A Disputed Theory Linking Unrelated Deaths to Kirk's Case
Showing 10 PETN Explosives videos from Charlie Kirk's video collection.
A minority theory attempts to connect Charlie Kirk's death to two unrelated earlier incidents through claims about PETN explosive residue: the 2022 death of Mark Leiti, a man killed by shrapnel from what local authorities ruled a backyard accident, and the death of Corey Comperatore, who was killed at the 2024 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Proponents of the theory, including Candace Owens, argue that similarities in wound patterns and circumstantial connections between people who knew each other link all three deaths to a broader explosives-based plot, drawing comparisons to the 2024 Hezbollah pager attacks in Lebanon. Leiti's own family has publicly stated they still don't know exactly what caused the accidental explosion that killed him, but no official investigation into any of these three cases has substantiated a connection between them. Audio forensics researchers have separately examined recordings from the day of Kirk's shooting, though their findings remain disputed even among those pursuing alternative theories about what happened, rather than converging on a single agreed conclusion.