UVU-Commissioned Report Faults Both Turning Point USA and University Security Before Charlie Kirk's Assassination

Since the Kirk family filed its September 9 notice of claim accusing Utah Valley University of "reckless decisions" that left Charlie Kirk exposed to a rooftop sniper, UVU has released its own answer: an independent after-action report, made public Friday, September 25, that spreads blame across both the university and Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

The 158-page review was commissioned by UVU to examine security planning for Kirk's September 10, 2025 event on the Orem campus, where he was shot and killed while debating students in an outdoor courtyard. Investigators reviewed planning conversations between Turning Point and university officials along with the school's response to the shooting itself, according to the Associated Press, whose reporting ran on PBS, CNN and Police1.

TPUSA Pushed the Outdoor Venue

According to the report, a Turning Point representative insisted at an August 2025 planning meeting that Kirk speak in the campus courtyard because he'd used the space before and the organization knew it. Some UVU officials raised concerns about an open-air venue ringed by tall buildings, the report said, but the event proceeded there anyway.

"In our assessment, those decisions were consequential," the report stated, according to AP's account carried by CNN and PBS. The Guardian's reporting adds that UVU staff recommended TPUSA move the event to a more secure location weeks in advance, and that TPUSA "insisted upon" the outdoor courtyard despite the university's objections.

The report also says TPUSA never provided UVU with an estimated attendance figure, even though the organization controlled ticketing, according to the Salt Lake Tribune as cited by The Guardian.

UVU's Own Failures

The report is equally blunt about the university's shortcomings. UVU did not conduct a formal security assessment, did not create a written event action plan, and deferred critical security decisions to Turning Point USA, according to AP's reporting. There was no documented line-of-sight assessment for the surrounding rooftops, no formal pre-event walk-through with security stakeholders, and no clear coordination between campus police and Kirk's private security detail, the report found.

AP's review, also noted in the Police1 version of the story, found campus police staffing at UVU fell far below recommended levels for a school its size, and that officers never flew a drone to monitor rooftops during the event. That step has become standard practice at similar gatherings elsewhere.

A sniper firing from a rooftop more than 400 feet away killed Kirk during the talk, authorities have said. Fox News and the Daily Wire have previously reported that TPUSA staff flagged rooftop access near the Sorenson Student Center to UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long before the event, and that Long responded, "I got you covered." The new independent report does not dispute that exchange occurred but frames the broader planning failure as shared between both parties.

Family Says the Buck Stops With the University

Despite the report's shared-blame framing, Kirk family attorney Brett Parkinson maintained the university bears ultimate responsibility. "UVU hosted this event, and in doing so, assumed responsibility for the safety of all in attendance, including Charlie," Parkinson said, according to The Guardian. "The buck stopped with UVU leadership and law enforcement."

The family's September 9 notice of claim named the State of Utah, UVU, UVU's police department, Long, and then-university president Astrid Tuminez, according to Breitbart and the Daily Wire. That filing argued Kirk's death was "entirely preventable" given that campus police had been specifically warned about rooftop access and had promised to address it.

A reasonable read of TPUSA's position, based on the record in the filings themselves, is that the organization believed it had raised the rooftop concern directly to the police chief and received assurance it would be handled, placing the operational failure squarely on UVU's side once that warning went unaddressed. The new independent report complicates that account by documenting that TPUSA also pushed for the riskier outdoor venue in the first place and withheld attendance estimates that would have helped UVU plan.

The report stopped short of finding bad faith on anyone's part. "At no time during the events leading up to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, or in its aftermath, did any employee or agent of UVU act in bad faith or in willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others," it concluded, according to The Guardian.

The notice of claim is a legal precursor, not a lawsuit, and the Kirk family has not yet filed suit against UVU or the state. Meanwhile, the criminal case against Tyler Robinson, who is charged with aggravated murder and has pleaded not guilty, is proceeding toward trial after a Utah judge's September 1 ruling; no trial date has been set, according to PBS. Whether the family's eventual lawsuit treats the new report's shared-blame findings as helpful or harmful to their claim against UVU remains an open question the litigation will have to answer.