Security Expert Advises Political Commentators to Steer Clear of Outdoor Venues Following Charlie Kirk’s Passing

Following the deadly shooting of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, there are concerns about outdoor political events.

Kirk, the creator of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth activist organization, was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, as reported by President Donald Trump.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the fatal shooting a “political assassination.”

READ MORE: Charlie Kirk fatally shot while visiting Utah university in ‘political assassination,’ governor says

Kirk held no official position in the Republican Party or the Trump administration, but he was a strong supporter.

Eyewitness News spoke to a retired FBI agent, who issued a warning to political commentators.

Although threats against politicians are not uncommon, experts note that Wednesday’s shooting is unusual. Kirk was neither an elected official, nor did he possess legislative authority or the ability to enact executive orders. Instead, he was known as an activist and commentator.

This incident occurs amid longstanding FBI warnings about a period with elevated threats. For instance, just last year, after candidate Trump was shot in Pennsylvania, the FBI issued a statement highlighting “an increase in threats of violence targeting government officials, houses of worship, schools, and medical facilities,” among others.

Former FBI agent Bobby Chacon from the Los Angeles Field Office advises against public open-air appearances for elected officials or political activists given the current climate.

“If ensuring your complete safety was my responsibility, that would be my recommendation, although I regret having to say it,” Chacon explained. “Certainly not in an open forum like the locations where Trump was shot in Pennsylvania or where Charlie Kirk was killed today.”

“Obviously, it was a political assassination. It looked like it was from a high-powered long gun, probably from a position of height in a sniper position,” said Michael Downing, a retired deputy chief with the Los Angeles Police Department and the chief security officer for Oakview Group. “In an environment like that, you have an open area. You have a security team that’s around you, inside a bike rail, but the rest of the campus is very porous. You have high ground all around you, and as I understand it, even if it was a ticketed event, they weren’t checking tickets, so it’s a really difficult event to secure.”

Like many, Downing worries about where we go from here, not only as far as security is concerned for these kinds of events, but for the nation as a whole.

“I know this isn’t a national security event, but it is a political event. The country is very divided right now, and violence in politics is the poison that corrodes democracy, and no matter who is the target, or what ideology they represent, it’s something we have to really concern ourselves with,” Downing said. “Security professionals need to step up and make sure they go back to the basics, they understand what threat assessments are, they know how to do them, first of all, and then they know how to execute on those threat assessments to make sure these types of venues are absolutely safe.”

Just last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said U.S. Capitol police looked into 9,000 threats made against members of Congress. So far this year, there’s already been 14,000 threats that Capitol police have had to look into.

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