At a press conference Friday morning, authorities confirmed that 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson has been arrested and stand accused of the killing. Family member of the suspect turned him in to police.
News outlets worldwide has covered the manhunt for Charlie Kirk’s killer. Among them, US celebrity news outlet TMZ, who were caught in the middle of hefty criticism after laughter and applause were heard in the background of their live stream covering the event.
Social media quickly turned their rage on TMZ, which has now forced the network to apologize and explain what really happened.
Like many other networks, TMZ chose to do a live stream of the coverage following the shooting of Charlie Kirk. A bullet struck the conservative activist in the neck while he spoke at an event at Utah Valley College in Orem, Utah. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced that the 31-year-old had tragically passed away.
As TMZ’s Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere announced the death of Charlie Kirk on the network’s live stream, laughter was heard in the background. Social media users were disgusted with what they heard.
“During today’s TMZ livestream, employees were heard cheering, clapping, and celebrating just 30 seconds before announcing Charlie Kirk’s death,’ one X user wrote, per the Daily Mail.
“They laughed and applauded the cold-blooded murder of a husband and father on a public broadcast, like it was some kind of sick joke, before handing it off to Harvey Levin.”
TMZ under heavy fire after laughter heard on live stream amid Charlie Kirk’s death
Another person, Conservative personality Laura Loomer, branded the incident “disgusting.”
“Shameful and disgusting behavior by TMZ. Shame on them. Charlie is a husband and a father. He was murdered in cold blood,” Loomer wrote on X.
It didn’t take long before TMZ responded. In a video published on their X account, TMZ Executive Producers Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere began by apologizing and explaining what had happened.
‘We were livestreaming all day during this tragedy,” Levin said. “When we were reporting the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there were some people in the back room, away from our news desk here, who were watching a car chase.”
Levin went on to explain that those heard laughing and clapping weren’t doing so because of Kirk being shot, but rather because of the car chase they were watching. He stated that the individuals wouldn’t still be working at TMZ if they they had been laughing at Kirk’s demise.
Latibeudiere continued: “We acknowledge that it was horrible timing. And for that, we are sorry. We assure you, [the laughter] was not about that.”
Forced to apologize
Later, TMZ released an entire article, apologizing for the incident.
“We want to address something that happened during our TMZ Livestream coverage of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. As Harvey and Charles were reporting the developments in our newsroom, there were employees in another part of the building watching a car chase.”
The article further read: “The people watching that car chase began laughing and clapping in reaction to what they were seeing, but we want to make it clear … they were not cheering in response to the assassination.”
“Nevertheless … watching a car chase at that moment was tone deaf, and the sounds of laughter at that crucial moment were totally out of line,” it concluded. “We apologize to anyone who heard that as we were in the middle of covering such a tragic story.”
