Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - CONTINUING COVERAGE: Charlie Kirk Murdered in Front of College Audience

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Charlie Kirk is fatally shot while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. Eyewitnesses describe chaos as the crowd realized what happened. Crime Stories Investigative Reporter Dave Mack, Joseph Scott Morgan, professor at Jacksonville State University,  and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns Investigate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. In a shocking turn of events, Charlie Kirk is dead. The conservative fire brand was speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, when a shot rang out. Horrific footage of the incident shared on social media within minutes showed Charlie Kirk's neck violently snapping back after the show. shot rang out. And now the announcement from Turning Point. Charlie Kirk is dead. At Utah University, in an explosive event that was being held for students and conservatives on

campus, as Charlie Kirk is welcoming everybody there with a quick Q&A, one shot rings out and it hits him in the neck. Joseph Scott Morgan, I have to ask you, you've seen the video, you've seen the shot that appears to hit Charlie Kirk. And it looked, I saw the front of his shirt bunch up a little bit, and I saw his arms go up. It reminded me of JFK in Dallas. What are we looking at right now with the Charlie Kirk shooting? Estimates are that this shot took place almost a range of approximating 200 yards away. So that means that someone would have had to have gone to the trouble of zeroing a weapon.

I imagine this is a long arm and probably scoped at a 200-yard range. and it was all all witnesses are reporting that all they heard was a single shot that was fired and the fact that it was the target area is such a small area that gives you an idea of the precision Kendall crowns have you had a chance to see the video of the actual shooting yet all i've heard is a description so far that he like you just said he reached up to his neck and blood was starting to gush out of his neck so that to me means some pretty vital structures are hit okay now that's what i was kind of after i appreciate you saying that because that's my question right now guys a shot to the neck um there's a lot going in there and joe

i know you and i've had talks about this in the past about what happens in see when you're in the cervical area of the neck it's referred to as c c1 through what c7 and when you're yeah c5 and below you can survive that a lot of the time depending on where exactly you hit but above C-5, that's a not survivable. Is that right? You know, your chances are getting slimmer and slimmer the further up you travel up to spinal column. And one of the things that really stood out to me is this drawing of the arms up with the clenching of the thumbs, which, you know, many times I think that anybody that watches NFL football or college football, you see these players that have concussions, that have neuro-problem

as a result of getting their cage rattle, that sort of thing. You know, again, we don't have definitive diagnostic evidence of this, but, you know, you're just visualizing this. You kind of get a sense that something neurologically is going on here, and he's shot in the neck. I mean, let's face it, you know, we don't know how extensive that is, yeah. Charlie Cook's a young man. He's 32 years old.

He started turning point back in 2011, I believe. So he's been after this since he was a very young man. He's married. He's got a couple of children. And I think the thing that gets me the most is that Charlie Kirk is going on college campuses. And right before this happened, he was, he actually posted a video on X of him throwing out hats, turning point hats. And the crowd was going crazy. But it was set up so that there was one group of people that was up close. Then there was like a break of people like an aisleway. And then another group of people behind that. There is security all around. And he was underage. intent where he was actually beginning to speak. And as I said, this is before he actually begins his actual speech. He's actually doing a quick Q&A. It's about two minutes in when the shot was fired. You saw the shot. You saw his, I saw his shirt puff out. That's what I saw in that video. Did you guys see the same thing, Joe? Well, for me, my focus really wasn't on the shirt, on the shirt itself. it was literally watching his hands and seeing his response he kind of listed to his left and fell out of the chair and it was it was really quick the movement of shirt would not surprise me because there's kind of a concussive element that comes along with a round striking many times and that kind of reverence that might be part of it you've seen many injuries like this what would you first look at when you're taking a look at an injury like charlie korek appears

have a shot to the neck what do you expect to find what do you expect to see so with the the neck structures you have only a small amount of space with major structures running through you have the internal carotid artery the jugular vein and then you go more centralized it's your main stem bronchi or your windpipe that gets all the air in there and then immediately behind that is your cervical vertebrae one through seven like you were talking about earlier three four and five C, three, four, and five, keep the diaphragm alive. So if those, if it's anywhere in three, four, and five, you can't breathe anymore. If it's above three, four, and five, you're dead.

One and two, you're instantly dead. So six and seven, you might be a quadriplegic at that point. So really, if the shot is more centralized, it can hit some pretty major vascular structures. It can wipe out your ability to breathe, and it can instantly paralyze you or even kill you. now joe you mentioned distance of fire and possibly using a long rifle which we don't know yet we just know this is what we're hearing none of this is confirmed yeah but 200 yards away with a long rifle what kind of a rifle can shoot that far and that accurate well any any military grade weapon hunting rifle you know i i think that people to want to be if they wanted spot on accuracy would probably have a scoped weapon long arm if you know because if you if you think about an idea of someone firing actually a hand

a handheld weapon like a handgun the range of fire on those is not is not as robust as a long arm you know we we talk a lot about the the ballistic nature of rifled rounds and pistols are rifled however that longer barrel facilitates that retention of energy as this round travel down range, you're also going to have what's called drop with the round. The further down range it goes, the round begins, it's the nature of gravity, will pull that round down toward Earth. So you have to be able to adjust your fire. At about 200 yards, you'll get somewhat of a drop.

The idea that somebody using an iron site from that range and being that exact, they would have to be one hell of a shot in order to do that. My suspicion is it might be a scoped weapon at that kind of range. Talking two football fields away, high velocity weapon, and you're dealing with somebody with the expertise to pull this off. And to be able to be cagey enough to be able to pull this weapon out and get a shot off without anybody seeing, that's another part of this that we've got to deal with too.

Right now we know that earlier this afternoon, Charlie Kirk was shot at a rally at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. It was about two minutes into his talk with students. They were doing a Q&A. And one shot rang out, not multiple shots, one shot. And as Joe Scott Morgan said, he's hearing about 200 yards away. Join us tomorrow with crime stories with Nancy Grace, where she'll keep you updated on what's happening with the shooting of Charlie Kirk today in Utah.

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