People paid respects to the far-right activist and Trump ally as they pondered his divisive legacy
Charlie Kirk shooting – follow the latest updates
Orem, Utah, a sleepy suburb of roughly 100,000 people at the feet of the Wasatch mountains, never asked for the national spotlight.
But in the wake of the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk in front of a packed audience at a university in the heart of town, the weight of the nation’s gaze was inescapable. A forest of American flags planted atop a highway interpass next to Utah Valley University (UVU), where Kirk was shot. A campus on lockdown and makeshift memorials. The ubiquitous presence of local cops and FBI agents.
With the shock of Kirk’s death fresh and a manhunt for the shooter still under way, many in the community are coming to terms with the magnitude of what happened here, and are split on the legacy Kirk leaves behind.
