Hunter Kozak, a Utah Valley University student, was mid-debate with Charlie Kirk about mass shootings when a gunman fatally shot Kirk in the neck on 10 September 2025, making Kozak likely the closest witness to the attack. The incident matters because Kozak, who had just become a father days earlier, was thrust into the centre of a high-profile political assassination case and subsequently became the target of an online conspiracy campaign accusing him of complicity, despite having no connection to the shooting.

Kozak, a liberal maths teaching student, had chosen to question the strong Second Amendment defender on gun violence rather than the Epstein files, and the pair were exchanging views on mass shooting statistics when the fatal shot rang out just feet from him. Tyler Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder, with the danger posed to bystanders such as Kozak cited as an aggravating factor that makes him eligible for the death penalty. In the aftermath, conspiracy theorists falsely labelled Kozak a "patsy" and "crisis actor," claiming without evidence that he had signalled the shooter, leading to sustained online harassment including YouTube videos targeting him.