Charlie Kirk's family formally notified Utah officials this week that it intends to pursue legal action over the conservative activist's assassination, alleging in a filing that a series of "reckless decisions" by Utah Valley University left him exposed to a rooftop gunman who killed him a year ago this month.
The notice of claim, dated September 9 and first reported by CNN, is a required step under Utah law before the family can file a formal wrongful-death lawsuit. It names Utah Valley University, its then-president Astrid Tuminez, campus police chief Jeffrey Long and the state of Utah, arguing that officials had specific warning of a rooftop security gap before Kirk was shot from more than 400 feet away while speaking to a crowd on the Orem campus on September 10, 2025.
What the filing alleges
According to the document, Turning Point USA organizers told Chief Long that students had informed them of rooftop access to the Sorensen Center, a building close to where Kirk was scheduled to speak that day. The family's attorneys argue that risk should have been "especially top-of-mind" given the attempted assassination of President Trump — Kirk's close friend and political ally — by a rooftop shooter the previous year, and that the university nonetheless failed to secure the building or station officers on its roof.
An Associated Press review conducted after the shooting, cited by NBC News, found the event did not use several public-safety practices that have become standard at comparable outdoor gatherings elsewhere in the country, including comprehensive rooftop sweeps and perimeter control of nearby buildings. Fox News reported that the filing also faults the university for not closing off public access to the Sorensen Center roof despite the tip.
Reaction
Utah Valley University has not issued a detailed public response to the specific allegations in the filing. Tyler Robinson was arrested and charged in connection with the shooting shortly after it occurred; his case remains before the courts. Kirk's death, and the rooftop-shooter parallel to the attempt on Trump's life, prompted a broad review of event security practices at college campuses nationwide, though the family's filing suggests they believe those changes came too late and that specific, actionable warnings were ignored beforehand.
The notice of claim does not itself constitute a lawsuit, but Utah law requires state entities be given the opportunity to respond before litigation proceeds. Attorneys for the family have signaled a formal suit is likely if a satisfactory resolution is not reached, which would put the university's security decisions — and the specific rooftop warning at their center — before a court for the first time.
