Mother of Second Suspect in Charlie Kirk Shooting Speaks Out

The right-wing activist was shot and killed while hosting an event on the Utah Valley University campus. The FBI has since released the second wrongly accused man.

The suspect arrested in connection with Charlie Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University has been released after the FBI announced it had detained the wrong person for a second time, while the culprit remains on the run.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the "subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement," on X Wednesday evening, just over an hour after he had revealed that "the subject of the horrific shooting" had been arrested.

Police had initially apprehended — and eventually released — an older man who had been seen in videos on social media being escorted following the fatal shooting. They identified the second suspect through campus security footage.

The real shooter is believed to have fired a single shot from the rooftop of a building about 200 yards across the quad from where Kirk was seated under a pop-up tent. The mother of the second wrongly-accused suspect described her son as a loyal listener of Kirk.

He had been standing about 25 yards away from the MAGA activist when the shot was fired. "He's super shaken," the suspect's mother told the New York Post, adding that she had spoken to him following the chaos that ensued and did not know he had been arrested.

"He's a great kid … I have a picture of him. He's like 25 feet from Charlie on the other side that he was shot. He sent us a video. He was attending like any other college kid," she said.

Kirk was fatally shot in the neck at around 12:20 p.m. local time on Wednesday, September 10, while speaking at an event on the south campus of Utah Valley University. In the wake of his sudden death, he leaves behind his wife, Erika, and their two children.