Charlie Kirks family alleges stunning failures by Utah officials led to his shooting

Charlie Kirk’s family has accused the Utah Valley University and state officials of “stunning failures and reckless decisions” that they say led to the conservative activist’s 2025 assassination during a campus event.

In a legal notice, lawyers for the family say Kirk’s Turning Point USA event at the university campus was not properly secured or monitored, making him an easy target.

Kirk, 31, was speaking to a crowd of thousands on the university campus, when he was shot and killed by a gunman positioned on a roof.

The university said it was aware of the claim but did not comment further on the allegations, according to a statement shared with the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

“We are aware of the notice of claim. UVU addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes, ” the university said in its statement. “Our focus remains on supporting our campus community.”

The legal notice was filed on 9 September, a day ahead of the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s death, and is typically a precursor to a lawsuit.

It names Utah Valley University, local police, the state of Utah, and other university officials as parties who were allegedly aware of the threats against Kirk and did not take steps to protect him.

“Through a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions, the UVU Parties created a foreseeable danger to Charlie,” the notice alleges.

“Placing a politically controversial figure like Charlie Kirk in an outdoor event in the quad surrounded by tall buildings and other elevated observation platforms is accurately described as walking him into a fishbowl,” it says.

Kirk’s family alleges the university failed to conduct a meaningful security assessment ahead of the event, failed to assign enough police officers, and did not have an ambulance available on site.

The family also alleges the university ignored warnings about securing the rooftops surrounding the courtyard where Kirk was speaking.

“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump, Charlie Kirk’s close friend and political ally, by a rooftop shooter the previous year,” the family’s attorney D Loren Washburn wrote in the court filing.

Tyler Robinson, a 23-year-old man from Utah, who has been accused of shooting Kirk from a roof, is due to appear in court next month to hear the date of his trial.

Robinson denies aggravated murder, a capital offence in the state, as well as six other charges.

Prosecutors have called for the death penalty.