He asked the last question before Charlie Kirk was shot. Conspiracy theorists tried to make him a villain.

Hunter Kozak saw Charlie Kirk’s gruesome public assassination just a few feet away from him on his college campus. Within hours, he watched through his phone as strangers built an elaborate false narrative about what he’d just witnessed — accusing him of not only wanting the killing but also secretly plotting to make it happen.

Kozak was the last person to ask Kirk a question at Utah Valley University. Kirk toured college campuses and got in political arguments with left-leaning students, and Kozak, a student at UVU, wanted to debate Kirk’s past statements about transgender mass shooters. Even in that moment after the gunshot, Kozak knew seeing Kirk killed would forever be burned into his brain, but there was more.

“I knew that watching someone die while they were in a conversation with me is a very, very, very crazy circumstance that I can’t forget, and that’s going to stick with me. But it took a while for it to catch on … that’s not all I have to worry about,” Kozak said in an interview with CNN nearly a year after the killing. “It certainly feels like the conspiracy theorists have been their own, in a lot of ways, bigger trauma than just watching the assassination.”

Another man, Tyler Robinson , has been charged with aggravated murder and six other counts in Kirk’s death. After the shooting, Kozak spoke to a police officer on the scene, and then a few days later, contacted the FBI to tell what he had witnessed. He said he has had no other contact with law enforcement.

But for the next year, Kozak got thousands of messages from internet “investigators,” calling him a “murderer,” a “crisis actor,” “a f**king disinformation agent,” a plotter who was “practicing his reaction” to the shooting. (When Kirk was shot, cameras captured Kozak throwing his hands up, trembling, and collapsing to the ground. He looks incredibly vulnerable, but conspiracy theorists see a cold-blooded faker, and they tell him so all the time.) Some suggest he kill himself, one contacted him to say, “I hope you relive the moment that f**ker was shot every time you close your eyes.”

He has tried reasoning with them, arguing with them, insulting them. Much of his effort has been directed toward convincing them he’s not a character in a show or a meme, but a real person, with a real family and real feelings. The experience has forced him to think deeply about, basically, the nature of humanity.

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Kozak felt alone. But baseless claims and relentless harassment saying you’re not a victim but a perpetrator are now second-order consequences for those connected to tragedy. Parents of children murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012 were tormented for years by conspiracy theorists who claimed their kids hadn’t really died. Lindsay Clancy admitted to killing her own children in 2023, yet conspiracy theorists have harassed her ex-husband — the father of those murdered children — claiming he’s the real killer.

Kozak’s daughter was two days old and being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit when he and his wife, Shelby, took a break from the hospital to go to the Turning Point USA event at UVU. By the time they got back to the hospital a couple of hours later, things were getting weird online. People were finding Kozak’s social media accounts and puzzling over the coincidence that he was asking about shootings when Kirk was shot.

“I felt like I was going crazy,” Kozak said. “I felt very quickly like I couldn’t trust a lot of people around me.”

Some Kirk conspiracy theorists believe Robinson didn’t really do it. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

If it wasn’t Robinson, internet sleuths have suggested maybe there was a plot involving conservative activists, politicians, students — and their extended families — as well as local businesses. YouTubers have made countless hours of videos scrutinizing movements, words, facial expressions, resumes, social media accounts, and family trees.

Kozak, who is 30 and married with two young children, said he has moved his family, fearing for their safety. People in his life have told him to quit the internet or at least not to read what’s directed at him, like a recent message warning, “Normies aren’t on your side, Hunter, and you really need to be careful about where you are seen these days. We aren’t gonna ‘Kirk’ you, bro. You’re going to be tortured to death.”

Quitting, he said, would allow conspiracy theorists to have “a reign of terror on the internet.” Instead, he’s still making videos about politics on TikTok, still posting on X.com , still reading direct messages, and sometimes responding to those who seemingly hadn’t considered the possibility he could do so.

“It’s such a profoundly weird experience. I don’t even know exactly how to orient myself in this,” he said. He tried to imagine the inner world of the conspiracy theorists he replied to: maybe it was like they were punching a punching bag, and then suddenly the punching bag grew a face and asked, “Why are you punching me?”

Rick Egan/Pool/Getty Images

Many times, he’s felt disappointed in humanity, or the reasoning skills of a good portion of it. “It really feels like a source of entertainment to a lot of people,” he said. “I sometimes pivot back where I’m like, man, I’m being too mean, and then I read their messages. I’m like, no, I’m not being mean enough.”

He pointed to an exchange with a woman who accused him of being a “crisis actor” — a person conspiracy theorists believe is paid to be at the scene of a tragedy and pretend to be upset. He responded that she was a “dumbass,” and she replied haughtily, “no need for name calling.” When Kozak reminded her, she suggested he was involved in a murder plot, she said, “I didn’t say anything all that bad.”

Kozak laughed at the message: “I. Find. That. CRAZY. I find it crazy!!”

He knew he was replying to her with the pent-up fury of reading a thousand previous hateful messages when he told her to go to a mental institution. She responded, “Wow, I didn’t deserve that. I’m just a mom of three.” Kozak stopped laughing. He’s a father of two. The empathy she expected from him — why couldn’t she extend the same to him?

One YouTuber made a lot of videos about him, with titles like, “Hunter Kozac (sic) LIED About his CHARLIE KIRK Moment & now he’s CAUGHT!!!” (104,000 views). Someone sent Kozak the YouTuber’s phone number, so Kozak called him. When he introduced himself, he heard the YouTuber breathe in sharply. Kozak asked him to stop, offering to show him whatever evidence he wanted to see to prove his innocence — text messages, Discord records, photos, anything. The YouTuber wasn’t sure exactly what evidence he needed to be convinced, but, in Kozak’s telling, the YouTuber eventually said, “Dude, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to sleep at night tonight.”

The conversation was a good one, a moment of real, human connection, Kozak said. “The moment I called this dude up, he was the nicest person I’ve talked to. He was so kind, and going, ‘I’m so sorry.’” Kozak said he told him he just needed the death threats to stop, and the YouTuber sounded shocked he was getting threats. That surprised Kozak: “How do you not understand that that is obviously what you’re contributing to here? You’re telling everyone this is the dude, and also, the justice system can’t be trusted,” he said.

The YouTuber took down some videos about him, but not all. Kozak wondered if this reflected another side of humanity: the profit motive.

Kozak assumed once he disproved the theory that he was the mastermind behind the assassination, the YouTuber might move on. “But then he just started using me as, like, a source, as a consultant. He’s like, ‘OK, what did you see? Who was acting suspicious that day?’”

Now Kozak is making his own video about his year of harassment, with interviews with the conspiracy theorists who went after him.

Kozak continues to attend UVU, where he is studying to become a math teacher. At times, he has caught himself wondering how many of his classmates, or how many random people on the street, secretly think he is a murderer. What about his future math students? A fellow student reached out to him about six weeks after the shooting, saying he wanted to be there for Kozak when others might have forgotten and moved on. “It’s stuff like that I really clinged to,” Kozak said.

He used his math background to tell himself, again and again, that there was some selection bias in the messages he received. “It is just the meanest people and the dumbest people and the worst people who are targeting me, and most people aren’t like that, and it really takes a lot to sort of see the world like that again,” he said.

He did not know Charlie Kirk, but grieves for him as a fellow father, and because he was killed a few feet in front of him.

And he believes his experience allows him to help others.

“There’s this deep compassion that I’ve had after going through this, where I can relate to other people more, where I can see people in their totality, where I can see their grief, and I can share it with them. That is an ability that I didn’t have before, that was given to me because of what had happened,” he said. “I don’t want it to have happened, but there is a gratitude that I’m able to be more connected with other people and live and be the most human that I can be because of what has happened.”

亨特·科扎克在大学校园里亲眼目睹了查理·柯克惨遭公开暗杀，而他当时距离柯克只有几英尺远。几个小时后，他通过手机看到陌生人编造了一套关于他刚刚目睹的一切的虚假故事——不仅指责他想要杀害柯克，还指责他暗中策划了这起谋杀。

科扎克是最后一个在犹他谷大学向柯克提问的人。柯克曾巡回各大学校园，与左倾学生进行政治辩论。科扎克是犹他谷大学的学生，他想就柯克过去关于跨性别枪手的言论与柯克展开辩论。即使在枪响之后的那一刻，科扎克也知道目睹柯克被杀的画面将永远铭刻在他的脑海中，但事情远不止于此。

“我知道亲眼目睹一个人在和我交谈时死去，这是一种非常非常非常疯狂的境况，我永远也无法忘记，它将永远伴随着我。但这件事过了一段时间才被人们接受……但这并非我唯一需要担心的事情，”科扎克在遇害近一年后接受CNN采访时说道。“在很多方面，阴谋论者们所遭受的创伤似乎比目睹刺杀本身还要大。”

另一名男子泰勒·罗宾逊因柯克之死被控犯有加重谋杀罪及其他六项罪名。枪击事件发生后，科扎克与现场一名警官交谈，几天后，他联系了联邦调查局，讲述了他目睹的情况。他说，此后他没有再与执法部门有过任何接触。

但在接下来的一年里，科扎克收到了成千上万条来自网络“调查员”的信息，他们称他为“杀人犯”、“危机演员”、“该死的虚假信息传播者”以及“正在演练应对枪击事件反应”的阴谋家。（柯克中枪时，摄像机拍到科扎克举起双手，浑身颤抖，然后倒在地上。他看起来非常脆弱，但阴谋论者却认为他是个冷血的骗子，他们一直这样指责他。）有人建议他自杀，还有人联系他说：“我希望你每次闭上眼睛都能重温那个混蛋被枪杀的那一刻。”

他尝试过和他们讲道理，和他们争论，甚至侮辱他们。他竭尽全力地想让他们相信，他不是电视剧里的角色，也不是网络迷因，而是一个有血有肉、有家庭、有感情的真人。这段经历迫使他开始深入思考人性的本质。

特伦特·尼尔森/《盐湖城论坛报》/盖蒂图片社

科扎克感到孤立无援。但如今，对于那些与悲剧相关的人来说，毫无根据的指控和无休止的骚扰——声称你不是受害者而是加害者——已成为次生后果。2012年桑迪胡克小学枪击案中遇难儿童的父母多年来饱受阴谋论者的折磨，这些人声称他们的孩子并没有真正死去。林赛·克兰西在2023年承认杀害了自己的孩子，但阴谋论者仍然骚扰她的前夫——那些遇难儿童的父亲——声称他才是真正的凶手。

科扎克的女儿出生两天后，正在新生儿重症监护室接受治疗。他和妻子谢尔比趁着科扎克不在医院，前往犹他谷大学参加“美国转折点”组织的活动。几个小时后，当他们回到医院时，网上开始出现一些奇怪的事情。人们找到了科扎克的社交媒体账号，并对他在女儿柯克被枪击时询问有关枪击事件的巧合感到困惑。

科扎克说：“我感觉自己快要疯了。我很快就觉得我无法信任身边的很多人。”

一些柯克阴谋论者认为罗宾逊并非真凶。他已对指控拒不不认罪。

如果不是罗宾逊所为，网络侦探们推测，这或许是一个涉及保守派活动人士、政客、学生及其亲属，以及当地企业的阴谋。YouTube 用户花费了无数个小时制作视频，仔细审查相关事件的进展、言论、面部表情、简历、社交媒体账号和家谱。

30岁的科扎克已婚，育有两个年幼的孩子。他说，由于担心家人的安全，他已经搬家了。他身边的人都劝他戒网，或者至少不要去看那些针对他的信息，比如最近一条警告信息：“亨特，普通人不会站在你这边，你最近真的要小心你的行踪。我们不会像柯克那样‘干掉’你，兄弟。你会被折磨致死的。”

他说，退出TikTok会让阴谋论者“在互联网上肆意妄为”。但他并没有就此罢休，而是继续在TikTok上制作政治视频，继续在X.com上发帖，继续阅读私信，有时还会回复那些似乎从未想过他会这么做的人。

“这真是一种极其怪异的体验。我甚至不知道该如何定位自己，”他说。他试图想象那些他回复的阴谋论者的内心世界：也许就像他们在打沙袋，然后突然沙袋长出了一张脸，问道：“你们为什么要打我？”

Rick Egan/Pool/Getty Images

他常常对人性感到失望，或者说对很大一部分人的推理能力感到失望。“感觉对很多人来说，这真的只是一种娱乐，”他说。“有时候我会反思自己，心想，哎，我是不是太刻薄了，然后我看了他们的留言，又觉得，不，我刻薄得还不够。”

他提到与一位女士的对话，这位女士指责他是“危机演员”——阴谋论者认为，这类人受雇出现在悲剧现场，假装悲痛欲绝。他回击说她是个“蠢货”，她傲慢地回应道：“没必要骂人。”当科扎克提醒她，她暗示他参与了谋杀阴谋时，她说：“我没说什么特别过分的话。”

科扎克看到这条信息后大笑起来：“我觉得这太疯狂了！简直疯了！！”

他知道自己是在压抑着之前无数条恶毒信息的怒火，才回复她让她去精神病院。她回应道：“哇，我不该遭受这样的对待。我只是三个孩子的妈妈。” 科扎克停止了笑声。他自己也是两个孩子的父亲。她期望他能给予她同情——为什么她不能同样地同情他呢？

一位油管博主制作了很多关于他的视频，标题诸如“亨特·科扎克（原文如此）谎称自己与查理·柯克有染，现在被抓包了！！！”（观看量10.4万）。有人把这位博主的电话号码发给了科扎克，于是科扎克给他打了电话。自我介绍时，他听到博主倒吸了一口气。科扎克让他停下来，并表示愿意给他看任何能证明自己清白的证据——短信、Discord记录、照片，什么都行。博主不太确定自己到底需要什么样的证据才能相信，但据科扎克说，博主最终说道：“兄弟，我今晚恐怕睡不着觉了。”

科扎克说，那次谈话很愉快，是一次真正的人与人之间的交流。“我给这个人打电话的那一刻，他就是我遇到过的最友善的人。他非常和蔼，一直说‘我很抱歉’。”科扎克说，他告诉对方自己只是希望那些死亡威胁能够停止，而这位YouTube博主听起来对收到威胁感到震惊。这让科扎克很意外：“你怎么会不明白，你这样做显然是在助长这种风气？你告诉所有人就是这个人，而且，司法系统也不可信。”他说。

这位YouTube博主删除了一些关于他的视频，但并非全部。科扎克不禁思考，这是否反映了人性的另一面：逐利动机。

科扎克以为，只要他推翻了自己是刺杀案幕后主使的说法，那个油管博主可能就会罢休。“但后来他却开始把我当成消息来源、顾问。他会问我：‘你那天看到了什么？谁的行为可疑？’”

现在，科扎克正在制作自己的视频，讲述他一年来遭受的骚扰，视频中采访了那些攻击他的阴谋论者。

科扎克继续在犹他谷大学就读，攻读数学教师资格。他有时会想，有多少同学，或者街上有多少陌生人，暗地里认为他是凶手？他未来的学生们又会怎么想？枪击案发生大约六周后，一位同学联系了他，说想在其他人可能已经忘记这件事、继续生活的时候陪伴科扎克。“正是这些话让我格外珍惜，”科扎克说道。

他运用自己的数学背景，一遍又一遍地告诉自己，他收到的信息存在某种选择性偏差。“只有最刻薄、最愚蠢、最恶劣的人才会针对我，大多数人并非如此，要重新以这种视角看待世界，真的需要很大的勇气。”他说。

他并不认识查理·柯克，但他像对待同为父亲的人一样为他感到悲痛，也因为查理·柯克是在他面前几英尺的地方被杀害的。

他相信自己的经历能够帮助他人。

“经历过这一切之后，我内心深处涌现出一种强烈的同情心，让我更能理解他人，更能全面地看待他们，更能体会他们的悲伤，并与他们分担。这是我以前不具备的能力，是这场灾难赋予我的，”他说。“我不希望这一切发生，但我心怀感激，因为这场灾难，我能够与他人建立更紧密的联系，更好地生活，成为一个更完整的人。”