Hopes for a Fast Capture of Kirk's Shooter Fade After Patel Backtracks

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hopes for a Fast Capture of Kirk’s Shooter Fade After Patel Backtracks

Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said that the agency’s investigation was continuing, reversing his earlier announcement that someone had been apprehended.


Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah speaking at a news conference in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday. Niki Chan Wylie for The New York Times

By Glenn Thrush and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Sept. 11, 2025
Updated 2:15 a.m. ET

Hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt. … “The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” Mr. Patel wrote on his X account, adding: “our investigation continues.”

Two hours earlier, Mr. Patel had stoked expectations of a fast end to the search by congratulating state, local and federal officials for taking into custody “the subject for the horrific shooting today.”

The release of the subject capped a day of shock, fear and uncertainty over what officials described as political assassination, committed in broad daylight in front of thousands of people who had come to participate in a discussion with Mr. Kirk, 31, at Utah Valley University.

The backtrack was a source of significant embarrassment for the F.B.I. director on a day when three former F.B.I. agents filed a lawsuit against Mr. Patel that portrayed him as a partisan neophyte more interested in social media, and swag, than in the day-to-day operations of the nation’s flagship law enforcement agency.

{snip}

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate New York.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. That means the trail is cold

the video evidence of the area scant, so ... they go with convincing the perp he's gotten away which will lead him to relax and make mistakes.

That, or they have an idea but are letting him run to see who he contacts, to see if there is a conspiracy.

[JI7]

3. Are you sure about video evidence ?

there were many people there. Maybe things will start to get more attention in the next few days.

[Prairie Gates]

4. Why do you think the video evidence is scant?

It's a college campus.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Disguises, deception, hoodies, generic clothing.

Clearly planning by the assassin was strong and meticulous. He or she wouldn't skimp on the details and extended aspects of his operation. Probably out of his lair within 30 seconds and changed clothing more than once in buildings, tunnels.

[Prairie Gates]

8. Ah, OK

So, more along the lines of countermeasures than no videos. The new NY Time diagram of the scene shows a parkinglot directly behind the Losee Building, so it may just be a matter of getting quickly to a car. At the same time, with a 3000 person event that close, parking must have been tough (even more so than normally at mid-day on a college campus!), so that doesn't seem easy or reliable either.

Curiouser and curiouser, anyway.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. I hope it keeps him busy for a long, long time. ...

Less time for him and his Boyz n Girlz to f other stuff up.

[rzemanfl]

5. I keep asking myself why

a sniper would wear all black in broad daylight.

[yellowcanine]

6. Wow. Patel should resign.

Does not inspire confidence.

[democrank]

9. Patel was a little too anxious to grab center stage.

All he managed to do was highlight how inept he is. No hat, no cattle.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Just maybe,

the shooter wouldn’t have escaped if Patel hadn’t fired or forced veteran agents to resign.