BURSTA Utah student who asked conservative activist Charlie Kirk a question on Wednesday, right before he was shot and killed, said he wished he would have asked something different.
“I had been fluctuating between different ones. Now that I know, for sure I would’ve asked a different one. I just would’ve. 100 percent," Hunter Kozak, the Utah Valley University undergraduate student, said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune that was released Friday morning.
Kozak, a 29-year-old studying mathematics and philosophy, asked Kirk about transgender mass shooters during the Wednesday college event in Orem, Utah. As Kirk responded, he was shot in the neck.
“It sounded like a firecracker. I thought it was fired 2 feet away from me, it was so loud,” Kozak, who promptly dropped to the ground as the bullet rang out, told The Tribune.
Since the killing of Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, Kozak has spoken to police and has been questioned by the FBI.
Kozak also addressed the shooting in a video published on the social platform X on Thursday.
“First off, you sick f------- psychos that think this is the answer, it’s not. I don’t know what else to say. It’s f------- not. It’s awful and a father doesn’t have his kids anymore,” Kozak said in the video.
“Charlie had two kids and a wife. And, like, not to make this about me, but I have two kids and a wife and if my 1-year-old boy, like his 1-year-old will grow up without memories of his dad, it’s a tragedy and it’s hard to grapple with. And I’m part of a community that’s struggling to grapple with it right now."
A manhunt has been underway for the suspected shooter since the incident took place. Law enforcement identified the alleged shooter as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old resident of Utah.
Robinson was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder and two other state felony charges, court documents show. He is currently in custody in Utah County Jail.