OREM, Utah — The suspect arrested in connection with Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University on Wednesday was released after the FBI announced that agents had detained the wrong person for a second time. 

Kirk’s killer remains on the run — with the FBI and local cops hunting for him across the Salt Lake City region.

“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X Wednesday night, just over an hour after he announced that “the subject of the horrific shooting” had been arrested. 

Follow The Post’s live coverage of the Charlie Kirk shooting for the latest news and updates

“Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency.” 

The wrongly accused man was nabbed after police initially cuffed — and then released — an older man, who had been seen in social media videos being escorted from the Orem campus following the fatal shooting. 

Authorities said Wednesday that the second suspect was identified through campus security footage.

He was also wearing dark clothing, police said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called Kirk’s killing a “political assassination” — then indicated the killer could face the death penalty.

“I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty in the state of Utah,” Cox said.

The shooter is believed to have fired a single shot from an elevated position about 200 yards from where Kirk was seated under a pop-up tent.

The university confirmed the gunman shot from a building across the quad, and police indicated the shot came from the rooftop.

The mother of the second suspect mistakenly taken into custody described her son as a loyal listener of Kirk — who had been standing just 25 feet away from the right-wing activist when the fatal shot was fired. 

“He’s super shaken,” the frantic mother told The Post, noting she had spoken to her son following the chaos and did not know he had been arrested. 

“He’s a great kid … I have a picture of him. He’s like 25 feet from Charlie on the other side that he was shot. He sent us a video. He was attending like any other college kid.”

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot in the neck around 12:20 p.m. local time Wednesday as he was speaking on the campus south of Salt Lake City.

Chilling footage circulating on social media appeared to show that moments after the fatal shot was fired, a distinct shape could be seen moving across the building roof as crowds cowered in the courtyard below.

Police would not comment on whether a weapon had been recovered.

Here's the latest on the Charlie Kirk shooting in Utah

• Police identified Tyler Robinson, 22, as the alleged assassin who fatally shot Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
• Robinson was charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice.
• Law enforcement confirmed that Robinson was living with a transgender roommate, and communications between the two helped the feds catch the alleged assassin.
• Kirk, the 31-year-old Turning Point USA co-founder, was attending an event on his American Comeback Tour when he was struck in the neck by a single shot.
• President Trump was among many who have called for the assassin to receive the death penalty.
• Kirk’s body was brought to Arizona from Utah on Air Force Two, accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, and taken to Phoenix’s Hansen Mortuary Chapel.
• Kirk’s funeral, which Trump has promised to attend, is scheduled for Sept. 21 at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals.
• Kirk, a rising MAGA star, is survived by his wife and two young children.

The gunman’s suspected shooting position suggests the killing was a calculated and deliberate plot.

Police also dismissed a video circulating online showing an older man being hauled away by police on Utah Valley’s campus Wednesday.

The man in the clip apparently told police he had shot Kirk, but law enforcement later confirmed he is not a suspect.

Kirk was rushed to a nearby hospital after the shooting and taken into surgery in critical condition, but succumbed to his injuries.

President Trump confirmed the death on TruthSocial.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote after the shooting.

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” he said of Kirk, a married father of two young children.

Horrifying footage from the event — where Kirk was debating with attendees opposed to his conservative opinions — recorded a single gunshot ringing out as he recoiled from the hit.

He had just been asked a question about transgender mass shooters when the bullet was fired. 

“I really thought it was fireworks at first,” Beck Dishman, 19, who attended the event with his teen sister — with whom he hid in a bathroom after Kirk was massacred — told The Post. 

“Charlie was out there educating people. He went out and had discussions, whether you agreed or disagreed with him. We won’t stop fighting just because they’ve taken a leader of thought in our community who contributed so much.”

Kirk has often been credited for galvanizing young Republican voters through his immensely popular conservative group Turning Point USA, which focused on traveling to college campuses to promote its values.

While Dishman is a “huge fan” of Kirk’s, he added that there should have been more security and metal detectors at the event — a sentiment other attendees voiced following the brazen execution. 

“Security is not what it should have been,” University of Utah freshman Will Buckley said, describing the fatal gunshot as “very quiet.”

Buckley said he didn’t have to go through any security measures and that the area where the event was held was a thoroughfare where many students congregated. 

The targeted takedown sparked chaos, sending thousands of spectators fleeing in panic as they scrambled for cover. 

“There were probably 100 people running into the knee-deep fountain,” said Beck Dishman’s sister Grace Dishman, a 17-year-old high school student who barricaded herself in the bathroom with Beck and scores of other people after seeing Kirk blasted in the neck. 

“Everybody was calling their parents, but the phone lines were down. People were crying. People were praying. I was like, ‘OK, we’re in here, we’re gonna be OK,’ but we had no idea what was going on.”

The local teen also praised Kirk for trying to educate the crowd and for giving a voice even to those who opposed him. 

“I don’t agree with everything he said, but he was trying to educate people,” Dishman added. 

“He wanted both sides of the story. It’s not even if you agree with everything he said; he’s still out there giving people a voice to speak about issues they believe in.”