A neuropsychologist who analyzed widely shared footage of Charlie Kirk’s killing says the conservative activist almost certainly did not realize he had been shot, concluding that he lost consciousness “for no more than four-tenths of a second after impact” from a single round that caused catastrophic neck injuries. In a YouTube analysis referenced by multiple outlets, Derek Van Schaik said the bullet appeared to rupture a carotid artery and jugular vein, producing an immediate blackout. “When someone suffers a catastrophic wound to the neck that destroys a carotid artery and jugular vein, the mind only has a fleeting window to possibly register what happened,” he said. “However, in Charlie’s case, and after analyzing the footage with a digital timer, he was conscious for no more than four-tenths of a second after impact. Far too fast for his brain to even register what had happened to him.” He added that death was “essentially instant,” with “no panic, no dread, no realization that he was about to die,” and concluded: “He absolutely did not know he was shot.”
Van Schaik’s assessment has circulated as prosecutors in Utah advance a capital case against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is accused of firing a single rifle round from a rooftop roughly 200 yards from Kirk’s lectern at Utah Valley University (UVU) on 10 September. Authorities say the shot struck the 31-year-old in the neck as he sat under a canopy taking questions from students. The incident triggered a campus lockdown and a multiday manhunt that ended after relatives recognized images distributed by investigators and helped arrange Robinson’s surrender, according to charging documents and officials’ briefings. Prosecutors have filed seven felony counts, including aggravated murder, and have formally noticed their intent to seek the death penalty.
The neuropsychologist’s conclusion centers on what the video appears to show at the moment of impact and on the physiology of abrupt cerebral hypoperfusion when both a carotid artery and jugular vein are catastrophically damaged. In his commentary, Van Schaik said he timed Kirk’s immediate movements against the moment of the strike and found a sub-half-second window before loss of consciousness, too brief for the brain to convert raw nociceptive signals into the conscious perception of pain. “Only an abrupt blackout,” he said. The analysis, posted over the weekend and amplified on Monday and Tuesday by UK-based outlets that summarized his findings, has been widely shared alongside warnings about the disturbing nature of the footage.
A separate forensics perspective has described the wound as unsurvivable even with immediate specialist care nearby. Joseph Scott Morgan, a distinguished scholar of applied forensics at Jacksonville State University, told Birmingham ABC affiliate WBMA that the neck injury was so devastating that even a team of elite vascular surgeons at the scene would not have altered the outcome. “I felt as though that if we had a team of the finest UAB vascular surgeons standing there adjacent to him, ready to go, I think this was an unsurvivable injury he sustained,” Morgan said, adding that the single round posed risk to “hundreds of people” seated beyond the stage line as it traversed the plaza.