Charlie Kirk was one of the highest profile conservative activists and media personalities in the US, and a trusted ally of President Donald Trump.

He was shot dead on Wednesday at the age of 31 while hosting a college event for Turning Point USA, the organisation he co-founded, in what police are calling a targeted shooting.

President Donald Trump announced the shocking news of Kirk’s death, paying tribute on Truth Social: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”

Kirk was seen as both the future of conservative activism – as well as a highly polarising figure.

The son of an architect who grew up in the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, Kirk attended a community college near Chicago before dropping out to devote himself to political activism.

He also applied unsuccessfully for West Point, the elite US military academy and often referred tongue-in-cheek to his lack of a college degree when engaging in debates with students and academics on esoteric topics such as post-modernism.

He was an avid public speaker, touring the country speaking at Republican events, many of which were popular with members of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, and his daily conservative talk radio show had millions of followers on social media.

Turning Point, which he started at age 18, aimed to spread conservative ideals at liberal-leaning US colleges.

The event on Wednesday at Utah Valley University, where he was gunned down, was the kick-off of a multi-campus Turning Point tour, during which attendees were invited to debate Kirk about similar issues.

Kirk’s social media and his eponymous daily podcast often offered clips of him debating with students about issues like climate change, faith and family values.

He was known for his anti-transgender views and scepticism over the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, he publicly promoted the false claim that the election won by Joe Biden was stolen from Trump.

Gun control was among the numerous political and social issues he discussed at events and on podcasts. A few months ago, Kirk said: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”.

A clip of Trump himself plays at the beginning of Kirk’s podcast: “I want to thank Charlie, he’s an incredible guy, his spirit, his love of this country, he’s done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organisations ever created.”

The non-profit he founded, Turning Point USA – a large part of his legacy – began after President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.

Its mission, aimed at young people, is to organise students to “promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government”. It now has chapters at more than 850 colleges.

It played a key role in the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump and other Republican candidates in last year’s election. He was also widely credited with helping to register tens of thousands of new voters and flipping Arizona for Trump.

The relationship between Kirk and Trump grew after Trump’s victory, with Kirk attending Trump’s inauguration in January in Washington DC, and becoming a regular visitor at the White House during both Trump terms in office.

According to the New York Times, he played golf with Trump just two days before Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration.

In January he travelled with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, to Greenland, as the then-incoming president was arguing that the US should own the Arctic territory.

Kirk also addressed the Oxford Union – a debating society at Oxford University – earlier this year, and in 2020, wrote a best-seller, The Maga Doctrine, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign.

Kirk’s evangelical Christianity and his young family were front and centre in his politics.

He married Erika Kirk, a businesswoman and former Miss Arizona, in May 2021 and they subsequently had two children.

According to her website, she is the founder of Proclaim, a faith-based clothing line, a podcast host and the founder of two non-profit organisations.

She also frequently appeared by Kirk’s side at public engagements.

The couple regularly posted on Instagram about their family life but kept their children’s identities private.

In August, Kirk posted a photo of himself at the beach as they celebrated his daughter’s third birthday.

Erika Kirk is currently studying for a doctorate in Bible Studies.

On Wednesday, before the event at which her husband was shot, she posted online: “Psalm 46:1 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

The identity of the attacker is still unknown and a mass manhunt is under way.

At a Wednesday evening briefing held by law enforcement agents in Utah, they said they were studying CCTV from the university because they believed the suspect was “all dressed in black” and the single shot “came from a roof”.

BBC Verify geolocated two videos showing a dark shape moving on the roof of a university building, identified as the Losee Center, located about 137m (150 yards) from where Kirk was sitting.

In a news conference on Thursday, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the suspect’s movements around the time of the shooting had been tracked, and showed that the attacker had jumped off the roof of the building from where the fatal gunshot was taken and fled off camps into a neighbourhood nearby.

He added that the suspect appeared to be of college age and they “blended in well with the college institution”.

FBI special agent Robert Bohls said the agency had recovered what it believes to have been the weapon used in the shooting, which is a high-powered bolt-action rifle, in a wooded area where authorities believe the assailant fled.

They also found a footwear impression and a forearm imprint, which they are analysing, he said.

Police are continuing to search for the suspect and were carrying out door-to-door searches in the Utah area in the aftermath of the attack.

Following the shooting on Wednesday, two people were arrested shortly afterwards but were later released with officials saying they had “no ties” to the incident.