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  "path": "/2026/05/23/student-spoke-charlie-kirk-last-responds-claims-signalled-gunman-28491346/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-23T16:10:47.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "US",
    "Charlie Kirk",
    "Crime News",
    "supports HTML5\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo",
    "mass shootings",
    "check our news page",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source"
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  "textContent": "To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo\n\nUp Next\n\nPrevious Page\n\nNext Page\n\nThe student who asked Charlie Kirk a question about gun deaths seconds before he was shot and killed still wonders if he should have asked a different question.\n\nHunter Kozak has been accused of signalling the gunman who targeted the far-right activists as he was on stage debating students at Utah Valley University in September.\n\nThe mathematics students has spent weeks preparing for the moment he was debate Charlie, 31, memorising statistics on gun violence.\n\nIn particular, Hunter, 29, wanted to challenge him on his assertation transgender people are more likely to be mass shooters.\n\nHe said: ‘I had researched the statistics of mass shootings and I was ready to defend my findings. I had hoped to change people’s minds.\n\nCharlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, before he was shot and killed (Picture: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)\n\n‘I wonder so much about how it would have played out differently if I had asked that question and Charlie died defending the Epstein list instead.\n\n‘It’s very strange to think about how small choices I made went on to affect the whole political climate.’\n\nAs Charlie sat in the shade with his microphone ready, Hunter stepped up and asked his question.\n\nHe said: ‘Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years?’\n\nCharlie replied: ‘Too many.’\n\nCharlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University(Picture: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)\n\nHunter followed: ‘In America, it’s five. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been over the last ten years?’\n\nCharlie responded, asking: ‘Counting or not counting gang violence?’\n\nSeconds after Hunter replied, ‘not counting’, Charlie was shot.\n\nIn the immediate aftermath, footage shows Hunter shaking for a few seconds before ducking to the ground.\n\nHe said: ‘I’ve been dealing with profound grief after witnessing something like that. I think one of the hardest things about it is that I’m in a very unique circumstance, and I’m really struggling to interact with other people because of that.’\n\nTyler Robinson has been arrested over Charlie Kirk’s death\n(Picture: AP)\n\nTyler Robinson has been arrested over Charlie’s death, but eight months on Hunter continues to blame himself.\n\nConspiracy theorists analysed the moments before the shooting and looked at Hunter’s reaction frame-by-frame.\n\nThey posited Hunter had sent a signal to the shooter, with some accusing him of being a ‘paid actor’. He still receives death threats.\n\nHe told The Times: ‘Why would I need to give a signal? What would I give a signal of? And anyway, I was a few feet away from him, right in the line of fire. I don’t know, it all feels so bizarre.\n\n‘People treated me as if I wasn’t a real person, like some character in their John Grisham novel.\n\n‘I disagree vehemently with almost everything Charlie Kirk said. But he was also a human being. He was a father-of-two like me, and his children have to grow up without a father.’\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,** check our news page.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "Student who spoke to Charlie Kirk last responds to claims he ‘signalled to gunman’"
}