The classes resume at the University of Utah Valley while the students cry the murder of Charlie Kirk

Orem, Utah – While a large ride American flag where conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was murdered on the University of Utah Valley campus, the students told Fox News Digital Tuesday that Campus feels “scary” and “dark”.

“It is somewhere that we are going to advance our lives, and it could also be the place where it puts an end to our lives,” said James Whitney, a UVU student who told Fox News Digital that the authorities “found the weapon in the courtyard of my parents”.

According to suspect documents Tyler Robinson, the investigators found a “bolt rifle wrapped in a towel” in a wooded area at the northeast end of the campus, but the authorities have not confirmed the exact location.

A week after Kirk was shot down when taking up questions from UVU students, courses on the Orem campus resumed on Wednesday. While students return to the campus to pay tribute to Kirk and return to class, many always deal with what they describe as an “extremely traumatic” incident.

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Students at the University of Utah Valley return to campus following the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025. (Fox News Digital / Deirdre Heavey)

AFTON MILLER, a UVU student who said that she was 5 to 10 feet from Kirk when he was shot, said to Fox News Digital when she returned to the assassination site for the first time: “No one should never be able to say that I witnessed a school shoot, not to mention the assassination of one of your biggest heroes.”

Kirk, 31, was shot dead when he spoke to UVU students last Wednesday, September 10 after a 33 -hour man hunt, Robinson, 22, was arrested. The lawyer for the Utah county, Jeff Gray, described the official accusations against Robinson at a press conference on Tuesday, which was followed by the first appearance of the suspect.

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A memorial that started in the days following the shooting with sparse bouquets and some signs honoring Kirk outside the campus have now filled a whole plot of grass outside the campus. And inside the campus, a few steps from the place where Kirk was killed, more homage increased day by day while students and residents are solemnly walking in the courtyard to pay tribute.

UVU student Jessie Ball told Fox News Digital that she had witnessed her classy friends and comrades, including those who are atheists, returning to prayer in the days that followed the assassination. UVU organizes a campus and a vigil at the community scale on Friday to “come together to remember, cure and reaffirm the shared values”.

An American flag is now suspended where conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed at the University of Utah Valley on Wednesday September 10, 2025, while the campus begins to reopen. (Deirdre Heavey / Fox News Digital)

“Many people like me, who are afraid of talking, we have overcome a little because we think that his messages were important to hear,” said Ball about Kirk when she was holding tears.

Ryder Warner, a UVU student who was on campus when Kirk was killed, said: “The simple fact of being on campus is difficult for everyone”.

“I think it’s particularly difficult because some people applaud, and it really makes your mood fall,” he said. “You lose confidence in this country.”

“I don’t think anyone should be killed for his opinion,” added Warner.

When he was asked for his opinion on Kirk’s policy, a source of many debates since last Wednesday, Whitney told Fox News Digital that he is trying to stay outside of politics because “this is generally what ends up happening”.

The flowers and tributes to the conservative influencer Charlie Kirk filled the campus of the University of Utah Valley following his assassination on Wednesday, September 10, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey / Fox News Digital)

He said he chose to keep his political opinions for him because political violence “normalizes” and when people do not agree, “they try to remove it on everyone”.

Trae Stevens, who grew up in Spanish Fork, who is about an hour’s drive south of the campus, went on Tuesday to pay tribute, because “seeing that it could happen so close to his home is really scary”.

“As Charlie said, silence creates violence,” said Stevens. “I think it is important to treat emotions before fighting dialogue and politicians because, in the end, this is what motivates things like that – emotions.”

While the campus reopened for UVU students looking for mental health resources and employees returning to work, the commemorative monuments filled the grass outside the campus. (Deirdre Heavey / Fox News Digital)

Miller, who said that Kirk was one of his heroes, said that through this tragedy: “We have to get closer to God and others.”

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“There is a reason why we were brought to this point, and there is a reason why we will continue to move forward,” she said.