Photo File: Charlie Kirk

US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at a university in Utah.

The US authorities said they have detained a suspect in the fatal shooting.

“The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. We will provide updates when able,” FBI Director Kash Patel said yesterday.

President Donald Trump, while announcing the death of the activist yesterday, hailed his close ally as “legendary.”

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

He added, “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania’s and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at a US university yesterday, was the eloquent spokesman for a younger generation of Donald Trump’s hard-right Republican movement.

The 31-year-old boasted millions of followers on social media who delighted at his whip-smart edits and provocative takedowns of hecklers and ideological challengers.

Kirk’s conservative ideology was closely aligned with Trump: he backed the US president’s false claims of fraud when he lost the 2020 presidential election and used his heavyweight influence to lash out at migrants and transgender people.

In speaking gigs at American universities, he invited students to debate with him in quick-fire exchanges that often went viral online — especially those with progressives opposed to his views.

It was during one of these events in Utah yesterday that he was shot in the neck in a moment of violence that was swiftly condemned on both sides of the political aisle.

When Kirk addressed a university crowd in Nevada last October, some in the audience told international media that, he was a breath of fresh air on campuses that the political right complains are dominated by liberal ideology.

“He brings different ideas to the table,” said Eric Hansen 22. “Ideas that some of us believe in, but are sometimes afraid” to voice.