By Nathan Frandino and Jimmy Urquhart
PROVO, Utah, July 6 (Reuters) – A police officer at the university where prominent conservative U.S. activist Charlie Kirk was killed last year testified on Monday he saw what looked like a “sniper pad” atop the building from which the fatal shot was fired, as prosecutors began laying out their case that a Utah man should stand trial for the crime.
In a packed courtroom in Provo, Utah, Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk sat during Monday’s preliminary hearing just a few feet away from Tyler Robinson, the man accused of driving four hours from his Utah town of Washington to kill Kirk, 31, on September 10. Members of Robinson’s family also were present. Robinson, wearing a gray jacket, sat between his lawyers, taking notes.
Kirk, a co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was credited with energizing many young voters behind Donald Trump in his campaign to regain the presidency in the 2024 U.S. election. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. attended the hearing, media reported, and right-wing activist Jack Posobiec was seen entering the courthouse.
During the week-long proceedings, state prosecutors are seeking to convince District Court Judge Tony Graf that probable cause exists to believe that Robinson, 23, fired the single shot that killed Kirk in front of thousands of people in Orem, Utah. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty for Robinson, who was studying to be an electrician.
Kirk was shot while appearing at Utah Valley University, 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City, for one of his campus debates that drew crowds and gave him national prominence.
Chris Bagley, who at the time was an officer with the university’s police force on duty the day of the killing, said he saw Kirk shot, and described the ensuing chaos.
“He was answering a question, and then I heard a shot fired,” Bagley testified as the first prosecution witness. “Everybody started getting up and starting to run in a sort of chaotic, panic situation.”
Bagley said he saw Kirk slump to the left after the gunshot.
An initial report, which turned out to be mistaken, said a suspect had been taken into custody, Bagley said.
Bagley said he ran to a campus building from which he believed the shot came, and went up four flights of stairs to the roof. There, Bagley said, he found a screwdriver and disturbances in the gravel, photographs of which were entered into evidence. Bagley said the depressions in the gravel were apparently made by elbows, knees and feet.
“To me, it looks like a sniper pad,” Bagley said.
Bagley said campus police video showed a person on the roof getting into position to shoot Kirk, taking a shot, then running to the northeast side of the building. The person dropped off the roof into grass below and escaped, Bagley said.
In cross-examination, Robinson’s lawyer Kathryn Nester asked Bagley about security at the event. Bagley said six campus police officers were on duty, together with Kirk’s security detail, though there were no metal detector checks for firearms. Bagley said he saw an empty pistol holster on the ground at the top of the courtyard where Kirk was shot, but it was neither recovered as evidence nor checked for fingerprints.
Bagley now works for a different police department.
At one point, the judge watched a video of the moment Kirk was shot on a monitor positioned so that the courtroom camera could not capture it. The prosecution said the video was too graphic to be made public.
If the judge finds probable cause, Robinson would enter a plea at an arraignment that could take place the same day, and the case would be set for trial at a later date. He faces seven criminal charges including aggravated murder.
Kirk’s killing, captured in cellphone video that spread widely on social media, is among a series of attacks targeting U.S. political figures in recent years that have fueled debate over political violence in a deeply polarized country. Kirk’s organization became an influential force in Republican politics.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Donna Bryson, Cynthia Osterman, David Gregorio and Will Dunham)
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