UVU
Utah Valley University was the host site of the Charlie Kirk event on September 10, 2025 and plays a central role in understanding both the physical setting and institutional failures surrounding the assassination.
- Pre-Shooting Warnings — Two men contacted UVU the night before about "a plan"; a separate message to Kirk was never delivered
- UVU Courtyard — The courtyard and tent area where the shooting occurred, including post-shooting landscaping
- UVU Maps — Campus maps and layout of the event area
- Pavers — Merrell's Account — Contractor Dan Merrell says on video the Utah governor and FBI ordered the courtyard paved over by Monday
UVU appears in the investigation both as a physical location — buildings, rooftops, stairwells, access points, and the courtyard where the event took place — and as an institution with security responsibilities, police coordination duties, and emergency response obligations. The GRAMA records obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation reveal that at least two separate parties tried to raise concerns the day before the shooting, and both were either dismissed or buried.
The security failures documented in UVU's own records are significant. Six campus police officers covered a crowd of 3,000 people. The joint Public Order Unit that UVU funds with Orem PD was never activated. No ambulance was on site. No outside law enforcement was coordinated. Faculty had never been trained on active shooter protocols. The emergency alerts sent after the shooting contained placeholder text and false information about suspect custody.
After the assassination, UVU's courtyard was rapidly paved over by a dormant company revived just months earlier, owned by a Utah AG special agent and a former UVU operations staffer. UVU has acknowledged that additional documents exist beyond what was released through the GRAMA request and has refused to release them. These institutional decisions — before, during, and after the shooting — form a critical thread in understanding what happened on September 10.