PHOENIX ( KPHO /AP/Gray News) - Conservative activist Charlie Kirk , the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA , died after being shot on Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence seen in the United States.

Kirk had long focused on energizing young conservatives with speaking events like the one he was at in Utah.

The 31-year-old had launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread.

A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-

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