FBI Agent Lays Out Chilling Analysis Of Kirk Assassination: ‘Professional Hit’

Retired FBI agent Stuart Kaplan provided a chilling analysis of the assassination of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk in which he stated that the killing had the makings of a “professional hit.”

Kirk was shot around noon local time at Utah Valley University and was pronounced dead a little over an hour later. He was shot by a single bullet midway through the question-and-answer period and immediately transported to a local hospital, though he was unable to survive the massive loss of blood.

Investigators believe Kirk was shot from a nearby rooftop, though CNN has reported that investigators were unable to recover a weapon from the area. As of 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, September 11, the gunman is still at-large.

While speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Kaplan shared his analysis on the assassination and the ongoing manhunt to locate the shooter.

“I think this assassination, different than the assassinated attempt back in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a very well-planned, very well-orchestrated plot that was put in motion days before,” the retired FBI special agent speculated. “And this individual had a plan of escape to elude detection of being out up on a rooftop and also being able to evade and elude law enforcement after that shot was taken.”

Kaplan compared the Kirk assassination with the attempt on President Donald Trump’s life in Pennsylvania last month, specifically noting that the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was seen entering and later leaving the venue before taking the shot. Crooks’ presence was noted by Secret Service counter-snipers, who took a photo but later lost track of him.

Crooks was also neutralized by counter-snipers within seconds of squeezing off a few shots.

“I mean, it was really an amateur scenario,” Kaplan said of the Butler shooting. “This assassination of Charlie Kurt, to me, is indicative of a professional hit. And I’m not so sure that we are going to quickly be able to apprehend this individual without some luck, hopefully.”

Watters followed up by asking what Kaplan means when he describes the shooting as a “professional hit.”

“Do you mean one shot, one kill, escape already planned and at large? It looks clean, yes. But could this be done by anybody with any sort of basic training?” the Fox News host inquired.

“Well, when you take a look at the video and you take a look at the venue and the spectators and how close they are to Charlie Kirk, and then you have that kind of like umbrella over him, that kind of tent, you have to know that this shooter had to be perched in a position with respect to being able to lay his sights perfectly, basically a headshot,” Kaplan responded.

“And the shot that was taken was taken to immediately incapacitate Charlie Kirk. And so this was not some amateur who just, you know, got up on a rooftop because it was, you know, what I consider spontaneous combustion. He got up this morning and decided he was going to do something crazy. This seems the earmark of a professional that got up onto this rooftop well in advance of the venue being occupied by the spectators. He was clearly undetected.”

Kaplan further noted that the killer was able to evade immediate capture, possibly indicating a well-planned attack and escape route. “And so to me, this is someone who had some experience some level of sophistication to have mapped out exactly how this was going to go down,” he added.

FBI Director Kash Patel previously announced that a “person of interest” had been taken into custody, though that individual was ultimately released after interrogation. A massive, multi-agency manhunt is ongoing as of Thursday morning.

Just The News correspondent John Solomon reported that the FBI has a “couple leads,” as well as a “couple hot leads” and “a little bit of foreign intelligence” as the investigation progresses.