They testified the murder of Charlie Kirks. Now students consider trauma.
OREM, Utah (AP) – A student hid at home for two days after witnessing the murder of Charlie Kirk, nervous to return to the Utah College campus, where he was shot at the conservative activist. Another, unable to sleep or shake what he saw and listened, called his father to go home.
As the researchers spend the weekend, deepening the suspect Tyler James Robinson before their initial appearance in court on Tuesday, students who witnessed Wednesday’s shooting at the University of Valle de Utah are considering trauma, pain and lever that the murder has launched in their community.
Robinson’s arrest on Thursday night calculated some fears. Even so, the questions persist about the motive and planning of the alleged shooter, as well as security lapses that allowed a man with a rifle to shoot Kirk from a roof before fleeing.
The University has said that there will be greater security when classes resume on September 17.
In the hometown of Robinson, about 240 miles (390 kilometers) southwest of the campus, a presence of application of the law decreased significantly on Saturday after the FBI executed a search warrant in his family’s house. A gray Dodge Challenger that the authorities say Robinson led UVU seemed to have been dragged.
No one responded to the door on Saturday at his family’s house in Washington, Utah, and the blinds were closed.

ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES THROUGH GETTY IMAGES
The murder has provoked courtesy in American political discourse, but those calls were not always treated, and some people who have criticized Kirk following their death have been fired or suspended from their work.
On Friday, Office Depot said he fired a worker in a Michigan store that was seen on video that refused to print flyers for a Kirk vigil and called them “propaganda.” On Thursday, a conservative Internet personality filmed a video outside the house of the Democratic governor of Illinois JB Pritzker, urging viewers to “take action” after Kirk’s murder. Pritzker’s security has been intensified.
In an improvised memorial near the main entrance of the University of Utah Valley in OEM, people have been leaving flowers. The cars toured the nearby streets on Saturday, playing horns, flying American flags and showing messages such as “We Love You Charlie”, “Charlie 4 Ever” and “Rip Charlie”.
In the area where Turning Point Usa co -founder was shot, a crew has begun to tear down tents and banners and eliminate the reminders of the murder.
A monument to Kirk gathers stunned students
The student Alec Vera stopped on the monument after finally leaving his house on Friday night for a trip to clarify his head. Vera said she had been stunned, unable to concentrate and avoid people, since she saw Kirk collapsed about 30 or 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) in front of him.
“I simply felt the need to come here, be with everyone, either to comfort or be comforted, just to surround myself with those who are also mourning,” Vera said.
A woman knelt, sobbing. Others were silent or spoke softly with friends. On the perimeter of the campus, the trees were wrapped in red tapes.
A handful of cars remained stranded in the parking lots by students who left the keys while fleeing the shooting. A student begged an officer to let him recover his bicycle beyond the police tape and broke a smile when the officer let him pass. The University said people can collect their belongings at the beginning of next week.
Anxious to return to campus
The student Marjorie Holt began to cry when she brought flowers to the campus on Thursday, which led her to change her mind about returning to the campus this weekend.
Hours after the shooting, the 18 -year -old said that she lay on the bed, tormented by the horror she witnessed: the sound of a single shot when Kirk answered a question and then: “I saw him fall, I saw the blood, but for some reason I could not click for me what happened.”
Unable to sleep due to a headache, nausea and the trauma of the day, he called her father, who took her home to Salt Lake City, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) to the north.

Salt Lake Tribune through Getty Images
Returning to the campus, Holt said, will feel like a terrible load, as a burden in my heart. “
Vera said that Kirk was shot in the main meeting place of the campus, where students take naps, meditate, do the homework and spend the time.
“Seeing him when I return, I will feel quite uncomfortable at the beginning, knowing that I have to go beyond him every time, knowing what had just happened here,” Vera said.
Fighting with flashbacks and strange heaviness
The student Alexis Narciso said he has flashbacks when he listens to an explosion, a horn horn or other strong noise. It was about 10 feet (3 meters) away.
“I just feel numb. I don’t feel anything,” said Narciso. “I want to cry but at the same time I don’t.”
Jessa Packard, a single mother who lives nearby, said that even with a suspect in custody, her feeling of restlessness has not risen. Packard’s home security system captured the video of Dodge Challenger that the police say Robinson led to the campus. After the shooting, he said, the law agents descended in their neighborhood, searching for patios and taking security images.
“There is really strange heaviness and I believe that, honestly, much fear for me personally has not disappeared,” said Pckard. “The fact that there was as this murderer in my neighborhood, without knowing where it is but knowing that it has been there, studying things, is a really disturbing feeling.”
Looking for the closure from one campus to another
Halle Hanchett, 19, a student at the nearby Brigham Young University, said he had just taken out his phone to start filming Kirk when he heard the shot followed by a collective gasp. Hanchett said that Vio Blood, Kirk’s security team jumped forward and horror on the faces around him. She fell to the ground in the fetal position, wondering: “What’s happening? Will I die?”
On Friday, he brought Flores and looked silently in the place where the “American return tour” of Kirk ended in violence.
“In recent days, I just didn’t say much, I like the area a bit, looking,” said Hanchett, standing with his fiance while the water sources bubbled near. “The memory is only repeated.”
She is praying for the force to advance, said: “And take it as: ‘Ok, I was here for this. How can I learn from this? And how can I help other people learn from this?”
Robinson’s neighbor looks for answers
In Robinson’s hometown, neighbor Kris Schwiermann remembered him as a shy, studious and “very respectful” student who loved reading. Schwiermann, 66, was the main custodian in the elementary school attended by Robinson and his brothers.
She said she was surprised by the news of her arrest, describing the Robinson as a “very united family.”
Like the Robinson, Schwiermann is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the last days. She said they belonged to the same congregation, although she said that the family had not been active in the Church in at least eight years.
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“I want to make sure people know that we have no disease for their family or him,” Schwiermann said. “He made the wrong decision.”
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Yamat reported from Washington, Utah and St. George, Utah. News Reporters Seal Govindarao in Phoenix, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael R. Sisak in New York also contributed to this report.


