Authorities say an older man briefly detained in the frantic hours after Charlie Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University was questioned and released without charges, underscoring how a series of early, conflicting statements fueled public speculation about whether the gunman had been caught. Officials have not identified the detainee, have not alleged that he fired the fatal round, and have cautioned that the person who killed the 31-year-old activist remains at large. Investigators said the man was one of multiple people contacted as police worked parallel leads on and around the Orem campus in the minutes and hours after a single shot cut through an outdoor event and sent thousands of attendees scrambling for cover.
The detention of the older man, described by witnesses and initial reports as wearing a blue shirt, became a flashpoint because it coincided with a string of official messages that pointed in different directions. Utah’s governor told reporters Wednesday afternoon that a “person of interest” was in custody. Shortly afterward, the university posted an alert stating a suspect was in custody. Later, federal officials clarified that a person had been detained and questioned but was then released. State authorities subsequently walked back the earlier characterizations, saying no suspect was in custody and urging patience as teams reconciled dispatch logs, interviews and video evidence. The sequence left space for rumors to harden online that an elderly shooter had been arrested on site, a claim investigators say is not supported by the case file.
What is known is narrow but consistent. Police believe the shot that killed Kirk was fired from an elevated position with a clear sightline to the tented stage set up in a campus courtyard for his American Comeback Tour appearance. Video compiled from attendee phones shows officers converging on the stage while other units move toward the upper floors and roofline of the adjacent Losee Center. A separate clip recorded from the ground appears to show a figure in dark clothing running across that roof moments after the gunshot. Law enforcement officials have said publicly that the working hypothesis is a rooftop firing position; they have not said the shooter was apprehended and have not released a name. Here is another video of George Zinn the man who allegedly shot Charlie Kirk! pic.twitter.com/3UDJi6dER8 — thatstarwarsgirl (@thatstarwarsgrl) September 10, 2025
The older man’s brief custody status is part of a broader investigative triage in the opening phase of a major incident. With a crowded scene, multiple vantage points and a single report of gunfire, patrol and tactical officers moved to secure likely firing positions, isolate potential witnesses and separate individuals whose behavior or clothing matched fragments of the earliest descriptions. People were detained for questioning at different locations. In such circumstances it is not unusual for agencies to transmit partial information—sometimes through public-facing alerts—that later turns out to be incomplete. In this case, officials said, the pressure to inform the public quickly outpaced the ability to verify whether anyone contacted by police was actually a suspect.