Footage has surfaced showing the moment Joe Rogan learned of Charlie Kirk’s murder while recording an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan had been joined in his Texas studio by actor Charlie Sheen for what became episode 2379 of his long-running podcast. Near the end of the recording, news broke that Kirk, 31, had been shot while speaking at Utah Valley University.
Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings when a single round struck him in the neck. Panic swept through the estimated 3,000 people in attendance as he collapsed. Authorities later confirmed the shot was fired from a rooftop near the venue. During a break in filming, Rogan returned to camera visibly shaken
“So this just happened, we just found out that Charlie Kirk got shot,” he said. “It’s a f***ed up time. People are so divided in this country.” Rogan explained he had only met Kirk once, at a gun range, but that the activist left a positive impression. “He’s not a violent guy, he’s talking to people on college campuses. He wasn’t even particularly rude, tried to be pretty reasonable with people. He’s a very intelligent guy, whether you agree with him or don’t.”
Charlie Sheen, seated beside him, expressed his disbelief. “To be murdered for having a different opinion from somebody else, different ideology from somebody—that’s insane,” he said. Witnesses at the Utah Valley event later described a striking lack of security. Attendees told reporters there were no checkpoints, bag checks, or metal detectors at the entrance. A member of Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk co-founded, acknowledged that there hadn’t seemed to be “a whole lot of security.”
The FBI released footage of the suspected shooter climbing down from a rooftop and fleeing the scene, along with images of items collected during the investigation: shoe prints, a forearm imprint, and a palm print. A rifle and ammunition were recovered from a wooded area nearby. By Friday morning, September 12, officials confirmed the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a Utah resident. At a press conference, Governor Spencer Cox announced that Robinson had been taken into custody after a family member came forward.
“We got him,” Cox said. “On the evening of September 11, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed or implied his involvement.”
The case is now moving into its next phase, but the shockwaves of Kirk’s killing—and the circumstances surrounding it—are still reverberating across the political and cultural landscape.
