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The family of Charlie Kirk filed the notice of claim as a required step under Utah law before any potential wrongful death lawsuit can proceed against the state and university officials. According to the document reported across outlets including The Washington Post and The New York Times, a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions by those officials created a foreseeable danger that left the Turning Point USA founder helpless to a rooftop shooter. The notice names the state of Utah, Utah Valley University, its then-president Astrid Tuminez, the campus police department and chief Jeffrey Long among the prospective defendants. It asserts that the assassination on September 10, 2025, could have been avoided with reasonable security measures that other universities routinely employ for controversial speakers.
Attorneys for the family stated in the filing that Turning Point USA officials had contacted Chief Long before the event to relay student reports of easy rooftop access at buildings near the speaking area in a sunken plaza. A text message cited in the notice from a Turning Point representative requested controlled access to those rooftops or permission for their own personnel to monitor them. Chief Long replied that he had the situation covered, according to the legal document detailed by Fox News and CNN. Yet the university failed to station officers on the roofs or restrict access despite the known vulnerabilities, the claim alleges.
University police assigned only six officers to the event that drew roughly 3,000 spectators, representing about one-quarter of the campus force, the notice of claim reported. Chief Long had requested additional personnel from then-president Tuminez but the appeal was denied, according to the filing covered by The New York Times and Deseret News. Officials did not seek assistance from nearby Orem or Provo police departments until after the shooting occurred. The notice emphasized that such limited staffing fell below recommended levels for a university event of that scale and profile.
No written security plan existed for the gathering and no formal briefing took place beforehand, the family attorneys wrote in the September 9 notice. Campus authorities also neglected to deploy drones for overhead monitoring or review surveillance camera feeds in real time, measures that might have detected the gunman on the Losee Building roof more than 400 feet away. The event featured no bag checks, metal detectors or secure perimeter, according to details shared in reports from The Washington Post and CNN. These oversights persisted even though the risk of a rooftop attack should have been heightened following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump by a rooftop shooter the prior year.
First responders were not immediately available when Kirk was struck in the throat while debating students, the notice states, forcing attendees to transport him to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in a private vehicle rather than an ambulance. The family described the cumulative planning deficiencies as so severe that they rendered the assassination entirely preventable. Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to advance conservative principles on college campuses, was 31 years old at the time of his death and left behind his wife Erika and their two young children, according to accounts in The New York Times and Fox News.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the potential litigation, CNN reported, while Utah Valley University said it was aware of the notice and would address it through established processes. The filing arrives just before the one-year anniversary of the shooting and as the alleged perpetrator Tyler Robinson faces further court proceedings. Kirk’s family representatives have maintained that only the university possessed the authority to implement the overlooked protections that might have altered the outcome.
