ST. GEORGE, Utah — In Vernon Worthen Park on Saturday morning, a small group of Utahns living in St. George and Washington bowed their heads together and sang, “Lord, listen to your children praying. Lord, send your spirit in this place,” as they mourned for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The local event was planned in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday.
Kirk, who founded the organization Turning Point USA, was shot during a “Prove Me Wrong” debate at Utah Valley University on Wednesday around noon. Just a few hours later, he was pronounced dead at Timpanogos Regional Hospital.
The suspected killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who lives in St. George, was apprehended at 10 p.m. Thursday night at his parent’s home in Washington, Utah, after a statewide manhunt and cooperation from friends and family who alerted authorities.
Robinson’s father recognized his son in photos the FBI released from UVU security footage, and he asked his son to turn himself in.
At a press conference on the college’s campus on Friday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox also confirmed that Robinson’s roommate had disclosed private messages where Robinson asked him to pick up a gun wrapped in a towel in a wooded area next to UVU campus.
When found, officials discovered inscriptions on the gun’s bullet casings and bullets that read, “Hey fascist! Catch!”, “Notices, bulges, OwO what’s this?”, and an up arrow symbol, a down arrow symbol and three arrows pointed down and to the left — a popularly used symbol within the Antifa movement. Also the messages, “If you read this, you are gay LMAO,” and “oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” a song used in the Italian resistance movement in WWII.
Washington County, where St. George and Washington City are located, is predominantly conservative — 75% of its residents voted for Donald Trump in 2024 — and Robinson’s parents are registered Republicans. However, Robinson was “engulfed” in “dangerous” and “radical left ideology,” Cox told the Deseret News.
Even as the city mourns Kirk, a man they consider a conservative hero, they’re grappling with how a local resident might have done something so heinous.
‘Send us grace,’ Washington cries in mourning
Christine Stolworthy, a Hurricane resident, told the Deseret News she was shocked when she heard Kirk had been killed, and she was even more shocked when she heard Robinson lived just a couple minutes away.
“You feel like you’re in one of the safest places, and you just never know,” she said. “It’s a tragedy, no matter where he was from. This whole thing is a tragedy. And then thinking of both families — But to find out that the shooter was from this area just is indescribable — in a bad way.”
Stolworthy said mourning for both Kirk and the suspected shooter’s family in Southern Utah has been “palpable” since word broke about Robinson on Friday. “You can feel it. You can feel the energy of the people around mourning,” she said.
And Stolworthy was right. In the little crowd stood grown men brought to tears as they sang, “Send us love, send us power, send us grace.”
Also in attendance was Nicole Rossetti, a mother of two young boys. She told the Deseret News the most “painful part for me right now is raising my boys in a scary world.”
Rossetti said she feels horrible for both Kirk and Robinson’s families. “It’s a tragedy for any community, and I think when it happens in yours, it just rocks you,” she said. “I just pray for his family. I pray for Erika and her kids. It breaks my heart.”
Erika Kirk is Charlie Kirk’s wife. She delivered a heartbroken speech to the nation on Friday.
Joe Doherty, a pastor of 17 years at the New Lutheran Church in St. George Utah, read verses from the Bible to the crowd. To the Deseret News afterwards, he said, “We just felt like there needed to be something to pull people together in a situation like this.”
“I’m with Gov. Cox,” Doherty said. “I thought, how can this happen in our beautiful state? I somehow thought we were different. And I do think we are different in ways. But it also goes to show that even we are not untouched by the brokenness of humanity.”
State Rep. Candice Pierucci says focus should be on Charlie Kirk
When asked about the motives behind the shooting, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Salt Lake City, said there is still “much more about the shooter’s beliefs” left to uncover.
“I think that Gov. Cox was very clear about sharing some of the inscriptions and information and clues that this horrible person, the shooter, had left behind about what his ideology was,” she said.
Cox told the Deseret News he understood why President Donald Trump blamed the “radical left” after the shooting, saying, “I think President Trump’s response is very understandable and very natural. It’s very normal. It’s how most people are feeling. And I think it’s a mistake to tell people they shouldn’t feel that way in this moment. I mean, there truly was, in this case, a radical left ideology that this person made a decision, who had been engulfed in that, and that’s very dangerous.”
Pierucci said she hopes people will be more careful with their language about Republicans.
“It just is clear that this individual is radicalized and filled with hate and assassinated Charlie Kirk and tried to silence his message,” Pierucci said. “But it’s had the reverse effect.”
“I think we should be focusing on, you know, his wife and children, who will be growing up without a loving father because of this individual who was filled with hate,” she continued.
Moving forward, Pierucci urged people to be careful throwing around the word “fascist” or “Nazi.”
“We live in the United States of America,” she said. “We have no idea of what true fascism and Nazism looks like.”
The most important thing to do right now, Pierucci said, is to “focus on what Charlie Kirk’s message was, which was that we need to have dialogue, and we need to be able to talk about things that we disagree about in a way that can be productive.”