A former FBI agent and Utah Valley University professor is warning that a new wave of political violence appears to be increasingly targeting everyday citizens, not just political figures, after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination on campus on Sept. 10.

“The [Minneapolis] church shooting, the Charlie Kirk shooting, these are different,” said Greg Rogers, who spent 30 years in the FBI, many of them as a SWAT sniper.

“These are just citizens that are being murdered for political reasons, which is…certainly not unique and brand new, but it’s happening more frequently,” he continued. “We haven’t seen much of that…If you think about political assassinations in the past, even in modern times, you’ve got John and Bobby Kennedy, you’ve got Ronald Reagan was shot, you’ve got George Wallace when he was a governor was shot. You’ve got all these big political national figures. That to me seems very different than normal citizens that are kind of just doing their thing, getting murdered for their political views.”

Then-President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was a leading presidential candidate when Sirhan Sirhan gunned him down five years later. At Kirk’s memorial Sunday, his son, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was expected to attend with President Trump and other Cabinet members. 

People run after a shot was fired at U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.  (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via REUTERS)

“I’ve always been surprised how parents think that’s difficult,” he added. “I mean, the simple response is, ‘I’m paying for your cellphone bill. I’m paying for the Wi-Fi for your laptop. So I’m having access to what you’re doing.'”

Rogers’ class resumed Thursday evening, when he opened up the class for discussions and reflection and skipped his planned lecture.

His course is normally focused on serial killers and criminal psychology, he said, adding that Kirk’s assassination will likely be dissected by criminal profilers.

“In this particular case, the stuff that he had written on his cartridges, all those sorts of things, his social media, mean a whole lot to a profiler about the type of defendant you’re dealing with,” he said.

Robinson faces charges including aggravated murder, which carries the potential death penalty in Utah. He may also face federal charges.  

Booking photos for Tyler Robinson, 22, the suspect in the Utah assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Utah Gov. Spencer Cox)

Kirk was a 31-year-old father of two. He co-founded Turning Point USA, a national conservative youth organization with chapters on hundreds of university campuses, and rose to prominence not just as a conservative speaker and commentator, but by debating people in person at schools around the U.S. 

Turning Point’s UVU chapter had sponsored the event at which Kirk was speaking with an audience member when he was killed.

“You, of course, want your students to feel safe walking around campus and being back,” Rogers said. “And unfortunately, I think due to my career and everything I’ve seen, you can’t just say to them, oh, everything’s better because we caught the bad guy.”