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A University of Utah student was arrested Monday after a viral video captured him allegedly making gun gestures and threatening to shoot conservative campus speakers during a public debate outside the school’s Marriott Library.
Dean Stewart, 21, was arrested and charged by the University of Utah Police Department with disorderly conduct, making threats, and disobeying a lawful order, according to the university.
A video of the incident, which went viral on social media, appeared to show Stewart making a shooting gesture at speakers from Reawaken USA, a conservative organization that was being hosted at the University of Utah.
Reawaken USA has a campus tour program, similar to that of the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization, where speakers travel to different universities to debate political issues.
A student allegedly threatened conservative debaters at the University of Utah. (Reawaken USA)
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“Holy s—, did you see that,” 19-year-old Reawaken USA speaker Aden Nicholas could be heard saying in the background of the video.
Reawaken USA founder, president and CEO James Owen told Digital he and Nicholas were debating with a student in front of Marriott Library when Stewart approached them.
“He called us ‘Nazi pigs,’ and started saying that someone should shoot us in the neck,” Owen said. “Then he said, ‘I should f—— kill you.’ He started making gun motions at us, went into the crowd, came back out, and then continued to make gun motions and saying, ‘I should shoot you.’ He said, ‘don’t come up too close, or I may kill you.’ As he was walking away, he did this pump shotgun motion, and that’s when the cops got up and apprehended him.”
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University officials said in a statement Stewart “disrupted an event,” told the speakers they “should be shot in the neck” and “repeatedly made hand gestures of shooting [them] with a rifle.”
“He said he ‘hoped we get shot in the neck’ and that we ‘get Kirk-ed,'” said Nicholas, who had never tabled on a college campus before.
Kirk, the founder of TPUSA, was assassinated during a visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025.
The University of Utah student was seen making a “shooting” motion on campus. (Reawaken USA)
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His accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, is charged with aggravated murder and faces the possibility of the death penalty, if convicted.
Police responded “very swiftly,” according to Owen, grabbing Stewart and asking the Reawaken team if they wanted to press charges, to which they agreed.
Despite Monday’s incident, Reawaken USA continued their tour Tuesday, with Owens taking note of a student who stepped in during Stewart’s apparent outburst.
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“One of those students who was extremely hostile came up to the mic, actually stopped [Stewart] before he went out to do [the shooting motion] the second time,” Owens said. “Security heard them say, ‘hey dude, I know we don’t agree with these guys, but they seem really nice. I don’t think you should do that.’ … The students actually reacted. If you can’t believe [it, our topic] was ‘the left is more violent than the right,’ and they were sitting there, and I think that they realized they need[ed] to squash that.”
The University of Utah confirmed the person arrested in connection with the incident was a 21-year-old student. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
“After the event, while we were getting escorted out by our security, [an attendee] came over and said, ‘hey, James, I know we argued with you about it, but we can see where you’re right. Will you be here tomorrow?'” he continued. “I said, ‘yes,’ and [Tuesday], when we came [back], we had over 150 students show up. They came right up and said, ‘James, we looked up all the statistics. We can see it.’ In front of myself and Aden, they said, ‘What can we do?’ … We’re not trying to own the liberals. We’re trying to bridge the divide, take away the polarization, … and bring people to truth.”
Owen founded Reawaken USA following Kirk’s death, with a mission to “identify, develop and deploy the next generation of cultural leaders.”
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“When Charlie Kirk died, everyone saw a void,” Owen said. “I received a lot of opportunities, a lot of organizations reaching out to sign me. … Instead of centralizing all the attention on me going on a tour, I decided I wanted to do something more.”
Reawaken USA partnered with a number of political influencers for the tour, including Nicholas, a recent college graduate who started working as a Congressional campaign manager at just 17 years old.
“His vision for Reawaken was something that really captivated me right out of the gate,” said Nicholas. “We got on the phone a little while ago about something completely unrelated, and by the end of the call, James was like, ‘you know, I really think that you should start influencing. Could you picture yourself behind a debate table?'”
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“I have family members who specifically [said], ‘can you promise not to go onto college campuses and debate?’ I thought it was all very ironic,” he continued. “I just really enjoy having discussions about different policies, different cultural takes, different political takes, because I think that is something that we’re missing in America. Whether or not you like Charlie Kirk, everybody admits that he was willing to have the conversation, which is what I was super excited to do.”
Reawaken USA will make 32 stops on its campus tour, traveling to states including Utah, California, New York and Pennsylvania.
