A former prosecutor from Michigan faced online criticism for implying that Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was accountable for his own assassination on Wednesday due to his pro-Second Amendment beliefs.
Carol Siemon, who resigned in 2022 after serving as Ingham County’s top prosecutor—covering most of Lansing, Michigan’s capital—mocked Kirk’s steadfast support of gun rights.
On the platform X, Siemon wrote, “I’m terribly sorry when anyone is shot, but I’m sure he doesn’t mind because he has claimed that shootings and gun deaths are a price he’s willing to pay for almost unrestricted access to firearms. I back sensible firearm regulations, and perhaps, so will he.”
Siemon, who did not respond to a request for comment, appears to have deleted her account.
Kirk, who was 31, was shot dead on Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The conservative activist, a father of two young children, was in the midst of leading his American Comeback Tour and was addressing questions from both supporters and critics at the time.
He commented that it was ironic, considering her history as a prosecutor who declined to prosecute gun-related crimes, contributing to Lansing becoming one of the nation’s most perilous cities during her tenure.
Siemon, who was elected as the first female prosecutor of the county in 2016, later faced criticism for her lenient approach to crime, as well as conflicts with law enforcement and the judicial system.
Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk is seen onstage at the Fiserv Forum during preparations for the Republican National Convention on July 14, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In 2019, she allowed Anthony McRae, later responsible for the 2023 Michigan State University mass shooting that left three dead and five injured, to plead a felony gun charge down to a misdemeanor.
That decision meant McRae avoided jail time and kept his ability to purchase firearms.
In 2022, Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina rejected a plea deal Siemon struck for convicted murderer Kiernan Brown, accusing the prosecutor of “trying to be creative to get around the law” and publicly calling for her resignation.
