FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that a suspect taken into custody following the fatal shooting of US conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has been released after being interrogated.
"The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement," Patel wrote on the US social media company X’s platform. "Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency.”
The Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the FBI are co-leading the investigation in unison with the Utah County Attorney’s Office, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and local police departments.
Additional details were not immediately available, but earlier, officials at a press conference described the individual in custody as a "person of interest."
"We have a person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing, but I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this: We will find you, we will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters.
Pressed by a reporter on Patel's assertion that a suspect was apprehended, Cox maintained: "We have a person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now."
In a statement released by the Utah DPS hours later, the initially apprehended suspect was named as George Zinn.
However, Zinn was quickly charged with obstruction and released. A second suspect, Zachariah Qureshi, was taken into custody and also released after being interrogated by law enforcement.
”There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” Utah DPS’s statement noted, adding that a manhunt was ongoing.
Cox maintained, however, that Kirk's murder was a "political assassination." He said that based on information that has been gathered so far, there is no indication that another person was involved in the shooting.
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the only information that authorities have on the suspect was taken from closed-circuit television camera feeds and cautioned that the quality of the footage is subpar.
"We do have that. We're analyzing it, but it is security camera footage, so you can kind of guess what the quality of that is," he said. "We do know (the suspect was) dressed in all dark clothing, but we don't have a much better description other than that."
Asked if the person in custody matches the person seen in the footage, Mason said "that's what we're trying to decide right now."
The Utah DPS report said that in the current stage of the investigation, the shooting is believed to be a targeted attack, where the shooter fired from the roof of a building down to the location of the public event in the student courtyard.
However, “any additional clarifications cannot be provided to protect the integrity of our investigation,” the statement said.
Kirk was fatally shot during a university event in the western state of Utah on Wednesday.
Footage posted on social media appears to depict Kirk sitting under a canopy addressing hundreds of assembled students at Utah Valley University when a sound like a gunshot rings out, Kirk recoils, and students began fleeing en masse.
A separate video taken from close to where Kirk was speaking appears to show a bullet striking Kirk's neck, followed by sudden, massive blood loss. He was taken to Timpanogos Regional Hospital and hours later was pronounced dead.
The Utah Valley University Police Department had six officers working to secure the event in addition to Kirk’s own security detail that constantly travels with him.
Approximately 3,000 people attended the event in the university quad, an outdoor bowl courtyard on campus for events.
US President Donald Trump confirmed that Kirk died after being shot, saying he "is no longer with us."
"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie," he wrote on his Truth Social social media platform. "He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us."
Trump ordered flags across the nation to be lowered to half-staff to honor the political commentator.
Kirk, 31, co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012. The nonprofit has worked to mobilize conservative students on high school and college campuses. Its stated mission is to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”
The group, where Kirk served as executive director, became a key player in Republican politics, regularly hosting large conferences and drawing high-profile figures from Trump’s circle. Kirk also emerged as a key voice in Trump’s signature MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
Following his assassination, Turning Point USA released a statement on X asking people to respect the privacy and dignity of Kirk’s family, adding: “May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie.”
Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Kirk left college to focus on full-time political activism. He built a large following through campus events, social media and The Charlie Kirk Show, a popular talk show and podcast.
He was known for confrontational campus debates, including his “prove me wrong” sessions, as part of the “American Comeback Tour,” where audience members debate the activist in a public setting. Wednesday’s shooting at Utah Valley University occurred during one of these events.
