Charlie Kirk shooter fleeing video? The reality of the viral footage and the Nevada connection

A video circulated online and captioned as showing the suspect who shot Charlie Kirk exiting a building and fleeing onto a road after carrying out the assassination went viral a few hours after the tragic incident. Kirk, a young conservative voice and an ally of US President Donald Trump, was shot dead on September 10, 2025, while addressing a large group of people at the Utah Valley University (UVU).

Several videos of the actual shooting started circulating soon after the incident. These showed Kirk taking a single bullet straight on his neck as he sat on a chair under a tent. Other videos showed a human-like figure prone on a UVU building rooftop. Another set of videos revealed a person running away from a roof after the shooting.

Similarly, another video showed a man running out of a building with the caption “New Video Shows Charlie Kirk’s Real Shooter Fleeing The Scene After The Attack”. After it was posted on X by a handle named Navyanth_17, other X users quickly revealed the truth behind it


In reality, the video is not related to the Utah Valley University killing, authorities and local reporting show. The clip being passed around on social media is body-worn camera footage released by the Reno Police Department that captures officers confronting a separate suspect, identified in local reporting as Dakota Hawver, after a July 28 shooting outside the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, that left three people dead and three wounded.

Authorities have released surveillance photos of a person of interest in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University. The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for tips leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible.

What the viral posts claim

Numerous posts and tweets have labeled the video “the shooter fleeing” from the Charlie Kirk scene. That claim is false. The footage shows Reno officers arriving at the Grand Sierra Resort valet area and engaging the gunman there.

Local outlets and the Reno Police Department published the bodycam footage in August after the July 28 attack; the department’s release and contemporaneous reporting make clear the video’s date, location, and context are unrelated to the September incident in Utah.

What the footage actually shows

According to Reno police and local reporting, the July 28 incident near the Grand Sierra Resort began in the early morning and quickly turned deadly. Authorities say the suspect, identified by local outlets as 26-year-old Dakota Hawver, opened fire in the valet area, fatally wounding three people and injuring three others. Officers who arrived on scene exchanged gunfire with the shooter; bodycam video shows a chaotic, high-volume encounter during which officers took the suspect down. However later died at a hospital, police said.

The circulation of this clip in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing in Utah risks confusing the public and conflating two separate violent incidents. The Kirk shooting, which occurred at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 and is the subject of a separate manhunt and federal investigation, is being investigated by Utah authorities and federal partners; investigators have released images in that case and recovered what they say is the weapon believed used in the Utah attack.

Kirk, 31, was the founder of Turning Point USA and a prominent conservative voice on college campuses and national media; the shooting has prompted national condemnation and renewed debate about political rhetoric and safety at public events. Officials asked anyone who was in the area and who may have photos or video of the event or of the nearby rooftops and stairwells to submit that material to the FBI immediately.