Hunter Kozak, a liberal math student and the last person to debate with Charlie Kirk on gun violence before his death by gunshot

Hunter Kozak, a 29-year-old math student at Utah Valley University, was the last person to speak to Charlie Kirk before the conservative activist was fatally shot. In a later posted video, he revealed it. As per the New York Times, he is a liberal TikToker who disagreed with Mr. Kirk on just about everything, except for their shared belief in free speech and raw political debate.

Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot when attending an event at Utah Valley University on September 10. Video of the incident showed the 31-year-old conservative activist sitting in a tent and speaking to people when a bullet hit him in the neck. Kirk was shifted to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries soon after. In a video posted online, Kozak recalled how he decided to attend the event after seeing Kirk’s campus tour schedule.

Hunter Kozak’s debate with Charlie

“Oh my god. So Charlie Kirk just said that the suspected Minneapolis school shooter was trans. First Nashville, now this. How many times makes a trend?” Kozak recounted, explaining that his frustration with Kirk’s rhetoric pushed him to join the line of students at his own university. Arriving early, he was given a chance to ask a question after organizers reviewed it.

His exchange with Kirk was pointed but measured. Kozak asked how many transgender Americans had committed mass shootings over the past decade. “He says, too many. I said the number’s five,” Kozak recalled, noting that CNN later fact-checked the claim and confirmed his side. Moments later, the gunfire erupted.

Kozak has since spoken of the painful irony that he was trying to highlight the nonviolent record of trans people just before the shooting unfolded. “The point that I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was right before he got shot. And that only makes sense if we stay peaceful,” he said.

While Kozak has been outspoken in his disagreements with Kirk, he emphasized in his reflection that nothing justifies what happened. “As much as I disagree with Charlie Kirk… he is still a human being. Have we forgotten that?” Kozak said, adding that he, too, is a father and could not stop thinking about Kirk’s wife and young children.

Kozak concluded, “I stand by so little of everything that he said, but one of the things that he stood by was conversation.”

Who is Hunter Kozak?

According to The New York Times, Hunter Kozak, a 29-year-old liberal TikToker, has long said he disagreed with Charlie Kirk’s views and hoped to challenge him directly. A math education student at Utah Valley University, Kozak arrived about 90 minutes early to secure a spot in line and was later ushered forward after event organizers reviewed his question. The Times noted that he and his wife, both liberals living in a predominantly conservative Republican state, keep flags for Black Lives Matter, Ukraine, LGBTQ rights, and the US national flag in their living room. Both were raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and met while attending Brigham Young University.