escaping without anybody seeing them — those are the hallmarks of a professional."

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