Phoenix man arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot up LGBTQ+ bar over Charlie Kirk killing

Phoenix police have detained a man accused of threatening to shoot people at a local LGBTQ+ bar as revenge for Charlie Kirk's death.

Treven Michael Gokey, 49, was arrested Wednesday on two felony counts of making a terroristic threat and using a computer to threaten, according to the police report via AZ Family, and is currently being held in the Maricopa County jail on a $250,000 bond. Officers said that Gokey threatened a shooting at Cruisin’ 7th, allegedly telling them that “Charlie Kirk was a martyr" and he ”was a martyr for Charlie Kirk."

Gokey reportedly told police during a a welfare check at his apartment that “radical left violence breeds a far-right response," citing Kirk's murder and two shootings at schools in Minnesota and Tennessee. He then said he “wanted to harm others” to send a message, using several slurs for transgender people.

Kirk, the conservative podcaster who co-founded Turning Point USA, died after being shot while hosting one of his “Prove Me Wrong” debates at Utah Valley University last week. Authorities have identified and arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in relation to the shooting.

The Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. and several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were forced to evacuate or lock down after receiving threats the day following Kirk's killing. While law enforcement has not confirmed what motivated the threats, conservatives widely blamed "the left" for Kirk's murder and vowed revenge even before the identity of the suspect was known.

The U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment Center’s review of 172 mass attacks from 2016 to 2020 found that 96 percent of perpetrators were cisgender men. The Advocate has previously reported that out of more than 4,600 mass shootings between 2014 and 2024, at most six involved transgender suspects — just 0.128 percent. As trans people account for only one percent of the U.S. population, they are significantly less likely to be mass shooters than the overall population.