Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a campus event in Utah on Sept. 10.

Authorities are still searching for the shooter as of Sept. 11, and the FBI released photos of a person of interest.

The shooting was captured on video as thousands of spectators watched him speak at a"Prove Me Wrong Table" event at Utah Valley University. The gruesome footage of Kirk being shot in the neck and slumping backwards spread rapidly on the internet.

Almost as quickly as the condemnations of political violence came the conspiracy theories on the shooting. A scroll through X shows a smattering of posts theorizing on questions investigators are still trying to answer. Several posts draw comparisons, without evidence they are actually related, to another major act of political violence: the first assassination attempt of President Donald Trump.

The first assassination attempt of Donald Trump: What happened?

On July 13, 2024, Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman positioned on a rooftop near the rally fired multiple shots toward the then-presidential candidate.

Trump was shot in the ear and ducked behind the lectern as Secret Service agents swarmed him and ushered him off stage. However, they did not get him out of public sight before he raised a fist in the air as blood streaked down his face in a photographed moment that would become a defining image of his campaign.

A spectator at the rally was killed, and two were critically injured.

What happened to the suspect who shot Trump in the ear?

The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, and he was killed by law enforcement at the scene. Crooks appeared to have acted alone and did appear to hold any to any particularly strong political leanings.

Records show he was registered as a Republican and made a small donation to a Democrat turnout organization.

He had worked at a nursing home at the time of the shooting.

Conspiracy theories on Butler shooting persist

In more than a year since the shooting and preliminary investigation took place, the FBI has released little additional information about Crooks, opening another avenue for conspiracies to run amok, the New York Times reported.

Helen Comperatore, wife of the man killed at the Trump rally, told the Times she had not received any official update from investigators in months as of July 2025.

“I am praying the president gets to the bottom of it and keeps working on this case for me — and him,” she said, the Times reported.

Another popular conspiracy about the shooting is that Trump was not really shot, despite ample evidence he was.

Was Trump really shot in the ear?

Yes, multiple pieces of evidence show Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet.

A bipartisan congressional task force was created in the weeks following the first attempt to "investigate all actions by any agency, department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as state and local law enforcement (LLE) or any other state or local government or private entities or individuals, related to the attempted assassination," according to a December report from the task force.

A timeline of events included in the report shows Crooks fired three shots at 6:11 p.m., with one round hitting Trump's ear before his detail immediately covered his body. A few seconds later, Crooks fired five more shots, the report stated.

A week after the shooting, Trump's previous White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson issued a memo on Trump's injury.

"The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear," the memo posted to X read. "The bullet track produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear."

Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN that the doctors' reports indicated it would just be a surface-level wound with no further complications.

Trump has mentioned multiple times that he still experiences a "throbbing feeling" in his ear where he was shot.

Some lawmakers are still pushing for answers on the federal agencies' planning, execution and leadership failures that allowed the shooting to take place.

Contributing: Zac Anderson, Matthew Rink, Bart Jansen, Josh Meyer, Jeanine Santucci, David Jackson, USA TODAY Network

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who shot Trump in the ear, and what happened to him? What to know

Reporting by Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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