Charlie Kirk's Family Alleges Major Security Failures

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Unbelievable.

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Devin (0:38)

Welcome to The TMZ Podcast. Devin here. I'm back.

Branson (0:41)

Hey, good morning. Good, dude.

Devin (0:43)

It's been a while, right?

Branson (0:44)

People were commenting, where is Devin?

Devin (0:46)

No, they were like, please never bring him back.

Branson (0:48)

No, no, no, no.

Devin (0:48)

There was a lot of those.

Branson (0:49)

There was a couple of comments where people said, where's Devin? And they got thumbs up too, like three or four thumbs up.

Devin (0:53)

Glad to be back with you, Branson.

I'm glad to be back with you. Branson.

Branson (0:56)

Yeah, good. Good to be here, man.

Devin (0:58)

A lot of I mean, we'll end on a very positive kind of funny note, but a lot of really, you know, really deep stories today. 100 percent that we're going to start with Charlie Kirk's family. It's signaling that there is probably going to be a lawsuit surrounding, you know, security failures that they believe led to his death. And obviously, this is, you know, a huge update in this story. So basically, what they did is, they filed a legal notice indicating they intend to sue Utah Valley University over what they're describing as security and planning failures surrounding his assassination.

Branson (1:39)

Yeah.

Devin (1:39)

So it's like basically the first, how I understand it, it's the first legal step that they're taking basically to preserve a statute of limitations in the case, or in the basically so that they are able to file a lawsuit. And yeah, so I don't know if you want to get into what kind of the Kirk's family attorney is saying basically.

Branson (2:00)

Yeah. So the family attorney for the Kirk family is saying that the alleged decisions left Charlie helpless to the rooftop shooter. The attorney claimed the assassination could have been avoided if Utah Valley University had taken reasonable steps to plan and oversee a safe event. The attorney said those steps were standard practice at other universities hosting controversial speakers. The notice that they filed also alleges that the university failed to conduct a quote meaningful risk assessment before the outdoor event in September, 2025 Wow. So it's been a year now since this happened. And the family says that Charlie's death.

Devin (2:37)

I can't believe it's been a year.

Branson (2:38)

I know.

Devin (2:39)

And it was one of the- Seems like so much longer ago.

Branson (2:41)

It was one of the, like I remember when we were in the newsroom when this broke and one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch. I mean, the footage-

Devin (2:50)

Everyone had their phones out. Just horrific.

Branson (2:52)

Horrific footage that people had taken.

Devin (2:55)

So potential defendants in this are Utah Valley University, the state of Utah, the UVU Police Department, and additional parties, I guess, that are listed in this document.

It's not, I guess, that shocking because I feel like when people die tragically, usually the family wants someone to essentially be responsible for this happening. Right. Obviously a terrible, terrible thing that happened. So yeah, I guess we'll kind of see where that whole case goes.

Branson (3:28)

The attorney did put a statement in the filing saying, those decisions ultimately rendered Mr. Kirk helpless to the rooftop shooter in an assassination that could have been avoided had the UVU parties only taken responsible steps to plan and oversee a safe event. Steps outlined below that have been standard practice for other universities. And I mean, looking at the scene where this happened, it was such an open area, right? So there's all these roofs around it and everything like that.

Devin (3:56)

But that was kind of his thing, right? Like he would go from campus to campus and he liked the banter with people who didn't agree with him. And I guess what you're saying is it, because most of the clips I've seen of him aren't in like gymnasiums. They're almost like in a quad, in a courtyard. So it seemed like that was kind of the vibe of his tour.

Branson (4:19)

So it could have been them saying that an extra set of eyes looking at these rooftops could have been the complete avoidance of this entire situation.

Devin (4:28)

Yeah.