Police in Arizona say a shooting at a Tucson gay bar that left three people dead, including the shooter, is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Vincent Anthony Siqueiros, 42, and Cameron Davis Capara, 33, were shot in the parking lot of Venture-N shortly after midnight Monday, and both died at the scene, the Tucson Police Department said. The suspect, Ousman Ceesay, 44, also suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to the department.
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A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, pictured, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros, pictured, and Cameron Capara, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Cameron Capara, pictured, and Vincent Siquieros, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, pictured, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
Ceesay was carrying a note that listed several LGBTQIA+-associated businesses, according to a police news release, and initial evidence suggests he confronted the two victims in the parking lot before shooting them.
The investigation is ongoing, but there is no known active threat to the community, police said. Still, the department has increased its police presence around other gay-friendly businesses in the region.
“Bias-based crimes are especially heinous and have no place in our community,” Chief of Police Monica Prieto said. “Our investigators are thoroughly examining the evidence and pursuing all available leads as they work to establish the full circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.”
The police department released few details about the shooting and did not say whether Ceesay knew the victims. The department also declined to immediately release details about Ceesay’s manner of death beyond saying he had a gunshot wound. The department’s public information officer, James Horton, said investigators were awaiting details from the medical examiner to confirm Ceesay’s injuries.
Flowers, candles and photos marked a growing memorial to Siqueiros and Capara outside the bar Tuesday, and several community groups, including Tucson Queerstory, Southern Arizona Senior Pride and the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, were planning a candlelight vigil for Wednesday night at a local park.
“Venture-N has been a safe haven, a sanctuary, and a place of comfort for Tucson’s queer community for decades,” PFLAG Phoenix wrote in a social media post. “This tragedy is a heavy and painful reminder of the homophobia and hate that still exists.”
The shooting left members of the LGBTQIA+ community shocked and heartbroken, said Mary O'Donoghue, the executive director of Southern Arizona Senior Pride. It also stirred up traumatic memories for many older adults, damaging the sense of safety they had in an otherwise often-welcoming city, said O'Donoghue, whose organization provides supportive services and healthy aging programming for LGBTQ seniors.
“We're talking about folks that are in their 70s and 80s, having lived through Stonewall and other experiences where there has been discrimination, aggression and violence,” O'Donoghue said. “It really has a rippling effect — they're reliving a lifetime of violence and discrimination on their community.”
O'Donoghue said one person she talked to had moved to Tucson from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a shooting at a gay nightclub in 2022 left five people dead. Other group members retired to Tucson after living in Florida, where 49 people were killed and 53 others were wounded in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said the shooting at Venture-N was a “direct and devastating attack on our LGBTQ+ community, another senseless act of gun violence.”
The shooting “serves as another painful reminder that homophobia is still rampant in our country,” Romero said in a video posted to Facebook.
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, pictured, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros, pictured, and Cameron Capara, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Cameron Capara, pictured, and Vincent Siquieros, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, pictured, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
A growing memorial sits outside the Venture-N Bar in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, for Vincent Siquieros and Cameron Capara, who were fatally shot in the parking lot of the gay bar shortly after midnight Monday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble)
PROVO, Utah (AP) — The murder case against the Utah man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year is headed for trial, and the defendant could face the death penalty if he’s convicted.
Utah District Judge Tony Graf on Tuesday sided with prosecutors who said they had “overwhelming” evidence that suspect Tyler Robinson shot Kirk once in the neck as the ally of President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of thousands last September in Orem, Utah. One of Robinson’s attorneys entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf following Graf’s decision.
Robinson’s lawyers tried to block a trial or at least take the death penalty off the table, arguing that prosecutors failed to show Kirk’s shooting placed others around him at risk of death. That’s an aggravating factor under the law that makes Robinson eligible for capital punishment.
Kirk's family called the ruling “an important step in our family’s pursuit of justice.”
“Every step in this process carries the weight of all that Charlie’s murder has taken from his family, especially his children who will grow up without their father,” the statement said. “We are grateful to all who have continued to pray for us, support us, and stand with us through a year of unimaginable grief.”
Prosecutors said Robinson shot Kirk from a rooftop more than 400 feet (122 meters) away, knowing that he could have easily missed, injuring or killing other people.
Graf had the option to send the case to trial on a lesser charge of murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison. The judge said his decision to approve the aggravated murder charge was based on “the documented position of several individuals in and around the canopy area” where Kirk was speaking, among other factors.
“Tyler James Robinson shot and killed Charlie Kirk because he disagreed with him, and he did it by firing a high-powered rifle into a crowd of over 3,000 people, which created a great risk of death that anyone would know about,” Ryan McBride, a prosecutor with the Utah County Attorney’s Office, told the court.
The hearing Tuesday in state court came after prosecutors in July spent five days presenting what they said was “overwhelming” evidence that Tyler Robinson killed the conservative activist while he was speaking at an open-air event on a college campus.
The 23-year-old defendant turned himself in a day after the shooting at Utah Valley University last September. Robinson's lawyers have not offered alternative theories for Kirk’s death.
Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, entered the heavily secured facility arm in arm before the hearing at the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse in Provo. Erika Kirk was seated beside them. The family stepped out during part of a prosecutor's argument that described the shooting.
A few local members of Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, arrived with signs expressing their support for Erika Kirk but were told by security that they could not have them on the court property.
Robinson had no visible reaction to the arguments.
A “mountain of evidence” shows that Robinson was the killer, including DNA, messages with his romantic partner and posts Robinson made on the communications platform Discord, McBride said.
One of Robinson's attorneys, Staci Visser, argued that the state was trying to “shoehorn” the case into Utah's aggravated murder statute. Prior case law requires prosecutors to show that there was a high probability — not merely a possibility — that other people could have been killed, she said.
Kirk was seated on a stage in an elevated position, not immediately near anyone else, when he was shot from a rooftop more than 400 feet (122 meters) away, she noted.
“There is one shot. There is one bullet. There is one victim,” Visser said. “There is zero evidence that there was any action taken towards other people.”
Robinson also faces potential sentencing enhancements if prosecutors can show he targeted Kirk for his political beliefs.
Before his death, Kirk and the organization he co-founded, Turning Point USA, galvanized the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Prosecutors have argued that an engraved bullet found in the suspected murder weapon shows that Kirk was targeted for how the defendant perceived his politics. The inscription “Hey Facist! CATCH!” is an “overt political reference,” they argued in court documents.
A handwritten note that prosecutors allege Robinson left for his romantic partner read in part, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it.” They also allege Robinson wrote in a text message about Kirk: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Robinson’s attorneys have argued that prosecutors do not have strong enough evidence to prove a political motivation.
In July, investigators presented DNA analyses that they said linked Robinson to the suspected murder weapon — a bolt-action rifle with one spent round — and a tool he allegedly used to engrave the bullet cartridges.
Robinson's reported romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, told investigators in a recorded interview that Robinson said the day after Kirk was killed that “he wishes he hadn’t done it.” Later that same day — and only about an hour before turning himself in — Robinson posted “it was me at UVU yesterday” in an online chat room, according to investigators.
Defense attorneys challenged the reliability of DNA tests and unsuccessfully fought against the public release of the Twiggs interview, warning prosecutors would characterize it as a confession. Twiggs said in the interview that he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting.
Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed.
Attorney Jeffrey Hunt speaks with 4th District Court Judge Tony Graf during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Tyler Robinson, left, charged in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, speaks with defense attorney Staci Visser as he attends a preliminary hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, people gather outside the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, before a key hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
FILE - Charlie Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, arrive at the Fourth District Courthouse for a hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, July 6, 2026, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Marielle Scott, File)
FILE - An image of a bullet casing engraved with the words, "Hey Fascist!" is displayed during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, Pool, File)
FILE - Erika Kirk leaves the Fourth District Courthouse, July 6, 2026, in Provo, Utah, after a hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. (AP Photo/Marielle Scott, File)
FILE - A photo of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, stands at his vigil on Sept. 11, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)
