<p>The Utah university where Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September released a report on Thursday examining the security shortcomings prior to Kirk’s murder.</p>
<p>The independent security review concluded that employees of Utah Valley University did not “act in bad faith or in willful and wanton disregard” before the incident, but identified several security deficiencies leading up to the assassination on September 10, 2025.</p>
<p>“With the benefit of hindsight, however, the Project Team identified several actions, omissions, circumstances, and institutional practices that warrant attention as UVU considers how to strengthen the safety and security of campus events in the future,” the 158-page review states.</p>
<p>The review indicated that the university failed to create a written security assessment or an action plan for the Turning Point USA event on September 10. It noted that Turning Point insisted on the outdoor courtyard location for Kirk’s event due to his familiarity with the area, and that the university permitted the event to take place outdoors without completing necessary documented measures such as an outdoor line-of-sight assessment, a pre-event security briefing, or a security walk-through.</p>
<p>Regarding the campus security’s live cameras and video footage, the review found they were “used more effectively as a post-incident investigative resource than as a real-time situational awareness tool.” The review also addressed the university’s intelligence gathering, suggesting that utilizing more open-source intelligence resources could “help identify warning behaviors, grievances, fixation, leakage, stalking, escalation, target focus, prior violence, affiliations, and other information relevant to prevention and intervention.”</p>
<p>The report also pointed out security deficiencies related to the event’s ticketing, as the university allowed Turning Point to manage the ticketing process for the outdoor courtyard location. The report described these decisions as “consequential.”</p>
<p>“The selected location presented greater open-access, crowd-management, high-ground vulnerabilities, and line-of-sight challenges than a more controlled venue,” the report stated. “In addition, allowing the outside organizer to retain control over ticketing limited UVU’s ability to obtain reliable attendance projections, monitor crowd-growth expectations, and align staffing and security resources with anticipated attendance.”</p>
<p>Kirk’s accused killer, 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, who has pleaded not guilty, is set to stand trial. Robinson was not a student at UVU. However, Kirk’s family has initiated steps toward filing a lawsuit against the state of Utah and UVU over the security shortcomings leading up to the event.</p>
<p>In a statement regarding the family’s notice of claim to the state and university, the family’s attorney, Brett Parkinson, stated that the assassination was “entirely preventable.”</p>
<p>“His murder was entirely preventable and, in fact, would not have happened had the State of Utah and UVU followed through on their stated security promises, which included protecting the rooftops surrounding the quad where Charlie was speaking,” Parkinson said.</p>
<p>In response to the Kirk family’s notice, Sharon Turner, senior director of communications for UVU, told the Washington Examiner, “We are aware of the notice of claim. UVU addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes. Our focus remains on supporting our campus community.”</p>