Charlie Kirk's family has filed a notice of claim against Utah Valley University and state officials, alleging that preventable security failures left the 31-year-old conservative leader defenseless against the rooftop shooter who killed him.
The filing, submitted September 9 to Utah's Office of the Attorney General, names UVU, its police department, then-President Astrid Tuminez, campus police Chief Jeffrey Long, the State of Utah, and "other state actors" as responsible parties. It signals the family's intent to bring a formal wrongful death lawsuit, and lays out a damning catalog of what it calls "stunning failures and reckless decisions" in the months, weeks, and hours before Kirk was shot on September 10, 2025, at the university's Orem, Utah, campus.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was taking questions from an audience of roughly 3,000 people during the organization's American Comeback Tour when he was struck by gunfire from the rooftop of the nearby Losee Center. Tyler Robinson, the man charged in Kirk's killing, is awaiting trial and faces the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors later released security footage that, they say, shows Robinson running across the rooftop to a prepared firing position before taking the fatal shot.
The family's legal filing paints a picture of a campus police force that did almost nothing to prepare for a high-profile, politically charged outdoor event, despite clear warning signs.
The notice of claim states that UVU Police deployed just six campus officers for the event. That figure, the filing says, represented only 25 percent of the department's total force. For context, the crowd numbered more than 3,000.
Beyond the thin staffing, the filing alleges that campus police had no written security plan, held no security briefings before the event, failed to conduct a "meaningful risk assessment," and never scouted the rooftops near the outdoor event space. There was no drone surveillance, no perimeter security, no bag checks, and no metal detectors, Breitbart reported. No coordination with local law enforcement agencies outside the campus took place. CCTV cameras that covered the area were allegedly not monitored in real time, meaning no one was watching when Robinson allegedly climbed to his position on the Losee Center roof.
The filing also alleges that there were no first responders immediately on site. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital in a private vehicle rather than an ambulance.
The family's attorneys put the security posture in blunt terms. The notice of claim, as the Daily Mail reported, states:
"Those decisions ultimately rendered Mr Kirk helpless to the rooftop shooter in an assassination that could have been avoided had the UVU Parties only taken reasonable steps to plan and oversee a safe event, steps outlined below that have been standard practice for other universities hosting controversial speakers."
One of the most striking allegations in the filing involves a direct exchange between a TPUSA event organizer and UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long. The organizer, whose full name is not disclosed in the filing, wrote to Long raising concerns about rooftop access to the Losee Center, the very building from which Kirk was shot.
The organizer's message, as quoted in the notice of claim, read:
"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 was four words: "I got you covered."
The rooftops were not secured. The filing does not indicate that Long took any action in response to the concern. A Utah judge has since sent Robinson's murder case to trial with the death penalty still on the table, but the family's notice of claim focuses squarely on the institutional failures that preceded the shooting, not the criminal case alone.
The notice of claim draws an explicit parallel to the attempted assassination of President Trump by a rooftop shooter in Butler, Pennsylvania, the year before Kirk's killing. Kirk family attorney D. Loren Washburn argued in the filing, as the New York Post reported:
"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."
That comparison is hard to dismiss. The Butler shooting dominated national security discussions for months. Any police department tasked with protecting a prominent political figure at an outdoor event surrounded by elevated buildings had every reason to treat rooftop access as a front-line concern. The filing describes Kirk's position in the outdoor quad, surrounded by tall buildings and elevated platforms, as "walking into a fishbowl."
Utah Valley University's response to the filing was minimal. Sharon Turner, the university's head of communications, told reporters:
"We are aware of the notice of claim. UVU addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes. Our focus remains on supporting our campus community."
The Daily Mail also contacted the UVU Police Department for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication. Chief Long has not publicly addressed the allegation that he assured a TPUSA organizer the rooftops were handled.
The family has not yet put a specific dollar figure on damages but stated in the filing that "potential damages are substantial." The notice names Kirk's estate, his widow Erika, their two minor children, and his parents as parties with claims. Under Utah law, a notice of claim is a required step before filing a formal lawsuit against a government entity, it puts the state on notice and starts the clock on a legal process that could stretch for years.
The filing landed just days before the one-year anniversary of Kirk's death. Erika Kirk, who took over as chief executive of Turning Point USA after her husband's killing, did not attend the organization's anniversary tribute event held at the UVU campus site. She marked the day on social media instead.
In one post, accompanied by a photo of herself walking with the couple's two young children, she wrote:
"To every person who has loved us, prayed for us, and carried our children and me before the Lord, not only today, but every day this past year... From the deepest place in my heart, thank you. God, in his mercy, has used so many of you to steady us through the unimaginable. I will never have the words to adequately express what your love and prayers have meant to our family. My Charlie... our babies and myself love you with everything we have. We will carry you with us in our hearts forever and we thank God for every day He gave us with you. Thank you for being the love of my life."
A second post showed a photo from the couple's wedding day, the two of them holding hands at the altar, with a three-word caption: "... until Heaven."
The broader fallout from Kirk's killing has extended well beyond the courtroom and the campus. President Trump comforted Erika Kirk at a memorial last September. The anniversary brought renewed attention not just to the criminal case against Robinson but to the institutional questions the family's filing now forces into the open.
Ahead of the commemoration event, law enforcement was observed scouting rooftops around the area near where Robinson allegedly fired, a precaution that, if the family's allegations hold, was glaringly absent the day it mattered most.
Robinson's murder trial still carries the possibility of a death sentence. But the criminal case answers only part of the question Kirk's family is asking. The other part, whether the people charged with keeping a public event safe did their jobs, now belongs to the civil courts.
A young father is dead, a widow is raising two children alone, and the police chief's four-word assurance echoes like an indictment all its own. Accountability does not stop at the man who pulled the trigger.
