Hunter Kozak, the student who asked Charlie Kirk a question about gun deaths moments before the far-right activist was shot and killed, still grapples with whether he should have chosen a different question. Kozak has faced accusations that he signaled the gunman who targeted Kirk during a debate at Utah Valley University in September.
The mathematics student spent weeks preparing for the debate with Kirk, 31, memorizing statistics on gun violence. Kozak, 29, particularly wanted to challenge Kirk's assertion that transgender people are more likely to be mass shooters. He said, 'I had researched the statistics of mass shootings and I was ready to defend my findings. I had hoped to change people’s minds.'
'I wonder so much about how it would have played out differently if I had asked that question and Charlie died defending the Epstein list instead. It’s very strange to think about how small choices I made went on to affect the whole political climate,' Kozak added.
As Kirk sat in the shade with his microphone ready, Kozak stepped up and asked his question. He said, 'Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years?' Kirk replied, 'Too many.' Kozak followed: 'In America, it’s five. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been over the last ten years?' Kirk responded, asking, 'Counting or not counting gang violence?' Seconds after Kozak replied, 'not counting,' Kirk was shot.
In the immediate aftermath, footage shows Kozak shaking for a few seconds before ducking to the ground. He said, 'I’ve been dealing with profound grief after witnessing something like that. I think one of the hardest things about it is that I’m in a very unique circumstance, and I’m really struggling to interact with other people because of that.'
Tyler Robinson has been arrested over Kirk's death, but eight months on, Kozak continues to blame himself. Conspiracy theorists analyzed the moments before the shooting and examined Kozak's reaction frame-by-frame. They posited that Kozak had sent a signal to the shooter, with some accusing him of being a 'paid actor.' He still receives death threats.
Kozak told The Times: 'Why would I need to give a signal? What would I give a signal of? And anyway, I was a few feet away from him, right in the line of fire. I don’t know, it all feels so bizarre.'
'People treated me as if I wasn’t a real person, like some character in their John Grisham novel. I disagree vehemently with almost everything Charlie Kirk said. But he was also a human being. He was a father-of-two like me, and his children have to grow up without a father,' Kozak concluded.
