It was a lone shot, fired from a distance of nearly two football fields, that struck its target in the neck.
But the killing of Charlie Kirk would not have required an expert marksman, according to multiple firearms experts. They said the weaponry available today would allow someone with even limited firearms experience to pull off such a hit, making such tragedies exceedingly difficult to prevent.
“A person with minimal training and a scope would be able to easily hit a small target at 200 yards,” said Scott Sweetow, a retired executive with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Trained police and military snipers are able to hit targets in the head from more than 500 yards away, Sweetow and other experts said.
Kirk, a conservative activist with a massive following, was holding an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when he was struck by a single bullet about 12:20 p.m. Authorities said the gunman is believed to have fired the shot from the rooftop of a campus building, a position roughly 175 yards away from Kirk, who was seated under a tent in an outdoor amphitheater.
Authorities revealed Thursday morning that they have video of a college-aged person of interest making their way to the building, going through stairwells and then fleeing the rooftop after the shooting.
The weapon was recovered in a wooded area near the campus after the shooting, the FBI said Thursday. It was described as a “high-powered bolt-action rifle.”
David Hyche, a former ATF agent, said he had been surprised to hear that the shooter left the roof with the gun rather than leave it behind.
“That’s not smart,” Hyche said. “It’s hard to get away carrying a rifle.”
The trace of the gun is going to be vital, Hyche added. That is, if it still has a serial number and if it can be traced to the original buyer.
A trained professional would most likely have used a gun that was untraceable, Hyche said.
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“If he had a clean gun, wore gloves, no serial number and just left it there — that’s not really going to help law enforcement a lot,” added Hyche, who is now the chief of police in Calera, Alabama. “And that’s what I think a pro would have done.”
Still, even if it was carried out by someone without training, the targeted killing would have required some measure of planning, experts said.
“To figure out where the best vantage was, you’d have to know where the stage was going to be set up,” Sweetow said.
“Clearly, whoever did this scouted the location out,” Sweetow added. “They were either familiar with it because they have experience on the campus or they knew Kirk’s travel schedule and were able to scout it out in advance.”
Jim Cavanaugh, a retired ATF agent, said the impact the bullet made to Kirk's neck indicates it was a large-caliber round.
"This is something that gets used to kill a deer or an elk," said Cavanaugh, who is an MSNBC analyst.
But he agreed that the shooter most likely did not have extensive training.
"You've got a scope, a good rifle, you don't have to have any great talent," Cavanaugh said. "The equipment gives you the advantage."
David Viola, a Navy officer who has deployed overseas multiple times with various SEAL teams, said a successful shot from that distance suggests that the gunman had at least some experience with firearms.
"It wasn’t a particularly long shot," said Viola, an adjunct professor at John Jay College’s Center on Terrorism. “But he didn’t pick up a rifle for the first time yesterday."
