Utah Valley University mourns Charlie Kirk as campus reopens after assassination: ‘Extremely traumatic’

OREM, Utah – While a large American flag drapes where conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Utah Valley University’s campus, students told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that campus feels “scary” and “somber.”

“This is somewhere that we go to further our lives, and it could also be the place where it ends our lives,” said James Whitney, a UVU student who told Fox News Digital that authorities “found the gun in my parents’ backyard.” 

According to suspect Tyler Robinson’s charging documents, investigators found a “bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel” in a wooded area on the northeast end of campus, but authorities have not confirmed the exact location. 

One week after Kirk was shot while taking questions from UVU students, classes on the Orem campus resumed Wednesday. As students return to campus to pay their respects to Kirk and go back to class, many are still processing what they describe as an “extremely traumatic” incident. 

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Afton Miller, a UVU student who said she was 5 to 10 feet away from Kirk when he was shot, said to Fox News Digital as she was returning to the assassination site for the first time: “No one should ever be able to say I’ve witnessed a school shooting, let alone the assassination of one of your greatest heroes.”

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed while speaking to UVU students last Wednesday, Sept. 10. After a 33-hour manhunt, 22-year-old Robinson was arrested. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray outlined the formal charges against Robinson during a press conference on Tuesday, which was followed by the suspect’s first court appearance. 

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A memorial that began in the days following the shooting with sparse bouquets and a few signs honoring Kirk outside campus has now filled an entire patch of grass outside campus. And inside campus, just steps from where Kirk was shot, more tributes have grown by the day as students and locals walk solemnly through the courtyard to pay their respects. 

UVU student Jessie Ball told Fox News Digital that she has witnessed her friends and classmates, including those who are atheists, return to prayer in the days following the assassination. UVU is hosting a campus and community-wide vigil on Friday to “come together in remembering, healing, and reaffirming shared values.”

“A lot of people like myself, who are kind of afraid of speaking up, we’ve gotten over that a little because we think that his messages were important to hear,” Ball said of Kirk as she held back tears. 

Ryder Warner, a UVU student who was on campus when Kirk was shot, said “just being on campus is hard for everybody.”

“I think it’s especially hard because some people were cheering, and it just really brings your mood down,” he said. “You lose confidence in this country.”

“I don’t think anybody should be killed over their opinion,” Warner added. 

When asked his opinion of Kirk’s politics, a source of much debate since last Wednesday, Whitney told Fox News Digital that he tries to stay out of politics because “this is usually what ends up happening.”

He said he opts to keep his political views to himself because political violence is “becoming normalized,” and when people don’t agree, “they try to take it out on everybody else.”

Trae Stevens, who grew up in Spanish Fork, which is about a one-hour drive south of campus, visited on Tuesday to pay his respects, because “to see that this could happen so close to home is really scary.”

“Like Charlie said, silence creates violence,” Stevens said. “I think it’s important to address emotions before we address dialogue and policies because, ultimately, that’s what drives things like this — emotions.” 

Miller, who said Kirk was one of her heroes, said that through this tragedy, “we have to get closer to God and each other.”

“There’s a reason we were brought to this point, and there’s a reason we’re going to continue forward,” she said.