GUNSHOT, SCREAMS
Dressed in a white T-shirt with the word “Freedom” across the front, Kirk sat in a chair under a tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong.
He had been answering questions from the large audience gathered around him at about 12.20pm local time.
The event, the first of about 15 scheduled across the country through the end of October, drew more than 3,000 people.
Seconds before he was shot, Kirk was being queried by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience member asked.
Kirk responded, “Too many.”
The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.
Those were his last words before a single shot rings out.
Footage posted to social media show Kirk reaching up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. He was then rushed away on a stretcher by his security detail.
“As soon as that shot went out, he fell back,” former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at the event, told Fox News. “Everybody hit the deck … a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running.”
