Trump leads blame game following shooting of right-wing influencer

Several dozen people gathered long into the night to mourn Charlie Kirk at Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he died. 

Candles illuminated the hospital sign, and mourners had draped it in American flags.

Skyler Baird, who had been at the event where the shooting took place, told Sky News: "I was maybe 10 or 15 feet away when it happened. I was doing OK. And then I was putting my five-year-old to bed. And she had me read her a story about love. I just couldn't finish the story, I was thinking about Charlie's little girls, his wife. He was such a powerful human being at 31 years old, the things that he accomplished."

Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk was shot, is located two miles from the hospital.

In time, it will return to routine - that time is not now.

Darkness has not removed the sense of unreality from a student campus turned crime scene, where the shock of an assassination in full view combines with the fear of an ongoing hunt for the killer.

The campus is sealed off and its main building has been transformed into a makeshift command centre.

The place is locked down as the message is locked in - nowhere is safe from an assassin who could be anywhere.

Anxiety wasn't necessarily eased by a real-time running commentary from the FBI Director, Kash Patel, who posted on 'X': "The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody."

It carried a certainty that didn't last.

He posted an update that the subject had been released, promising to "continue to release information in interest of transparency".

Transparently, there may yet be questions over the value of safety reassurance that could put the public in danger. People drop their guard when they are told a killer's been caught.

The manhunt is the immediate priority in this city in Utah, as the politics reverberate far beyond.

Catching the killer is key to where this story goes next because, until then, motive remains a mystery - even if assumption came running out of the gate.

In his address from the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump spoke of "political violence" and pointed left, saying: "For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today."

They are a president's words to guide a nation's response - how blame is interpreted across a divided America will shape the implications.

Political violence is increasingly embedded in US culture, increasingly over time.

Mr Trump himself has survived two assassination attempts and political figures on both sides have been victims of murder and violent attacks.

In June, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hoffman, a Democrat, was shot dead along with her husband.

The drumbeat of extremism has grown in the United States. It's not unique to this country, but its consequences can be uniquely severe in a place where the population has ready access to weapons.

The killing of Charlie Kirk has shaken America.

It feels incendiary - the tenor of the political reaction would attest to that.

Moments like this typically prompt a nation to search its soul, retreat to a mutual understanding of how bad things have become and how much worse they could get.

America feels like it might have travelled past that point. If so, and how far, we are about to find out.