The Smiling Witness Compilation
:::caution These are private individuals The people in this compilation are private individuals interviewed by local and national news crews at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. They are not named here, nothing on this page accuses any of them of anything, and their interviews are not sworn testimony. A facial expression on camera is an observation, not evidence of what anyone knew or intended. :::
A 73-second compilation posted to X on September 13, 2026 by @CharlotteLee_88 strings together television interviews with witnesses at UVU on the day Charlie Kirk was shot. Across the clips, several witnesses have the appearance of smiling — some broadly — while describing the shooting, the blood, and the panic in the crowd.
Source: @CharlotteLee_88 on X · 2026-09-13
"The Smiling Witness Compilation" — UVU witness interviews from KSL, Fox 13, 7News and other outlets (1 min 13 s). Source: @CharlotteLee_88 on X, 2026-09-13. If the player does not load, watch the original on X.
What @CharlotteLee_88 posted
According to @CharlotteLee_88 on X, 2026-09-13:
The Charlie Kirk assassination smiling witness compilation.
Every clip carries the banner "The Smiling Witness Compilation" across the top of the frame. The post makes no further argument in words; the edit itself is the argument.
What the video shows
The compilation cuts between roughly half a dozen interviews, most of them carrying local news chyrons — "Charlie Kirk shot and killed on UVU campus," "President Trump reports Charlie Kirk is dead," "Charlie Kirk killed in UVU shooting," "Shooting at Charlie Kirk event." The footage includes a young woman interviewed in a car, two women standing together outdoors, a young woman in a parking lot, a man on a remote video call with a news anchor, a young woman on a campus sidewalk, and several students interviewed together in front of a brick archway.
The appearance of smiling is the thread that ties the clips together. Several of the witnesses have the appearance of smiling, grinning, or laughing lightly while they speak about what they saw — including while describing the shot hitting him and the blood that followed. In other moments the same witnesses look serious or shaken. The edit selects and places the smiling moments one after another.
What the witnesses say
From the machine transcript of the compilation's audio:
It was pretty terrifying. Probably the scariest thing I've ever been a part of.
I figured a shot would be a little bit louder, but I just saw it hit him in the chest, and then, all of a sudden, just tons of blood gushing right outwards.
As the gun went off, we both hit the floor, started praying.
It was a pretty traumatic experience. But we've had friends around all day, which has really been helpful, but we're definitely getting flashbacks every once in a while from it.
Note the second quote: one witness describes the shot hitting Charlie Kirk in the chest, with blood "gushing right outwards." That matches the chest-and-heart accounts collected on "It Hit His Chest" — Second-Row Accounts and Shot to the Heart, and conflicts with the neck wound in the state's account. See Witness Account Conflicts — Chest vs Neck.
Why the smiling draws attention
Citizen investigators on X have pointed to the smiling as one more strange detail in the first-day witness record — alongside the repeated chest-wound descriptions and the fact that none of these witnesses has been called to testify. Some go further and argue the interviews look rehearsed. That is a theory held by some investigators, not something the video proves.
There are also ordinary explanations, and they belong next to the observation. People in acute shock often smile or laugh involuntarily; nervous laughter under stress is well documented. Many of these witnesses were college students speaking to cameras for the first time, hours after a traumatic event, and several say in the same clips that they were terrified and are having flashbacks. A compilation also shows only the moments the editor chose. Readers should watch the full original broadcasts before drawing conclusions about any individual.
What the compilation does show, reliably, is that the earliest on-camera witness accounts from UVU are unusual enough — in content and in delivery — that they deserve to be preserved and examined rather than forgotten. That is why they are collected in this Witnesses section.
Full transcript
Machine-generated transcript (apple-speechanalyzer), uncorrected. The audio is edited from several separate interviews, so lines from different speakers run together.
Show the full machine transcript
It was pretty terrifying. Probably the scariest thing I've ever been a part of. Did you see this case? I haven't seen him get shot, but I saw it a minute later when they posted the video online. Yeah. Yeah, as to say. I figured a shot would be a little bit louder, but I just saw it hit him in the chest, and then, all of a sudden, just tons of blood gushing right outwards. What real ones would I do? Do not breathe a word about this. Praying your optimism carries the day here. [Name], really, sorry, again, for everything that you guys have had to go through, and our thoughts are with you in here. I just started booking at my friend through her drink, and we just... Not a couple of people trample me, actually. So... As the gun went off, we both hit the floor, started praying. Dealing. I mean, now, a few hours later, how are you dealing with what you saw? Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty traumatic experience. But we've had friends around all day, which has really been helpful, but we're definitely getting flashbacks every once in a while from it, but we're just trying to deal with a little bit. And having the friends to talk to, many of whom were probably there, as well, I would think. Yeah, they were a lot of our friends were there, but it's really helpful just to have people. You got shot. I just... Yeah, I did, yeah. And...
From the video in @CharlotteLee_88's X post, posted 2026-09-13.
X.com posts:
Laws (Charlie Kirk)
- The unedited raw news footage of every UVU witness interview, and any FBI Form 302 interview reports for these witnesses, are things that the Charlie Kirk Investigation Laws may result in powerful truths coming out that aren't out yet.