“Hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt,” the New York Times reports.

Jonathan Last: “We often forget the philosophical underpinnings of criminal law. Rightly understood, we view crimes as being committed not against individuals, but against society itself. Thus, when someone is murdered, the offense is not against the victim and his family, but against everyone. All of us. It is an offense against nature, heaven, and man.”

“Assassination goes a step further. In addition to all of the above, assassination is, like terrorism, an attack on our body politic. An attack on how we choose to live together. On our system of government. Which in America’s case, means an attack not just against all of us, but against liberal democracy itself.”

“So the assassination of Charlie Kirk is not just a human tragedy for his family. It is not just an affront to society. It is an attack on our civic compact. It should be confronted as such, with no qualifications or equivocations.”

Michael Fanone: “I know what it’s like to be on the business end of political violence.”

“I felt fists, flagpoles, and tasers on January 6th. I heard men scream that they were going to kill me in the name of Donald Trump.”

“That day taught me something too many of us are still trying to ignore: once political violence becomes acceptable—once you decide that your enemy isn’t just wrong but expendable—you don’t control where it leads.”

“If you cheered this shooting because you hated Kirk, you’re no better than the mob that chanted for Mike Pence’s hanging. If you shrug it off because it happened to the other side, you’re part of the same sickness that’s rotting this country.”

Authorities have released a “subject in custody” in the shooting of Charlie Kirk, the Wall Street Journal reports.

New York Times: “Videos recorded before and after the shooting show a person on the roof of the Losee Center, about 150 yards from where Mr. Kirk was shot. In one, an onlooker says they saw someone run across the roof and lie down, pointing out the visible outline of the person. In a second video, the person can be seen rushing away from that spot immediately after the shooting.”

FBI Director Kash Patel announced that a subject in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was in custody.

President Trump announced on social media that conservative activist Charlie Kirk died after being shot in the neck at an event in Utah.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk is absolutely horrifying.

It’s sickening to see political disagreements spill into violence — especially on a college campus, where speech is supposed to be celebrated, not silenced.

There’s no justification for it. Political violence is evil, no matter who the target is.

In a democracy, we have ballots, courts, and free expression to resolve disputes. Resorting to violence threatens to destroy the very system we all depend on.

This country is already on edge. No one wants to live in a tinderbox where politics is settled by force.

Everyone in public life needs to do some serious soul searching.