Charlie Kirk's widow and children have filed a wrongful death notice against Utah Valley University and the state of Utah, alleging campus officials were warned about unsecured rooftops near Kirk's speaking venue and failed to act, a failure the family says cost the 31-year-old father his life.
The notice of claim, a required legal step before a formal lawsuit can proceed, names UVU, its then-president Astrid Tuminez, campus police chief Jeffrey Long, and the state of Utah as parties responsible for what the family's attorneys call "a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions" that left Kirk exposed to a gunman on September 10, 2025. Kirk was shot and killed in the campus courtyard in Orem, Utah, while speaking at his Turning Point USA "American Comeback Tour" before roughly 3,000 spectators. The alleged shooter, 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, fired from the rooftop of the Losee Center, a building on the far side of the courtyard.
The filing, dated September 9 and signed by attorneys Loren Washburn, Brett Parkinson, and Clifford Parkinson, lays out a damning sequence: Turning Point USA organizers explicitly warned Chief Long about rooftop access near the venue before the event. A TPUSA official told Long that students were known to frequent the rooftops of nearby buildings, including the Sorenson Center, which was close to where Kirk would be speaking. The filing quotes the TPUSA official as writing: "If this is true, it would be nice to either have it controlled access or allow one of my guys to be there as well. If possible."
Long's alleged reply, according to the notice: "I got you covered."
He did not.
The filing alleges that campus police assigned just six officers to the outdoor event, only 25 percent of UVU's police force. There was no written security plan. No security briefing was held in advance. No drones were deployed to monitor rooftops. No physical barriers, bag checks, or metal detectors were set up. The campus security camera system captured footage, but nobody watched it in real time.
AP News reported that the filing emphasized UVU's failure to coordinate with neighboring law enforcement agencies, Orem and Provo police departments, which could have provided additional manpower. The university, the filing argues, had "exclusive power" that neither TPUSA nor Kirk's personal security team possessed: authority to create a perimeter, deploy barriers, and control access to rooftops and buildings surrounding the courtyard.
The courtyard itself was surrounded on all sides by tall buildings and elevated positions. The filing describes it as a fishbowl, a venue where a speaker stood exposed to anyone with access to the roofline.
Chief Long, the filing alleges, tried to get more officers assigned. On "information and belief," he requested approval from then-UVU President Tuminez to allocate more than six officers. His request was denied. After that denial, campus police did not seek reinforcements from outside agencies. The criminal case against Robinson has moved slowly through the courts, with his lawyers entering a not guilty plea at an arraignment nearly a year after the shooting.
One of the filing's most pointed allegations concerns the Losee Center's security cameras. After-the-fact review of the footage, presented at Robinson's preliminary hearing, showed the suspected shooter running across the roof of the Losee Building to what the filing calls a "sniper's nest." Had anyone been monitoring the cameras in real time, the filing contends, Kirk's death could have been prevented.
National Review noted that the footage suggests Robinson accessed the roof via a staircase, a route that real-time monitoring could have flagged before any shot was fired. The family's attorneys argue this is not hindsight speculation but a failure to use tools already in place.
The planning was so inadequate, the filing states, that when Kirk was shot, first responders were not available on scene. Kirk was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in a private vehicle, not an ambulance. Erika Kirk was present in the courtroom when prosecutors later played footage of the shooting at Robinson's preliminary hearing.
At an event in May 2025, four months before the shooting, Kirk spoke publicly about the danger he and his family faced.
"You should not have to walk around with security for your entire family and for myself just because you support a politician or political candidate or certain values," Kirk said. "We get death threats. People want to murder us."
The filing draws a direct line between those threats and what UVU should have known. It references the attempted assassination of President Trump by a rooftop shooter the previous year, the home invasion attack on Paul Pelosi, and the murders of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. The family's attorneys argue these incidents put every institution hosting a prominent political figure on notice.
Attorney D. Loren Washburn, as Just The News reported, put it bluntly in the filing:
"The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump, Charlie Kirk's close friend and political ally, by a rooftop shooter the previous year."
UVU had options, the filing argues. It could have declined to approve the outdoor venue. It could have moved the event indoors or to a more secure location, as it had done for other controversial speakers in the past. It did neither.
Utah Valley University acknowledged the filing in a brief statement, saying it is "aware of the notice of claim" and that it "addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes." The university added: "Our focus remains on supporting our campus community." The statement did not address any of the specific security allegations.
The filing raises both a wrongful death claim and a constitutional claim of "state-created danger", the legal theory that government actors, through their own affirmative conduct, placed Kirk in a position of peril he would not otherwise have faced. The notice does not specify monetary damages. Evidence in the criminal case continues to develop as the prosecution moves forward against Robinson.
Brett Parkinson, counsel for the Kirk family, told the Washington Examiner that the consequences of these failures will follow the family permanently:
"His murder was entirely preventable and, in fact, would not have happened had the State of Utah and UVU followed through on their stated security promises, which included protecting the rooftops surrounding the quad where Charlie was speaking. Those failures not only robbed Charlie Kirk of his life, but also robbed his family of their husband, father, son, and brother, with impacts that will compound for the rest of their lives."
The prospective plaintiffs include Erika Kirk and the couple's two children. The filing also acknowledges potential claims from Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk. Proceedings in the criminal case have already been marked by judicial friction, with the presiding judge holding a prosecutor in civil contempt while keeping the death penalty on the table for Robinson.
Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA and built it into the country's largest conservative campus activist organization, spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020, and 2024. He was 31 years old when he was killed. Breitbart reported that the TPUSA staff's text warning to Chief Long about rooftop access went entirely unaddressed despite the explicit acknowledgment.
A university police chief told event organizers he had the rooftops covered. A university president allegedly denied the request for more officers. Nobody watched the cameras. And a young father bled out in the back of a private car on the way to the hospital. Accountability does not get more straightforward than that.