Charlie Kirk’s family says the university that hosted him the day he died could have stopped it, and now they’re preparing to prove it in court.
Story Snapshot
- Kirk’s family filed a notice of claim against Utah Valley University, accusing officials of “stunning failures and reckless decisions” before the September 2025 shooting.
- The notice, a required legal step before suing the state, argues UVU failed to run a meaningful risk assessment on the outdoor event site.
- UVU has said its police coordinated with Kirk’s own security team and found no credible threats beforehand.
- A preliminary hearing for accused shooter Tyler Robinson has already surfaced testimony about gaps in campus police planning.
Family Says University Created A Foreseeable Danger
Charlie Kirk’s family filed a notice of claim against Utah Valley University on September 9, the first legal step toward a wrongful death lawsuit.
The notice accuses the school of a “series of stunning failures and reckless decisions” that it says built the conditions for Kirk’s assassination on campus last year.
The claim argues UVU never ran a real risk assessment before approving the outdoor courtyard as the event site. That location, the family says, left Kirk exposed with no barriers between him and rooftops overlooking the space where the fatal shot came from.
Under Utah law, a spouse, child, or parent can file this kind of notice before suing a government entity for wrongful death. Filing it does not guarantee a lawsuit follows, but it locks in the family’s legal right to sue UVU, the state of Utah, and other named parties.
Charlie Kirk's family takes first steps to filing lawsuit blaming lax security for leaving him 'helpless' to assassination https://t.co/ZLFYUQQ368 pic.twitter.com/OOoZvNdqL1
— New York Post (@nypost) September 16, 2026
What UVU Says It Did To Secure The Event
UVU has defended its planning since the day Kirk died. A university spokesperson said campus police talked with Kirk’s private security team before the event and judged there were no credible threats against him.
UVU Police Chief Jeff Long said six officers worked the event alongside Kirk’s own security detail, covering a crowd of roughly 3,000 people in an open-air amphitheater setting. The university also confirmed it used no metal detectors, bag checks, or entry screening, since UVU operates as an open campus.
Courtroom Testimony Raises Fresh Questions
Testimony from Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing has added new detail to the security debate. A former UVU police officer told the court he had no prior briefing or written operational plan for the event, a gap that lines up closely with the family’s claim of inadequate advance planning.
The same hearing revealed the officer only saw certain drone and nighttime photos of the crime scene weeks before trial, and he had not updated his original report with that footage. Whether these details matter legally depends on what a full investigation later shows about who reviewed the site beforehand.
Six officers for a 3,000-person crowd in an open courtyard is a thin line of defense for a high-profile public figure. Reasonable security planning does not require paranoia, but it does require imagining the obvious: an open rooftop, an open crowd, and a known public target. That gap deserves scrutiny, regardless of how the lawsuit turns out.
Why Campus Security Lawsuits Are Hard To Win
Legal history shows these cases are difficult for families to win. Courts have long held that universities only owe “reasonable care,” not perfect protection, once they take on a security role for an event.
In Gragg v. Wichita State University, judges ruled the school had no duty to prevent an attack from a third party they could not have predicted, even though a shooting still happened on campus.
That legal standard means Kirk’s family will need to show UVU’s security choices were unreasonable, not just that a tragedy occurred despite them.
Similar arguments are now playing out at Florida State University, where a shooting survivor recently sued over claims of inadequate security at a student union. Foreseeability, not hindsight, tends to decide these cases in court.
🚨 JUST IN: The family of Charlie Kirk is set to file a LAWSUIT against Utah Valley University and those responsible for security that allowed the assassin to get into position and take aim
The State of Utah is also being targeted in the notice of claim, along with the police… pic.twitter.com/wYb35eAxEI
— John f Kennedy Jr (@Real_Jfkennedjr) September 16, 2026
UVU has promised an independent, third-party review of its security decisions and said it would release the findings publicly once complete.
That review, paired with ongoing testimony in Robinson’s criminal trial, will likely shape whether the Kirk family’s notice of claim turns into a full lawsuit and how strong their case becomes.
Sources:
abcnews.com, nbcnews.com, deseret.com, npr.org, abc4.com, apnews.com, pbs.org
