- Newly unveiled Charlie Kirk statue was spray painted red.
- Utah sculptor says Erika Kirk helped with statue concept.
- Utah student went viral for posing with "Kirkiversary" cake.
Turning Point USA employees woke up on Sunday to find that a newly unveiled statue of Charlie Kirk, TPUSA’s founder, had been vandalized in front of the nonprofit organization’s Phoenix headquarters.
Phoenix police are investigating the incident which is just the latest in a string of viral photos and videos of people mocking the assassination of Kirk on the year anniversary of his death at Utah Valley University.
Red spray paint marked the statue’s neck where Kirk was shot, as well as his face, torso and hand. A nearby sign commemorating the conservative Christian activist was also targeted to blot out the name of Jesus.
The sculptor behind the 8-foot-tall bronze statue, Quintin McCann, discovered his work had been defaced while sitting at church in Eagle Mountain, Utah, when he got a call from Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer.
“I’m still in disbelief that someone would actually do that,” McCann told the Deseret News.
McCann was shocked, but not completely surprised. Since Kirk’s murder, a culture war has erupted over how he will be remembered, with many Republicans framing Kirk as a martyr for faith, family and free speech.
Many on the political left have tried to label Kirk as a bigot, dismiss his views as extreme and discredit his influence through online memes. In the past week, acts of ill will toward the slain icon have reached a new level.
A photo of a University of Utah student showing off a cake decorated with the words “Kirkiversary” has been viewed millions of times, as has a video of Davis County junior high students acting out Kirk’s death in a TikTok dance.
By Sunday afternoon, Turning Point employees had cleaned the statue, which depicts Kirk on his last day, tossing hats to students. The goal of the sculpture, McCann said, was to remind people of Kirk’s character and what drove him.
BYU grad behind the statue
McCann learned of Kirk’s murder on Sept. 10, 2025, during a faculty meeting at Westlake High School where he teaches art. A long-time listener of Kirk, McCann found himself unable to focus on the discussion at all.
“I’ve never had the death of someone affect me in such a way, of someone I’ve never met before,” McCann said.
He called his wife to tell her he would be home late. Alone in his classroom, after all the students had gone, he listened to videos of Kirk. He began to shape a portrait of Kirk from the clay, working into the night.
The bust, which took about three months to finish, now sits in the Turning Point Victory Center. Bowyer had come across a picture of it and immediately reached out to McCann to see if he could do a full effigy.
The Weber County native studied art at Brigham Young University before interning with Latter-day Saint artist Michael Hall and assisting Ben Hammond in completing multiple large pieces for Temple Square.
McCann had never done a project of this size alone. But he felt he was the right person for the job.
“I personally am a big fan of Charlie,” McCann, age 35, said. “And I was worried that someone who might have more sculpting experience might not put as much heart into it as I was willing to give.”
The process started with small figurines to get feedback from Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow and the new CEO. It was she who decided it should portray Kirk interacting with students at one of his signature “Prove Me Wrong” debates.
McCann wanted to capture that side of Kirk, whose mission was converting young people to traditional values. While Kirk held firm MAGA beliefs on immigration and election fraud, McCann does not think Kirk was controversial.
“I don’t understand how he could be,” he said. “That’s not how I see him.”
The statue will be under 24/7 surveillance, Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said on Monday. But the location is temporary. Bowyer believes the memorial will eventually reside in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
Making light of murder
Utah continues to be at the center of the clash over Kirk’s legacy.
On Thursday, University of Utah College Republicans were on campus inviting students to a UVU memorial where talk show host Glenn Beck and Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles would honor Kirk.
A female student approached the booth with a small white cake with a red inscription that said “Happy Kirkiversary,” appearing to pose as the GOP volunteers took photos of her which they quickly uploaded to the platform X.
The first post, which did not identify the student with the cake, has been viewed more than 6.3 million times. A post by an anonymous account, showing alleged LinkedIn pages for the student and her dad hit 19.5 million views.
“We just found it very distasteful, vile and disgusting,” Utah Federation of College Republicans chair Riley Beesley told the Deseret News. “I think it’s justified in the backlash that maybe we saw online.”
The next day, the student issued an apology, saying that “upon reflection” she had concluded it was wrong to celebrate Kirk’s death. “Nobody should be murdered or persecuted for their speech,” the statement said.
But now College Democrats at the University of Utah are waging a campaign to force the GOP club to apologize.
The cake was an “unfortunate joke,” but posting about it unleashed a social media mob that could threaten the student’s safety, college Democrats communications director Ian Jacobson told the Deseret News.
Young people make bad decisions; that doesn’t mean a post should shape their reputation forever, according to Jacobson. It would have been better to bring attention to the cake by blurring out the face of the student, he said.
“The reaction was so just extreme and it crossed the line, frankly,” Jacobson said.
College Democrats at the University of Utah are participating in a protest on Sept. 16, organized by the left-wing climate club Sunrise Movement, to pressure the university to decharter the college Republicans club.
College Republicans see this as a defense of those who deride Kirk’s death through a clip, cake, paint or post. The explanation Beesley gives for this behavior becoming commonplace is: “morality has been lost in society.”
The University of Utah released a statement on Monday regarding recent “social media activity.” The statement reiterated the importance of balancing freedom of expression with respecting the safety and dignity of others.
