Inside the mind of a shooter: profiler breaks down the planning behind high-level assassination attempts
The assassin behind Charlie Kirk‘s murder is still on the lam, and is likely an individual who lacks social skills, isolates himself and has only a loose plan for next steps, retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent and profiler James Clemente told Fox News Digital.
“In this case, it’s likely that there has been for some time, a building frustration, and anger, and rage and an inability to feel that is addressed. And so they wanted to make a big — a very big — public statement. [The suspect] probably has a very poor self image, and wanted to do something big to feel better about themselves. And they probably, again, don’t have the skills to address these issues in a calm, rational, interpersonal way. And that’s why they lashed out in this very violent and extreme manner,” Clemente, who is also the co-host and creator of the show “Real Crime Profile,” told Fox News Digital in a phone interview on Thursday.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot by an unidentified individual on Wednesday afternoon while attending an event at Utah Valley University as part of his “American Comeback Tour.” Kirk was a massive voice for the conservative movement, championing faith, family and freedom-focused values for youths, most notably on college campuses through TPUSA.
The shocking assassination has not yet yielded a suspect, with the FBI and local law enforcement agencies currently poring through evidence to identify and apprehend the individual.
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Clemente spoke to Fox Digital specifically about a shooter’s pre- and post-offense behavior, noting that the suspect likely dropped hints or divulged details of the planned assassination to friends or family, or via social media posts ahead of the violence.
“This is not likely a repeat offense for this person. It’s probably the first time that they ever acted out in this way, and therefore they probably leaked out information beforehand,” he said, adding that the suspect may have dropped information to others while at work to colleagues or while drinking at a bar.
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High-profile shooters typically drop breadcrumbs of information on their planned attack “because they don’t know for certain that this is what they’re going to do, but they are building up this frustration and anger and rage, and they want to take it out.”
The retired FBI profiler added that the suspect is likely not a sophisticated killer and was only “developing” a murderous persona, which would make the individual more prone to speaking openly about the upcoming attack.
Police dispatch audio revealed police were on the hunt for a person wearing all black and carrying a long rifle near the university library, Fox News Digital previously reported. Investigators later said they recovered a “high-powered, bolt-action rifle” near the scene after tracing the assassin’s suspected escape route.
Police, citing images of a person of interest that they obtained, reported the individual appeared to be college-age and “blended in well” with the crowd.
“Starting at 11:52 a.m. this subject arrived on campus, shortly away from campus,” Utah Department of Public Safety Director Beau Mason told reporters on Thursday. “We have tracked his movements onto the campus through the stairwells, up to the roof across the roof to the shooting location. After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building and fled, off of the campus and into a neighborhood.”
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Clemente, in his breakdown of the suspect’s “post-offense behavior,” said the shooter likely did not map out a next step plan after carrying out the assassination, pointing to how police recovered the rifle tossed near the scene of the tragedy.
“He had no idea what was going to happen afterwards, what was going to happen during, whether he was going to get away with it or not. And so, therefore, he didn’t plan out his after-game,” Clemente said.
The retired FBI supervisory special agent added that the suspect is likely currently showing a guilty hand with odd behaviors, such as making an excuse of facing some type of emergency and needing to abruptly leave his home, job or school.
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“Somebody knows this person. A number of people know this person. A number of people will have some kind of interaction with him, in which he will sort of try to avoid the spotlight until the heat is off of him. And so he may leave the area for kind of a last-minute emergency and then try to come back when everything’s calmed down,” Clemente said.
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The FBI is currently offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect or suspects, with FBI Director Kash Patel heading to Utah on Thursday.
Clemente stressed to Fox News Digital that the FBI is investigating “everything.”
“They’re using whatever technology is available. They’re definitely looking at all videos. There’s literally hundreds and hundreds of videos out there from the students and the attendees at this rally. There’s also cameras out in the real world that I’m certain that they followed this person’s egress and ingress and, that’s how they found the weapon, and it is also how he’s going to be identified,” he said.
Kirk, 31, leaves behind his wife Erika and their two children, ages one and three. His casket will be transported to Arizona on Air Force Two, Fox News Digital reported on Thursday.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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