The family of Charlie Kirk has taken the first formal legal step toward suing Utah Valley University, filing a notice of claim that alleges campus and state officials knew about rooftop security vulnerabilities before the Sept. 10, 2025, assassination and failed to act. The filing paints a portrait of an event approved for an outdoor quad surrounded on all sides by elevated positions, staffed by a fraction of the campus police force, and monitored only after the fact.

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From Fox News:

In one alleged exchange cited in the filing, Turning Point USA organizers told UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long that UVU students had informed them of rooftop access to the Sorenson Center, a building “pretty close” to where Kirk would be speaking the day he was killed — and directly west of the Losee Center, which is where his alleged killer fired the shot from.

“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,” someone at TPUSA wrote to the chief, according to the filing. “If possible.”

“I got you covered,” was Long’s alleged reply.

The notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, was signed by Kirk family attorneys Loren Washburn, Brett Parkinson, and Clifford Parkinson and dated Sept. 9. The prospective plaintiffs are Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and their two minor children, and the filing also acknowledges potential claims from his parents, Robert and Kathryn. No monetary damages are specified. Alongside the wrongful death claim, the notice raises a “state-created danger” claim under the U.S. Constitution.

Attorneys point to the broader climate of political violence as evidence the risk was foreseeable. The filing cites the previous year’s attempted assassination of President Trump by a rooftop shooter, the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and the murders of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Kirk had spoken publicly about the threats against him months before he was killed, saying at a May 2025 event that no one should have to walk around with security for their entire family simply because they support a politician or certain values, and adding plainly that they received death threats and that people wanted to murder them.

Kirk, 31, was shot while speaking in the campus courtyard. Authorities say the gunman fired from the Losee Center rooftop across the quad. Tyler Robinson, 23, has been charged in the killing and pleaded not guilty through his attorneys at an arraignment nearly a year later.

The filing’s central allegation is that UVU created the conditions for the shooting through a series of decisions. According to the notice, campus police had no written security plan and held no advance security briefing, and the university failed to conduct a meaningful risk assessment or grasp the significance of Kirk’s visit. Attorneys say the school walked Kirk into what they describe as a fishbowl, with tall buildings surrounding the speaking area, and that it could have declined to approve the outdoor quad, moved the event indoors, or relocated it as it had done for controversial speakers previously. Despite the allegedly greater risk of an outdoor venue, no additional resources were dedicated to the event.

Only six campus police officers were assigned to the event, which drew roughly 3,000 spectators. The filing alleges Chief Long sought approval from then-UVU President Astrid Tuminez to allocate more than those six officers, who represented just 25 percent of the campus police force, and that his request was denied. After the denial, campus police did not seek help from neighboring departments such as Orem or Provo police, according to the filing. The notice also states that when Kirk was shot, first responders were not available and he was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in a private vehicle rather than an ambulance.

The filing further alleges the university retained exclusive authority that Kirk’s own security team lacked: the power to establish a security perimeter, use physical barriers, deploy metal detectors, or implement other measures common at campus sporting events. A security camera system existed, but footage was not monitored in real time, and no drones were used to watch rooftops or any other part of the sprawling outdoor event. Attorneys note that footage reviewed after the fact during Robinson’s preliminary hearing showed the shooter running across the Losee Building roof to a sniper’s nest, and they argue that real-time monitoring could have prevented Kirk’s death. The Losee Center rooftop remained unsecured despite the warning to the chief and despite the fact that students were known to frequent it, leaving behind beer bottles and other trash.

In a statement, UVU said it is aware of the notice of claim and addresses legal matters consistent with its established processes, adding that its focus remains on supporting the campus community. Brett Parkinson, counsel for the Kirk family, said Kirk’s murder was entirely preventable and would not have occurred had the state and university followed through on security promises that included protecting the rooftops surrounding the quad. Those failures, he said, robbed Kirk of his life and robbed his family of a husband, father, son, and brother, with consequences that will compound for the rest of their lives.

Scripture places the protection of life among the highest duties of those in authority, and it warns that failing to act when harm is foreseeable carries moral weight (Proverbs 24:11-12; Ezekiel 33:6). This is a legal proceeding, not a verdict, and the university is entitled to present its side. Robinson has pleaded not guilty, and nothing in the filing establishes his guilt or the school’s liability. What the filing does establish is the substance of the family’s grief and the questions they want answered: whether warnings were heard, whether reasonable precautions were refused, and whether a young father died in a place that had been made needlessly vulnerable. Christians know that a society which tolerates political violence against those it disagrees with is decaying at the root, and that the answer is not more bitterness but truth-telling, justice, and prayer. Intercessors should pray for the Kirk family in their sorrow, for a legal process that surfaces the facts honestly, and for protection over all who speak publicly for their convictions.

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(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Charlie Kirk, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=174850134).