Charlie Kirk's widow and children have filed a formal notice of claim against Utah Valley University and the state of Utah, alleging campus officials knew about a rooftop security vulnerability and failed to act, a failure the family says cost the 31-year-old conservative leader his life.
The filing, dated September 9, names UVU, the state, and key individuals in campus leadership and security, including UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long and then-university President Astrid Tuminez, as responsible parties in what the family calls a preventable wrongful death. Kirk was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, while speaking at an outdoor event on the UVU campus in Orem, Utah, as part of Turning Point USA's "American Comeback Tour." Tyler Robinson, 23, allegedly fired from the rooftop of the Losee Center, a building on the far side of the courtyard where Kirk addressed a crowd of roughly 3,000.
The notice of claim, a required precursor to a lawsuit under Utah law, lays out a detailed catalog of security failures. It does not specify monetary damages, but it raises both a wrongful death claim and a "state-created danger" claim under the U.S. Constitution, a legal theory that holds the government liable when its own actions expose someone to a foreseeable threat.
At the center of the family's case is a specific exchange before the event. A TPUSA staff member contacted Chief Long about rooftop access to the Sorenson Center, a building described as "pretty close" to where Kirk would be speaking and directly west of the Losee Center. The message, as quoted in the filing, asked Long to either restrict access or allow a TPUSA security team member to be posted there.
Long's alleged reply, per the filing obtained by Fox News: "I got you covered."
The rooftops were not secured. No officers were posted on them. No drones were deployed. And the campus security cameras that captured Robinson allegedly running across the Losee Center rooftop to what the filing calls a "sniper's nest" were not monitored in real time. Footage reviewed after the fact, during Robinson's preliminary hearing, showed what real-time monitoring could have caught.
The filing puts it bluntly: "If such footage had been monitored in real-time, Kirk's tragic death could have been avoided."
Only six campus police officers were assigned to the outdoor event. That figure represented roughly 25 percent of UVU's entire police force. The filing alleges campus police had no written security plan for the event and held no security briefing in advance.
Chief Long, the filing states "on information and belief," requested approval from then-President Tuminez to assign more than six officers. Tuminez allegedly denied the request. After that denial, campus police did not reach out to neighboring departments in Orem or Provo for additional support.
The filing also alleges UVU failed to perform a meaningful risk assessment or grasp the significance of Kirk's visit. Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA, the country's largest conservative campus activist organization. He had spoken at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020, and 2024. He had publicly discussed the threats he and his family faced.
At an event in May 2025, just months before his death, Kirk told an audience: "We get death threats. People want to murder us." He added: "You should not have to walk around with security for your entire family and for myself just because you support a politician or political candidate or certain values."
A judge has since ordered Robinson to stand trial, and the death penalty remains on the table in his case. Robinson's lawyers pleaded not guilty on his behalf at an arraignment held nearly a year after the shooting.
One of the filing's sharpest arguments targets the imbalance of authority. UVU, as the host institution, held what the notice of claim describes as "exclusive power" that neither TPUSA nor Kirk's personal security team possessed. That power included the authority to create a security perimeter, deploy physical barriers, set up metal detectors, and implement other safety measures on campus grounds.
Kirk, the filing argues, "was legally entitled to believe that when the UVU Parties approved the Tour event to be held on campus on September 10, that the UVU Parties would only hold the event in a venue and with associated security measures that made the event safe for him to attend and participate in."
Instead, as the New York Post reported, the filing describes Kirk as having been placed in what amounted to a "fishbowl", a politically controversial figure positioned in an open outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings and elevated platforms, with minimal security and no rooftop coverage.
The filing notes that UVU had moved controversial speakers to indoor or more secure locations in the past. It did not do so for Kirk.
The notice of claim invokes the attempted assassination of President Trump by a rooftop shooter the previous year, calling it a threat that should have been "especially top-of-mind" for anyone planning outdoor security for a prominent political figure. Just The News noted that the family draws a direct parallel between the two incidents, arguing the rooftop threat was well understood in the political security landscape by September 2025.
The filing also cites the home invasion attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and the murders of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark as evidence of a rising pattern of political violence that should have informed UVU's planning.
Beyond the security failures at the event itself, the filing highlights a grim detail about the aftermath. When Kirk was shot in the neck, first responders were not available on scene. He was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in a private vehicle, not an ambulance. The filing frames this as further evidence that UVU's planning was "so deficient" it failed even at the most basic level of emergency preparedness.
Vice President Vance has separately raised questions about whether broader involvement may have played a role in Kirk's murder, adding a political dimension to the case that extends beyond the campus security failures.
UVU's public response to the filing has been minimal. The university said it is "aware of the notice of claim" and that it "addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes." A separate statement added: "Our focus remains on supporting our campus community."
Kirk family attorney Brett Parkinson offered a sharper assessment. As reported by National Review, Parkinson said:
"His murder was entirely preventable and, in fact, would not have happened had the State of Utah and UVU followed through on their stated security promises, which included protecting the rooftops surrounding the quad where Charlie was speaking. Those failures not only robbed Charlie Kirk of his life, but also robbed his family of their husband, father, son, and brother, with impacts that will compound for the rest of their lives."
The prospective plaintiffs in the case are Erika Kirk, Charlie's widow, and their two minor children. Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, are also acknowledged as potential claimants. The Kirk family's wrongful death claim was filed through attorneys Loren Washburn, Brett Parkinson, and Clifford Parkinson.
As Breitbart reported, the notice of claim was filed September 9, 2026, one day before the one-year anniversary of Kirk's death, with the Utah Office of the Attorney General.
Kirk's death also created broader cultural friction. Netflix faced conservative backlash over a social media post on the anniversary of his death that many viewed as callous, underscoring how raw the political fault lines around the case remain.
A 31-year-old father of two walked onto a university campus to give a speech. The school held the keys to his safety, was warned about the specific threat that killed him, and did nothing. If that doesn't earn accountability, nothing will.
