The FBI on Thursday released two photos of a person of interest in the shooting of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
The grainy photos show a person wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, dark pants, sunglasses and a hat.
“We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office said in an X post with the photos.
The FBI said later Thursday that it is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of those responsible.
The new information and reward offer came hours after law enforcement officials said they have recovered key evidence in Kirk’s assassination at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, including a rifle and “good video footage.”
The “high powered, bolt-action rifle” was found in a wooded area where the gunman fled after shooting Kirk, FBI agent Robert Bohls said at a press conference.
Investigators have also collected a “footwear impression, a palm print and forearm imprints for analysis,” Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, said.
He noted, “We’re not sure how far he has gone yet.”
Utah Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said, “We do have good video footage of this individual.”
But “we are not going to release that at this time,” unless authorities fail to identify the shooter on their own, he said.
While officers at the news conference declined to offer specific details about the suspect, Mason said the gunman “blended in well with the college” and “appears to be of college age.”
Mason said that the shooter arrived on campus shortly before noon local time, then climbed up to a rooftop overlooking the location of Kirk’s event. After the shooting, the suspect moved to the other side of the building, then jumped off and fled into an off-campus neighborhood, he said.
The presser at the university on Thursday morning came after officials released two people of interest several who had been detained shortly after the shooting.
“There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the Utah Department of Public Safety said in an update late Wednesday.
“There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter,” the agency said.
The gunman fired at Kirk from a campus building 200 yards away from where the activist was speaking, hitting him once in the neck, according to UVU.
Kirk’s death was announced by President Donald Trump, who praised the influential activist as a “truly Great American Patriot.”
On Thursday morning, Trump, at an observance of the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, said he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Correction: Robert Bohls is the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office. An earlier version misstated the location.
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