Any law enforcement agent will tell you that the first 24 hours after a murder are the most crucial.
The killer is on the move and trying to evade capture. Real-life shooters aren’t like Frederick Forsyth’s fictional assassin in The Day of the Jackal. They are out in the open. They panic. They make mistakes.
But as 24 hours passed Charlie Kirk was shot in cold blood as he sat in the middle of the Utah Valley University campus, the hunt for the gunman was reduced to a fuzzy photo and a plea to phone 1-800-CALL-FBI.
FBI boss Kash Patel threw some cash at the problem, offering a $100,000 reward.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual(s) responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Contact 1-800-CALL-FBI and submit photos and… pic.twitter.com/ReuzFhdm0H
— FBI (@FBI) September 11, 2025
But despite what the Trump administration may believe, money doesn’t solve every problem.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Patel, and his deputy Dan Bongino may have been doing a “fabulous job,” according to the president, but faced with solving a major crime instead of arresting illegal immigrants outside Home Depots, they are being found sorely wanting.
For someone as camera-aware as Patel, it was surprising that he waited until Thursday afternoon to head to Utah to take personal charge of the most important case of his life.
It’s certainly hard to understand why JD Vance was the one to head West while Patel and Bongino were in New York at the 9/11 memorial. Representing the premier national law enforcement agency on a day of national mourning would normally be the right thing, but surely, after Kirk’s murder, the head of the FBI would be excused.
Nobody could have precisely predicted such a heinous attack, although political violence has been creeping insidiously into the national conversation—and Patel’s FBI had been instructed not to focus on it and tackle illegal immigration and street crime instead.
But the FBI response in the immediate aftermath of the shooting is more like Keystone Cops than elite investigators. More Duh-Man than G-Men.
A man’s death was filmed live and flashed around the internet in minutes. But the footage from the tower 200 yards from where Kirk was sitting took a day to find and make public. The FBI said early in the morning that they had the picture but would not release it unless they failed to identify the suspect on their own. Then, a few hours later, they changed their minds. The implication of failure was clear.
By that time, the suspect with a long-sleeved black shirt which seems to have an American flag logo, sunglasses, a hat, and a bookbag—if he is, indeed, the right man—was long gone.
It’s hard to criticize the local police for a situation they could never imagine would ever happen. But then who would imagine children would be shot in our schools? There had been protests about Kirk’s rally. Shouldn’t the site have been shut down within minutes of the tragedy?
Six police officers were reportedly working as security at the Turning Point USA event, which drew over 3,000 people. Kirk also had his own security detail on Wednesday afternoon.
“We train for these things, and you think you have things covered, and these things, unfortunately, they happen,” said UVU Police Chief Jeff Long. “You try to get your bases covered, and unfortunately, today we didn’t. Because of that, we had this tragic incident.”
Startlingly honest. Don’t expect such admissions from the FBI.
Student Afton Miller, a member of Turning Point USA, Kirk’s conservative political organization, said she just “walked in” and there didn’t seem to be “a whole lot of security.”
We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. 1-800-CALL-FBIDigital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc
— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025
“We saw his neck get hit, and he immediately jolted his neck back, and he fell. Oh, my goodness, it was crazy to see that,” she said. In the aftermath, the security staff’s only thought was to clear the area. “They were like, ‘Get out of here. Go, evacuate,’” said Miller.
“It was a very unsecured environment to begin with, and then the handling of the aftermath was totally bungled by the university,” a college professor at the event told a local Utah TV network.
The killer likely escaped back down the stairwell he used to access the roof that gave him a bird’s eye view of his target. He is thought to have “blended” with the college crowds fleeing from the scene then dumped his bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel in woodland.
There is no telling how hampered the investigation was by the mistaken detention of two suspects, who were later released. It was certainly a waste of valuable time.
The manhunt descended into farce when a 77-year-old retired banker in Toronto revealed he had been hounded online because he resembled one of the men wrongly arrested at the college in the wake of the shooting. Both men, unusually, were named, leading to the innocent man being hounded in another country.
FBI directors are traditionally careful types, protective of their agents and shy of the spotlight. The days of J. Edgar Hoover are long gone.
But Patel—briefly, a federal prosecutor before becoming a full-time Republican operative then a podcast, children’s book author and clothing and cigar entrepreneur—is cut from a more performative cloth. “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with @fbi. We will provide updates when able,” he wrote on X soon after the incident.
The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with @fbi. We will provide updates when able.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 10, 2025
That was after they arrested the second wrong man and presumably before they realized their blunder.
Two hours later, Patel issued an embarrassing update.
“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” he posted, adding: “Our investigation continues.”
The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency https://t.co/YXsG6YpFR5
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 10, 2025
It wasn’t a good day for Patel. He was also sued by three fired FBI agents on Wednesday, who alleged he was trying to “politicize” the agency. They offered embarrassing allegations including that he handed out cigars and “challenge coins,” posted on social media and insisted on Trump loyalty tests rather than lead with rigor and command.
After Kirk’s death, Patel’s deputy, Bongino, posted a picture of himself on his one-time fellow podcaster Charlie Kirk’s show, with the words: “We will not rest.” This is the man who has pondered publicly about how unhappy he was at the FBI and likened it to making him feel he was dying inside.
We will not rest. pic.twitter.com/VQQbY4T4LA
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) September 10, 2025
Fresh from announcing that illicit vapes were being seized in Chicago, Bondi posted: “FBI and ATF agents are on the scene. PRAY FOR CHARLIE.”
After the president announced that Kirk had died, Bondi was back online to say: “Charlie’s legacy of faith, love, and service will endure in the lives he shaped and the cause he so selflessly championed. We will honor him and we will not rest until justice is served.”
Trump was already distancing himself from the investigation on Thursday, saying he had been updated on the search for the killer. “They have a virtual manhunt out there. So we’ll see what happens,” he said, adding:“We hope you get them.”
Agents on the ground will know that words don’t catch murderers. And it is the courts that decide on guilt, not social media.
With every hour that the killer remained free, the conspiracies grew over his motives. The left was skeptical about the killer’s alleged motives and, specifically, about claims by the authorities that ammunition with transgender and anti-fascist terminology had been found.
The right was hellbent on revenge, with Trump vowing he will, “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence.”
“Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war,” said right-wing strategist Steve Bannon. “We are at war in this country. We are.”
Patel and Bongino have talked enough. It’s time for them to walk the walk.
There is one other appealing alternative.
They should hand the FBI back to the people who know what they are doing.
The post Opinion: Keystone Kash Patel’s Catastrophic Failure in FBI’s Charlie Kirk Manhunt appeared first on The Daily Beast.
